Update: Report one protester shot with rubber projectile. It gave him a bruise. Another report pasted in comments section below. Link isn't opening, here it is.
From the Tacoma News Tribune:
"The Port of Tacoma has hired off-duty Tacoma officers to stand guard while the military equipment is stored at the port, police spokesman Mark Fulghum said. Members of the department’s disorderly response team and bicycle rapid response team are also on standby, and were present at the demonstrations early Monday.
Fulghum said the three arrests occurred in separate incidents between 12:20 and shortly after 1 a.m. According to police reports, one man charged through a police line and came at an officer in a threatening manner.
Police shot him with a foam projectile about the size of a small soda can – a non-lethal device that officers use in hopes of stopping a person without causing serious injury, Fulghum said. The man arrested Monday suffered a bruised thigh, he said.
A second man was arrested after he too pushed his way past the police line, Fulghum said. He struggled with officers trying to detain him and sustained a cut on his right knee, Fulghum said.
The woman who was arrested also pushed past the police line, Fulghum said, and tried to grab at one of the officers. A second officer pulled her back in a “bear hug-type” hold and took her into custody.
The three were being held in Pierce County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail each for investigation of assault.
Fulghum said demonstrators “have been told they could protest but they have to follow the rules,” including, among others, that they can’t block streets, sidewalks or cross a police line."
Michelle Malkin has video of today's protests at the Port of Tacoma where peace activists tried to prevent necessary equipment for our servicemen from getting to Iraq. Indymedia, consider the source, is claiming three people were shot with rubber bullets, those reports not yet confirmed by other media.
The protesters posted an ad hoc advert for more radical help as recently as yesterday. The group also vows to stand against the world's largest exporter of terror, the United States. Deserter Ehren Watada seems to be their person of the year.
This is all spur-of-the-moment and we are doing the best that we can but we need more help and more radical input.
In other documents available on the web the protesters have actually been planning this for some time and claim that all bets are off if any vehicles manage to get through.
I'd suggest watching media reports for disinformation, as part of their plan.
Next time, we'll be ready for them: Port Militarization Resistance returns to defend the Port of Olympia
If those efforts are unsuccessful we use civil disobedience to block the convoys, openly communicating our intentions well in advance of planned actions. And if the convoys get through, all bets are off and other tactics will then be considered.
People are tired of being ignored by politicians and the media and are ready to take their actions to a higher level. For many, military convoys returning to Olympia would provide the perfect opportunity for CD and at a comparatively low personal cost.
...
Similarly, the weapons shipments through the Port of Olympia, and the use of our public property to prolong and supply the war in Iraq have made Thurston County and its citizens complicit in these crimes. We must refuse to be complicit any longer. Just as soldiers have a responsibility to disobey unlawful orders, civilians also have a duty to refuse to cooperate.
what's this sissy "rubber" bullets jive?
Posted by: bloodrage bob | Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 01:03 AM
"Just as soldiers have a responsibility to disobey unlawful orders, civilians also have a duty to refuse to cooperate."
And would that the civilians suffer the same fate as the disobedient soldier.
These people are an embarrassment to our country. I hope those Harley dudes show up like they do when Reverend Festus has his rallies at soldiers' funerals.
Posted by: Phoenix | Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 01:27 AM
Okay. I've commmented enough to get it out of my system. It was fun to say something, however inane, and not get beaten up for it.
Good night.... I think I sound whiny. Oh well.. :)
No. I'm not whiny. I'm loyal to you, Dan. I like you. It's just hard lately to show it.
Posted by: Phoenix | Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 01:41 AM
I'm thinking the morons need a "taste of the grape".
Posted by: Purple Avenger | Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 02:14 AM
I would love to see those leftist dirtbags resort to violence. They would get their buts kicked big time.
So leftis, do those nut jobs support the troops?
Posted by: Hard Right | Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 02:43 AM
Funtimes in my hometown!
From the Tacoma News Tribune:
"The Port of Tacoma has hired off-duty Tacoma officers to stand guard while the military equipment is stored at the port, police spokesman Mark Fulghum said. Members of the department’s disorderly response team and bicycle rapid response team are also on standby, and were present at the demonstrations early Monday.
