Protest costs must be paid by someone Our Views Editorial The Olympian 05 June 06 http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060605/OPINION01/606050364/1005 Every day at the top of the Opinion page, The Olympian reprints the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It does so as a reminder of the freedom of the press granted by the founding fathers. But in recent days in this community, Olympia residents have been seen exercising two other First Amendment rights: the right to assemble and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Last week's protests at the Port of Olympia are protected by the Bill of Rights. Simply put, protesters have a constitutional right to assemble and to peaceably protest. The operative word is "peaceably." In this case, protesters crossed the line when they tore down gates on the port property and did about $7,500 in damage. At that point, the protesters broke the law, and they must be held accountable for their actions and for their damage to public property. More than 20 people were arrested. They should shoulder full restitution costs. The $7,500 estimate is made up of two numbers: $5,000 to replace two gates destroyed by the protesters and $2,500 in staff time to clean up the Port Plaza and surrounding area after the final day of protests. Those are the fixed costs and don't include the big-ticket item - the costs of overtime pay for law enforcement officers. The city of Olympia had 172 hours of overtime for a total cost of $11,000, according to Chief Gary Michel. The Washington State Patrol had five people on overtime, with costs expected to hit $1,050, said Capt. Jeff Deviere. Tumwater said its costs will be less than $1,000, and the sheriff's office expects to tally time sheets today. Who is going to pick up those additional law enforcement costs? Should departments be expected to simply absorb the costs, passing the bill onto taxpayers? "Someone higher up the command than me will make that decision," said Olympia's Chief Gary Michel. "We certainly didn't budget for this when we put together our budget last fall. An $11,000 overtime budget is not something we can sustain. As it is right now, the $11,000 will come out of our department budget, but come December, we're going to come up $11,000 short." An argument can be made that those convicted of breaking the law should bear ALL of the costs - from police overtime to crews who picked up three truckloads of trash and pressure-washed graffiti from port property. The port pays for different levels of security depending on the cargo involved. When log ships are berthed at the port, or crews are handling aluminum or wind turbines, the port pays a private security firm to patrol the docks, according to Jim Amador, the port's marine terminal director. Military shipments require an increased level of security. In addition to the private security, the port pays a half-dozen off-duty deputies from the county sheriff's department to protect the ship and dockworkers around the clock. For the latest military ship, that amounted to about $31,000. The military will repay the port for those security costs. But when the rabble-rousers started breaking down gates, the situation quickly became more than the paid security staff and off-duty deputies could handle. Off-duty law enforcement officers from adjoining jurisdictions were summoned. On-duty officers who could have been responding to other calls for assistance or patrolling other parts of the community were redirected to the port, too. Protesters who are found guilty of breaking the law should pay full restitution costs, but whether that includes police overtime costs is something elected officials and the courts are going to have to sort out.