Stand-off at the Port of Olympia gate

author : Lindsay Adams topic : police misconduct | Port Militarization Resistance | Port of Olympia

by Lindsay Adams

On May 30, twenty-two people were arrested at one of the largest turnouts at the protest against the shipment of Stryker brigades at the Port of Olympia, which began on May 22.

That evening, a group of 60-70 protesters marched from the Shell station on State and Plum to the gates of the Port of Olympia. Once the protesters arrived the gates were shut and more police arrived from both the Olympia Police Department and the Thurston County Sheriffs Department.

One of the peaceful demonstrators, Tanya Kinigstein described what happened next as, "They were shaking the gate enough and then it fell over, or was pushed to the side, because I don't think it was locked. Maybe 20 protesters ran to the front and laid down, linking and overlapping and shit."

Once protesters laid down where the gate once was law enforcement began pepper-spraying those on the ground and the large crowd around them. Sixteen men and women were arrested for peacefully lying in the street. One of the sixteen was Andrew Yankee, "I laid down next to a friend of mine and his face was stepped on by a police officer smashing his glasses, and he was dragged off before me at which point they rubbed his face into the ground and were pounding on him as he was down."

After the pepper spraying had ceased, many protesters report asking individual police officers for their badge numbers without any response whatsoever from the officers.

Once those who had been arrested were hauled into the police van, a stand-off ensued between the police and the 200-300 protesters. During that time, Evergreen faculty Steve Niva grabbed a megaphone and gave a teach-in to a crowd of demonstrators who circled around. A loud cheer erupted after Niva expressed his personal feelings about the War in Iraq: "All respect from me for men and women fighting in Iraq for them doing the job that's been assigned to them. From me, no respect for the job they've been assigned to do".

While the crowd was listening attentively to Niva, police lined up, in full riot gear, behind a metal chain they had assembled to keep protesters out. Within the next 20 minutes a large red container was moved with a forklift to the chain in order to further block out all activists from entering. Many people were sitting at the chain while the container was brought in and were ordered to move by the police, otherwise they would be crushed.

Eventually they were forced to stand as the container ventured across the chain into public space, but retaliated by banging on the container in protest. Another stand-off began while protesters gathered in a large circle and tried to decide what to do next as a group. At the conclusion of the meeting one thing was clear, the group wanted to stay together.

For the next hour the group rallied around the fences, and once it was clear to the police that the group was not going disband, the police announced to the crowd that if they did not disperse within one minute they would be arrested and may be subject to chemical force.

About 8-10 minutes later the some of the protesters were slowly making their way towards downtown and away from the Port while others covered their bandanas in vinegar and waited for the police to charge the gate. The organizers of the protests warned everyone that if they did not wish to be tear gassed they should leave, but most of the group stayed true to their cause.

The police also stayed true to their word, opened the gate, and spilled into the street, many protesters walked towards the police, some even sat down in front of them but eventually the police started using physical and chemical force against the crowd. Many protesters were hit roughly with night sticks, one man in a wheel chair who was positioned in front of an officer had the wheels of his chair kicked. Many of the protesters who tried to engage the police in conversation were either handled brutally or pepper-sprayed.

During the protest many demonstrators were more than willing to comment. Most were visibly upset like Evergreen student Adam Heckart who had been pepper-sprayed earlier expressed his distress over the treatment of protesters, "It's hard to see, a bunch of people from my class got really brutally dragged off by their hair, and they were just lying down. I think its atrocious the way the cops are treating the protesters. They are being peaceful and I think legal action should be taken."

Yankee, who was visibly shaken from his experience Tuesday, remained enthusiastic about the activity at the Port, "I think its really important to send a message, that not only do we oppose the war on a national policy level, we oppose it in our communities everyday, we don't want our community to be a part of the war effort and to use opposition with a lot of privilege to get arrested because this is nothing compared to what is going to happen in Iraq."

Many of the protesters who took part in Tuesdays protest were looking forward to coming back the next day, and although the protesters worried about the community knowing what they were protesting about, a short walk around downtown proved that many Olympians in the downtown area were sympathetic to their cause and eager to learn how the efforts at the port were making a difference.