Fulghum said the three arrests occurred in separate incidents between 12:20 and shortly after 1 a.m. According to police reports, one man charged through a police line and came at an officer in a threatening manner.
Police shot him with a foam projectile about the size of a small soda can – a non-lethal device that officers use in hopes of stopping a person without causing serious injury, Fulghum said. The man arrested Monday suffered a bruised thigh, he said.
A second man was arrested after he too pushed his way past the police line, Fulghum said. He struggled with officers trying to detain him and sustained a cut on his right knee, Fulghum said.
The woman who was arrested also pushed past the police line, Fulghum said, and tried to grab at one of the officers. A second officer pulled her back in a “bear hug-type” hold and took her into custody.
The three were being held in Pierce County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail each for investigation of assault.
Fulghum said demonstrators “have been told they could protest but they have to follow the rules,” including, among others, that they can’t block streets, sidewalks or cross a police line."
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/updates/story/6402103p-5709013c.html
Posted by: Andrew | Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 03:09 AM
Hopefully that's the extent of their protest. We'll see if it was just talk or they were serious.
Posted by: Hard Right | Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 03:14 AM
Peaceful protesting is one thing, it is a right but when they cross the line from peaceful protest and free speech to obstruction of governmental process and violence it's time to take them down. Arrest all those involved, dismantle their organization, see exactly where the money comes from, where the orders come from and expose the anti American peace movement for exactly what it is.
Posted by: Buzzy | Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 08:52 AM
Did anyone else hear about the guy on the Dailykos yesterday calling for a revolution to overthrow the government if they didn't pull the troops out of Iraq right now?
I often wonder at the absolute twisted logic that alot of those on the left use. I mean on the one had they consider the millitary to be full of christianists and criminals. I was over at the "Theleftcoaster" awhile back and the comments over there were full of those kind of thoughts. They also think that the Republican party is full of gun toting Rednecks who are just itching to get rid of the government. As for the President they think he is in the process of establishing a police state. Now for he twisted logic part, these guys think its a good idea to start having violent confrontations with the right if they don't get their way.
Lefties think it through, if you guys really belive that the Government, Millitary and Republican party is all the bad things you say they are, what do you think is going to happen. Please give me your vision of what this violent showdown with the bad guys will look like.
Posted by: southdakotaboy | Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 09:44 AM
It is going to get nine kinds of ugly, that is for sure.
These folks are so caught up in their frothingly rabid moonbat fury that they would stop medical supplies from getting to our troops.
In my book, if those protestors try to charge the police line with lethal or near-lethal force or damage the Strykers or the motor pool/storage facilities, that puts them on the same page as Al-Qaeda... and should be subsequently dealt with in like manner.
And that deserter Erhen Watada should be serving time in Leavenworth at the very least, if not serving it by swinging lifelessly at the end of a rope.
Posted by: seekeronos | Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 11:39 AM
From that moonbat site Dan linked at http://www.olywip.org/wip/node/491
"We must stand against the largest exporter of terror: the US Empire
Drew Hendricks
by Drew Hendricks
Many people in our community oppose the war in Iraq. And while I often agree with my community on issues of war and peace, in this instance I disagree. I do not oppose the war in Iraq.
I don't think that the United States should have any troops stationed anywhere outside the United States. I'm against the Empire. But what those troops are doing in Iraq is not a war -- it's an occupation. It's the colonial administration of another nation, and the suppression of the people of that nation. It's a war crime, and I oppose it. But the war isn't being fought by the US military. The war is being fought by the Iraqi people and their allies. I support their struggle to throw out the US military by whatever means they decide. ***___Their struggle is mine as long as we oppose the same Empire.___***"
Yup, that frothing, deluded moonbat is definitely in the same league as AQ and the other Islamist terrorists.
Seriously, the FBI needs to revive COINTELPRO or a similar counterinsurgency surveilliance program to crackdown on these moonbat wannabe terrorists.
Posted by: seekeronos | Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 11:48 AM