Tacoma port protest turns violent
The Olympian
March 10, 2007
http://www.theolympian.com/112/story/68869.html

Three demonstrators, including an Olympia man, were arrested late Friday
and early Saturday during protests at the Port of Tacoma, and officers
used pepper spray and gas to control some in the crowd, police
spokeswoman Gretchen Ellis said.

A 19-year-old Olympia man and a 20-year-old Tacoma man were arrested
about 2:30 a.m. after a group threw wooden barriers onto the street and
sat in the roadway at Milwaukee Way and Lincoln Avenue, police said.

Officers sprayed the group with gas when they refused to leave, Ellis said.

The Olympia man was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault on an
officer and obstruction, Tacoma police spokesman Brad Graham said. The
Tacoma man faces obstruction charges. Police wouldn't release the names
of the arrested protesters Saturday.

Police also arrested a 32-year-old Gig Harbor man on charges of
obstructing officers late Friday when he took his backpack into a
protest area. For security reasons, police were prohibiting backpacks
from the area but not searching protesters.

Olympia residents who attended the protest Friday night and Saturday
morning described a hectic scene as it was broken up about 3:30 a.m.

Victoria Needer, 22, a student at The Evergreen State College, said she
attended the protest from about 9:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. to take freelance
photos.

"Someone tried to enter with a backpack, and they were arrested," she
said. "At that point, it went from chanting and gathering of people to
actual conflict."

Needer said that about 3 a.m., a couple of protesters tried to jump onto
a fence. After police fired rubber bullets, some of the protesters who
were amassed at a main barricade tried to enter the restricted area at a
different location, and police were waiting with pepper spray.

Chriset Palenshus, 26, said that's when protesters began running.

"I've never been so terrified in my life," she said.

Needer said she attended protests in 2001 and 2002, also to take photos.

Compared with those, "there was a lot more charge" on Saturday morning,
she said. "It was a lot angrier. There was a lot more negative energy
coming from both the police and the protesters."

Palenshus said the event did have a moment of levity.

"It was really funny, 'cause somebody said, 'Call the cops!' What do you
do when you're scared for your life? You think about calling the
police," she said. "Obviously, that wasn't an option."

Steve Maynard, Kris Sherman and Stacey Mulick of The News Tribune and
Brian Sandford of The Olympian contributed to this report.