Subject: May 22-31 account
From: maria
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 19:29:55 -0700

This is my account, written as accurately as possible, of my experience
during the events that unfolded concerning the protest of military use of 
the Port of Olympia May 22 through May 31, 2006. After many revisions, 
the removal of names, and advice from others, I have decided to post it 
to the list and to olyblog. I realize that this is quite long, and that 
it is also not very exciting language, but it was very cathartic for me 
to write about what I experienced and I encourage others to do the same.

 

On May 18th via the Tacoma Tribune, I was made aware of the fact that the 
Port of Olympia would soon be used to transport a military shipment to Iraq. 
Beginning the following day, I began walking Port Property, utilizing the 
observation deck, main gate and see-through fence to attempt guessing whether 
or not the Port was visibly preparing in any way for a shipment. On Monday, 
May 22, 2006 around 9:45am, I was standing on the observation deck on port 
property when I witnessed a military convey being escorted by the Olympia 
Police Department enter the Port of Olympia. I immediately telephoned Drew 
Hendricks who arrived shortly thereafter.

A short time later a police officer approached me and asked whether or not 
I knew about any impending protests and I stated that I was more of an 
observer than an organizer. He said that he knew people who worked with Drew 
were generally well connected to the peace community and repeated his question. 
I stated that I did not know anything and he left. Within 3 minutes a Port 
Security officer approached. He waited for an older couple who were looking 
for the falcons that frequent the port cranes to leave the observation deck 
and then demanded that I leave. I was on the phone with ________ at the time, 
who was filming at another location. I asked Port Security why I needed to 
leave and he told me that he was closing the tower. I asked him whether or not 
the Port was public property. He repeated more aggressively that I needed to 
leave. I told him I had the right to be there as a citizen and he again stated 
I must exit the deck. It was 10:55am. I had a very important appointment at 
11am and choose to leave rather than resist.

After my appointment I joined with a group of protesters on Marine Drive. 
When the military convoys came through we utilized the crosswalk and crossed 
back and forth between Strykers. This slowed them down a great deal, but did 
not stop them. There were police present during this time but they did not 
prevent us from crossing in the crosswalk. I feel this is an important fact 
considering what occurred the next day.

On Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006 I was with approximately 12 protesters on Marine 
Drive around 10 o'clock in the morning. In a manner similar to the previous 
day we began cross in front of the Stryker convoys. The first several times 
the convoys stopped, but things quickly escalated. At approximately 10:25am, 
a military truck was exiting from the port on Marine Drive toward State street. 
I was across the street on the other corner with another friend talking and 
holding a sign and witnessed about 7 protesters cross in front of the vehicle. 
Instead of stopping, the vehicle continued inching forward and stopping, and 
inching forward and stopping, trying to intimidate the protesters, and even 
touching them with the grill of the vehicle, which was at about shoulder level 
to the protesters. The Olympia Police department was immediately on scene and 
began screaming at the protesters to get out of the crosswalk. This was much 
different than the previous day. I witnessed a police officer approach 
____________ and attempt to grab ____, at which point ____ lay on the ground.
______ joined ____ there and they were together in the middle of the road. 
At this point other protesters began to refuse to get out of the crosswalk. 
______, on the other side of the street, stepped up in front of a Stryker 
vehicle that had arrived while this was happening, and was also arrested. 
I called as many people and places as possible to report what was happening. 
These arrests were in no way planned. We did not have the names readily 
available and I personally made errors in omitting one person that had been 
arrested and confusing the name of another because of how fast everything 
was happening. We did not have all of the vital phone numbers needed and 
only had a digital camera to record the police--we did not have a video 
camera. ______ was in jail and could not be reached. I did in fact witness 
the prying apart of ______ and ______ and felt at the time that unnecessary 
force was used in prying them apart. The officers roughly grabbed   _______ 
under the arms, shaking and squeezing [the person] in an attempt to separate him/her 
from ______. I asked a female police officer assisting in the arrests for 
badge numbers and she stated that she would give them to us. Meanwhile others 
took pictures with the digital camera. After the arrests I left the protest 
and went to another doctors appointment, then made a brief visit to the vigil 
happening on Plum and State before going to the jail to meet the soon to be 
released protesters.

On Wednesday, May 24, 2006, I had another doctor's appointment and did not 
participate or witness any of the days events.

