[Bloquez l'empire!] Actions against shipment of US army equipment in Olympia, Washington (fwd)

[Mike D]

For more info on "May 2006: Olympia Resists Militarization of Our Port":
http://www.omjp.org/PortMay06.html

Anti-war protesters hit with pepper spray
Associated Press (via Yahoo!News)
Tue May 30, 7:10 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060530/ap_on_re_us/port_protest_1&printer=1;_ylt=AjvGzg0xILNpEQGh_
ceIyCRH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

Police fired pepper spray as about 150 anti-war protesters tried to enter
the Port of Olympia
as part of ongoing demonstrations against the shipment of Army equipment
to Iraq.

Protesters chanted "Out of Olympia, Out of Iraq" as they rocked a
chain-link gate to the port
late Monday, and at least three tried to use wooden boards to pry the gate
open, The Olympian
newspaper reported. A 50-ton piece of equipment was moved to reinforce the
gate on the other
side.

Police and sheriff's deputies clad in riot gear fired at least four rounds
of pepper spray in
an hour after asking the demonstrators several times to stop, authorities
said. No one was
arrested, but paramedics were dispatched to treat some activists.

Dozens of demonstrators crouched in the port plaza, dousing each other's
eyes with water and
offering slices of onion to soothe their throats.

"It burned. I couldn't open my eyes for 20 minutes," said Rachel Graham,
among those hit. "My
face is burning. I dunked my face in water and in Puget Sound."

Activists began watching for a military ship more than a week ago after
learning that Stryker
vehicles and other Army gear from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division,
a 4,000-soldier unit
stationed at Fort Lewis, was being shipped to Iraq through the port.

Sixteen people were arrested in three days last week, mostly for
pedestrian interference. The
vessel arrived in Budd Inlet at the south end of Puget Sound about 7:30
p.m. Monday, accompanied
by Coast Guard vessels with large guns to secure the waterway.

"The majority were very peaceful, nonviolent, just exercising their
constitutional rights,"
sheriff's Capt. Bradley Watkins said.

===================

Port protests escalate
22 arrests made in demonstrations against military cargo ship
BY SCOTT GUTIERREZ
THE OLYMPIAN
31 May 06
http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060531/NEWS/60531002

OLYMPIA - Twenty-two people were arrested Tuesday in one of the most
volatile confrontations yet between anti-war activists and police
officers guarding a military cargo ship docked at the Port of Olympia.

The confrontations resulted in the most arrests in a single day since
the demonstrations began a week ago against the Iraq-bound military
shipments leaving from the port. Police used pepper spray several
times on the 100 or so activists and advanced into the crowd later in
the evening, trying to disperse it.

Olympia City Councilman TJ Johnson was among those shoved by state
troopers trying to clear the area. In response, he stood face-to-face
in front of the advancing officers until they fired several pepper-spray
pellets to clear the area.

All of those arrested were taken to the Thurston County Jail on suspicion
of criminal trespassing. No one was seriously injured, Thurston County
sheriff's Capt. Brad Watkins said.

Most of the arrests were made shortly after the protest started about 5 p.m.
at the main entry gate on Marine Drive. Activists tore down the chain-link
gate and closed in, squaring off with a line of sheriff's deputies in riot
gear and helmets with face shields.

Activists then began lying on the ground and linking arms on the Port of
Olympia side of the entrance.

One by one, deputies dragged them off and handcuffed them as activists
yelled: "Let them go, let them go."

Early on, the first bursts of pepper spray were directed at one protester
resisting arrest, Watkins said. But several people were affected. They ran
back behind the front line and lay on the ground while friends flushed out
their eyes with water.

The protests started last week when Army Stryker vehicles and equipment
bound for Iraq started funneling through downtown streets to be unloaded
at the port. Sixteen protesters were arrested last week for blocking traffic
and disobeying police commands.

The demonstratons started anew late Monday when the United States Naval
Ship Pomeroy pulled into port to pick up the cargo, and the protests
continued Tuesday. Activists argue that the Iraq war is illegal and that
by aiding the military, the Port of Olympia is complicit in an immoral war.

"It's my first time being down here, and it's for a good cause. It's an
issue that needs to be taken care of," said Tom Hargreaves, a 19-year-old
tool salesman from Tumwater who said his father is in the National Guard.

The demonstration cooled down at times, including one 30-minute span when
several people gathered around Professor Steve Niva of The Evergreen State
College as he led a teach-in about where Strykers were being deployed in
Iraq.

Officers from Olympia, Tumwater and the State Patrol were called in to back
up deputies, who were flanked by private security guards and U.S. Coast Guard
security. About 50 officers were on hand and, at one lull in the protest,
almost matched up with activists one-to-one.

About 8 p.m., the sheriff's office started ordering the crowd to disperse
and warned that officers would arrest stragglers and use pepper spray. The
crowd barely budged when a phalanx of deputies, police officers and state
troopers emerged from behind the gate.

Gene Otto and his wife, Judi Mendoza, who own Otto's and the San Francisco
Street Bakery, saw the gathering as they drove by and stopped to see what
was happening. They had been there for 30 minutes, standing along the
sidelines,
when state troopers converged and shoved them hard with batons. Neither was
demonstrating or standing in the officers' way, although they said they
supported the cause.

"I was pretty surprised to be shoved with a baton. That's the first time
that's happened to me," Otto said.

"There was no reason that this had to escalate," he said.

The air stank from chemicals and the onions and vinegar that protesters used
to counteract the pepper spray's effects. Several protesters hacked
incessantly
while others vomited in the street. Port officials blocked the hole in the
fence with a large cargo container.

Councilman Johnson and Mayor Pro Tem Laura Ware also were in attendance.
After
seeing Otto and his wife get pushed, Johnson jumped into the fray, standing
directly in front of the officers to protest their advance. By then, the
demonstration was losing its focus. As many people were taunting officers as
were shouting anti-war slogans.

Johnson said things escalated in part because local activists aren't as
familiar
with deputies as they are with Olympia police officers, and vice versa. He
also
said he thinks deputies have been needlessly more aggressive, a tactic he
disagrees with and one that he complained about to county commissioners,
he said.

He also said there was "plenty of blame to go around" for what happened
Tuesday,
but he understands protesters' frustrations.

"They're thinking of everything they can to stop this war, and it still
continues,
even through our downtown," he said.

He later negotiated an agreement with police and protesters that allowed
them to
continue from a certain distance away in exchange for officers' backtracking
behind the fence.

Many activists still were stinging from Monday night, where sheriff's
deputies,
who are under contract to provide riot control at the Port of Olympia, doused
them with pepper spray as they shook the perimeter fence. Many protesters and
observers, including Johnson, said protesters were not given ample warning
that
officers planned to spray them with the eye- and throat-irritating chemical.

Sheriff's officials, however, said they warned activists several times
through
a megaphone.

"They can't say they were never warned," Watkins said.




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