seattle indymedia center

Port Update

author: some of us
Aug 06, 2008 06:09

A summary of the events during the latest port protest.

Its looking like this chapter of port protests has come to an end. This protest proved that we can evolve tactically to meet the needs of a situation. A lot of lasting change will come of this action.

As the 4th Stryker Brigade 2nd Combat Infantry Division returns to Ft. Lewis through the Port of Tacoma, people from throughout the Northwest have taken Direct Action to blockade the paths of these stryker vehicles. 15 arrests so far have been made during blockades attempted at both the Port of Tacoma and Ft. Lewis and in general resistance to the militarization of publicly owned ports and our communities at large.

The intended effect of these demonstrations is to raise the social and economic cost of the war. The excessive security costs caused by the protests cut away at the profits made by accepting military shipments and make ports less likely to accept shipments in the future. After the Port of Olympia demonstrations, the military reimbursed the port for security costs. Steve Hall, City Manager for the City of Olympia, announced after similar protests at the Port of Olympia, that the city would be unprepared to accept another military shipment without calling in the national guard. We are told that these actions taken to blockade military shipments in the North West have inspired others in the anti-war movements across the country take more radical and direct action to have a concrete impact on stopping the war. If so much resistance was shown in every port in the country in response to every military shipment, the war would be impossible to continue.

Demonstrations at the Port of Tacoma began the day the USS Brittin, the boat carrying 900 stryker vehicles, arrived on Tuesday, July 29th. On Thursday, July 31st, there was a march of approximately 40 people into the port. Two women, Kelly Beckham and Kteeo, were arrested. After seeing strykers driving down a nearby cross street and out of the port Beckham and Kteeo took off running to catch up with them. The two women were followed by their fellow demonstrators and about 15 police officers on bikes. The officers beat Beckham and Kteeo to the strikers and formed a line. Beckham and Kteeo along with about 20 other demonstrators stood in front of the line of cops. Beckham was pulled across the police line and arrested. Kteeo was pulled across the police line by her hair, slammed to the ground, lifted up in a head lock then slammed down again. Police then kneeled on her back. This all happened while she loudly repeated "I'm not resisting arrest." Beckham is being charged with obstruction and property destruction. Kteeo is being charged with obstruction and resisting arrest.

Friday night, August 1st, protesters effectively blocked a convoy of military equipment on Freedom Bridge at the 122 exit to a gate into Ft. Lewis, the military base where the strykers were based. Three were arrested during this action, including one person who was arrested for asking an officer what his badge number was. The police were taken by surprise, and soon approximately 20 to 30 police cars arrived from three different departments. Later that night, a truck transporting military equipment was blocked on another bridge at a gate to Ft. Lewis, exit 123. There were 7 people blocking the bridge, with maybe 10 more demonstrating on the sidewalk. 3 were arrested.

August 2nd, late at night, a lock down blocked the main gate of Ft. Lewis, exit 120, stopped a trunk transporting a Stryker vehicle for twenty minutes. Three people were in lockboxes, a device made out of PVC piping and other materials by which they locked their arms to each other. These protesters were removed from the gate and brought to a field. The protesters still refused to move from the devices for another 2 and a half hours. During this time the police attempted a multitude of tactics in attempts to remove the protesters. These included but were not limited to, calling in the fire department to remove the demonstrators from their devices (the department refused to touch the protesters), calling in two specialist (who could not solve the “problem”), googling lockboxes (which yielded no results). After these attempts and two and a half hours, the protesters, hypothermic and hungry, decided to release themselves.

While in jail protester Patti Imani was subjected to discrimination and psychological abuse. The police would begin her booking process, asking her standard questions. When Imani, who is hearing impaired, asked for an ASL interpreter the police would put her into solitary confinement and refuse to continue her booking until she became "more cooperative". Imani was released 15 minutes after the police finished her booking, eight hours after she was originally arrested.

After the blockade was broken, a car full of activists was detained by military police for an hour and a half at the gates of Fort Lewis. There were perhaps three jurisdictions there, including Lakewood Police, Washington State Patrol, and Fort Lewis Police. It seems that while they were turning around, one of the departments ran their license plate and a red flag came up indicating that they were protesters. A lieutenant and sergeant personally supervised the detainment. The five in the car had their information taken down, were told they were would arrested by military police if they ever returned to Fort Lewis, and were given tickets for failure to proof insurance and failure to proof registration. A police dog sniffed their car. An officer, while on the phone, was overheard explaining that a drug dog would help establish probable cause for a full search of the car. They kept refusing a search, and eventually were let go.

This is the first time the port militarization resistance movement actively resisted at a military base. Over the past year since the last port militarization resistance demonstrations at the Port of Tacoma, the police have had time to review and readjust their tactics in dealing with the demonstrators. Taking the resistance to Fort Lewis was in response to the changing tactics of the police. The police were taken by surprise by this change in tactics and venue and were less prepared to respond.

Sunday, August 3rd, demonstrators, knowing that police expected them at night, broke with their pattern and showed up in the middle of the day. 20 people demonstrated for most of the day inside the “free speech zone” designated by the police. In the late afternoon, as people began to leave, there was about 10 to 15 demonstrators left. Two police cars drove into the designated free speech zone. Demonstrators sanding near one of the cars were told by an officer, driving car number 773, that he was going to taser one of them. He brandished his weapon and pointed it at them. There demonstrators were breaking no laws or posing any threat to the officer at the time. The officer turned around towards Forest Student, a demonstrator standing alone several feet away from the police car. Forest Student was tasered twice, once while standing and again after hitting the ground. Student was then arrested for third degree assault, a charge that was then dropped. Eye witness testimony proves Student’s arms were crossed and he was not threatening the officer at all. The officer was sitting in his car at the time and tasered him through the window.

On Monday August 4th 40 people marched down to the port carrying banners and chanting. The group marched down the middle of a major street through the port. Eventually they were pushed to the side walk outside of an entrance to the port. The group waited beside the gate, determined to prevent military equipment from leaving the quay. At one point during the night the Tacoma Police Department walked around behind the group, specifically targeting Joe LaSac, the groups’ only videographer. He was grabbed and arrested for “trespassing.” As demonstrators moved closer to watch the arrest, members of TPD surrounded the group, pointing tasers at them on two sides.

As demonstrators were leaving the port, they were surrounded by police cars. The demonstrators were not able to access their vehicles for a period of time. While the demonstrators attempted to figure out an exit strategy the police turned on their lights and sirens as an intimidation technique. The demonstrators made it out of the port safely.

add a comment on this article