On Thursday, May 25th, 2006, I went to a meeting early in the morning being 
held about the protests. The police were constantly driving by the house as 
the meeting went on. We discussed a plan of action. There was one convoy that 
day, at 10am. We missed it and protested while an excessive police presence 
observed. There was literally a cop car present for every protester and several 
citizens commented to us that the police were embarrassing the city by using 
such an excessive show of force.

Friday, May 26th, 2006 is a complete blur. I think we had a meeting on this 
day, but I am not sure. At some point there was a meeting where it was decided 
that it would be good to build a Tent City to maintain a constant presence at 
the main port entry.

On Saturday May, 27th, 2006, around 3pm I arrived at the Tent City across 
the street from Batdorf and Bronson. It was not long after I arrived that 
the police and port security instructed protesters that they would have to 
take it down. The port spokesman and policeman stated that we could not keep 
the city because it would attract homelessness. The tent city was taken down 
and moved to Traditions.

Sunday, May 28th is also a blur. I mainly remember walking back and forth 
between the main port entry gate, Traditions, and the port plaza. I also 
remember getting into a heated conversation with a police officer about our 
right to protest. At some point in this conversation he informed me that 
putting my body in front of a Stryker is telling him that I am willing to 
give up my life and that he will use whatever force he feels necessary to 
remove me.

Monday, May 29th I walked down to the Port plaza sometime in the mid-morning. 
Some protesters were down at Traditions making signs and preparing to move to 
the port. I witnessed increased activity on the port platform and the presence 
of US Coast Guard preparing a platform connected to the dock. In addition there 
were confirmed undercover law enforcement of all sorts within the Port Plaza. 
As the day wore on, more protesters arrived. Around 5:30pm it was reported that 
a military ship had passed Steilacoom. The ship was distantly visible in the 
Port of Olympia around 7:30pm. The number of protesters (and media) increased.

I have no idea what time it was, but close to dusk protesters gathered near 
the fence area closest to the ship and began protesting. Some of the protesters 
were rattling the fence, but from where I was standing it seemed like the 
biggest tool the protesters utilized was their voice. They were very loud and 
yelling that the ship needed to get out of our Port. I had walked out onto the 
dock to talk to two other people when this occurred. The protesters were 
chanting and some were rattling the fence. Suddenly people started screaming 
in pain. I didn't know what happened, but I immediately ran down the dock 
toward the fence to help my friends. As soon as I got to the observation deck 
I started choking and coughing. It was very painful even though I was far away 
and just got the mist from it traveling through the air. I put my bandanna over 
my face to protect me from the spray and immediately tried to find and help 
several specific people I knew had been closer to the fence. On the way I ran 
into people who needed help, and needed it badly. There were a lot of people 
hurt. Everyone who had been near the fence, even innocent bystanders, had been 
hit with the spray and needed help. I was not at the fence when it was sprayed, 
so I cannot say whether or not the OPD warned the crowd. What I can say is that 
I was nowhere near the fence and was still harmed by the spray and others were 
too.

As the night wore on the cops continued spraying the crowd. I personally know 
many individuals that were hurt while helping other people, filming, or taking 
photographs. As the spraying continued we started to run low on water and other 
supplies needed to rinse out peoples eyes and skin. Some of us were very worried 
about this. It was just basically chaos. The cops eventually mustve grown tired 
of spraying us—eventually they said they would get rid of the riot police if 
people would agree not to touch the fence.

Before this deal was made a group of protesters went on a spontaneous march to 
encourage more people to come to the port. Sometime during this a giant metal 
thing was put in front of the fence. As one protester put it, "I guess they 
think we're too stupid to move ten feet to the left."

Tuesday, May 30th, 2006. Protesters met at the corner of Plum and State for 
a vigil. After the vigil we marched down State street and then turned toward 
the port, heading for the main gate. We chanted, cheered, and carried signs. 
One thing I wasn't and still am not so sure about was the "tear down the port" 
chant, even though I said it. The other things we chanted about tearing down 
were fine with me—capitalism, sexism, racism, classism. Yes, tear it down. But 
I really don't want to tear down the port. I just don't want it to be used for 
illegal war. It should be the peoples port. Anyway, upon arrival at the main 
port gate (which had been closed just as we arrived) protesters gathered around 
and began chanting and protesting. I was in the middle of the crowd and did not 
see what happened with the fence, but was told some protesters had lifted it 
off of its hinges. Later I saw the fence and it didn't look damaged to me. Anyhow 
the next thing I knew there were a dozen or so people lying on the ground where 
the fence had been. I went to the back of the crowd with others who had been 
acting in the role of street medics and began mixing Maalox and water. We started 
setting up areas where people could be treated. I was at the front of the line 
with water when they started pulling people off the ground. Some people they 
just pulled up, and others they sprayed first.   As people were arrested more 
people laid down. Someone on the megaphone said, "this is your chance, if you 
believe in this and want to lay your body on the line, now is the time to do 
it." As I stood there in front of the police, I wondered if everyone on the 
ground knew what kind of charges they were risking. I knew many if not all of 
the people did, but was worried regardless. It took quite awhile for them to 
arrest everyone on the ground, since more people kept lying down. The cops 
sprayed while this was going on. Tuesday I was more prepared for the spray, 
but I still wasn't ready for it. It soaked through the bandana I had been using 
to protect myself very quickly. It was on my clothes and hands and burned pretty 
badly, but not as badly as the people that got direct and longer hits. Sometime 
during all of this there was a teachin. After that the cops continued spraying, 
telling people to get back. It's all a blur now. I just remember being in a 
group trying to help people and keep track of who had been arrested already. At 
some point the cops threatened to tear gas us. Many of the protesters tried 
desperately to get others to leave, but there were a few who refused to move. 
People ran around giving out vinegar and were validly worried as we did not have 
enough, and knew what we did have wouldn't protect us. At some point during all 
of this I saw another group of people, I did not know if they were protesting or 
observing, getting pushed violently back by the cops. This group of people was 
off to the side on the right side of the road. The next thing I knew I heard shots 
like canisters firing and everyone started running, I thought we were getting tear 
gassed. The sound was much different than the pepper spray noise—later I was told 
they had fired rubber bullets. More people were arrested and sprayed during this 
as well. Finally the police said that they would give us the road if we didn't go 
past the first red sign. Why didn't they do that before they pepper sprayed and 
shot at us?

After this happened a meeting was called. It was close, but a group majority 
decided to go back near the ship as that was what we were protesting and it 
would be more productive. We marched down State street and to the Port plaza.  
I'm having a block in my memory right now about what happened once we got to 
the Port. I know someone brought a big speaker and FRO was playing. Some woman 
was on the air saying we should use our privilege to get out on Puget Sound 
in boats, canoes and kayaks, and directly confront the machine gun armed coast 
guards. LOL

Anyway, I left with ________ around 12:30 to do help with media and basically 
just wash the pepper spray off more thoroughly off of my body and veg for a 
few minutes. When we came back protesters had erected the most beautiful piece 
of anti-war artwork I have ever seen. I couldn't believe they did it in the 
short time we had been gone. It was an amazing memorial.

We werent back at the port longer than 15 minutes before someone told us they 
were releasing people from jail and to get up there. _______ had tried to do 
jail solidarity earlier in the day, but was told that the jail was on lockdown 
and that if people hung around, no one would be released. Some people did it 
anyway. We arrived at the jail around 2AM. There were about 10-15 people there 
in solidarity, and four of the guys had been released.

That concludes my experience of these events and what I witnessed. May 31st  
we had a peaceful die-in that the corporate media would have never reported 
had the previous days protests not occurred. Prior to this port security had 
closed the plaza for 8 hours to completely destroy the artwork that had been 
created the night before. They were just trying to keep us out and a small 
group finally entered the plaza while it was still closed. The police and 
security had a little conference and decided to open it back up.

There is a lot of room for analysis and evaluation, and I am looking forward 
to the meeting on Saturday.

I was not arrested, and this was a conscious choice I made over and over again, 
each day, for different physical and other reasons (financially accessible 
doctors appointments that I had literally spent a whole year trying to arrange, 
fear of being charged with a felony, etc). I had and have tremendous respect 
for those who were arrested and hope we will all continue to support those who 
literally put their bodies down in front of the face of the war machine. I did 
however notice many, many people that I have never seen before, attempting to 
provoke the crowd to violence. I personally watched these people who were 
encouraging excessive violence, and noticed that not one of them allowed 
themselves to be personally arrested. I think this is wrong. I don't think 
it is wrong to choose civil disobedience, know the potential legal consequences 
and choose to be arrested. It is in my opinion wrong to encourage or coerce 
potentially uninformed others to be meaninglessly violent and risk their own 
futures as well as, frankly, their lives in action plans they themselves are 
not willing to follow. That's just my two cents though. I hope I get to read 
yours.

all the very best and peace,
maria