Police arrest protesters

Olympia council member among 23 detained at Tacoma port

By Venice Buhain | The Olympian • Published March 12, 2007

Olympia City Councilman TJ Johnson was among 23 people arrested at a Port of Tacoma protest Sunday afternoon, police and protest groups said.

Sunday's arrests were orderly, both Tacoma police and protesters say, with those arrested and police communicating during the arrests.

Johnson and the 22 others face charges of criminal obstruction, a misdemeanor, Tacoma Police Det. Brad Graham said Sunday.

Eight were arrested after bringing backpacks into a zone where they had been prohibited, Graham said. Police established some areas around the Port of Tacoma as no-backpack zones last week as a security measure, he said.

"The protesters were advised that they couldn't bring their backpacks, and they indicated that they were not going to give them up," Graham said.

Later, 15 people crossed a fence that separated the protest from the military equipment, he said.

"One by one, they did climb over the barricade," said Linda Frank of Tacoma, who was acting as a media liaison for the Tacoma Port Militarization Resistance.

That group and the more experienced Olympia Port Militarization Resistance organized the protests of the Army's use of the port for shipping military equipment bound for Iraq.

"It was very respectful on both sides," she said.

Frank said the protesters who were arrested made it clear that they were performing civil disobedience in protest of the Iraq War and the prohibition on backpacks in the protest zones.

They were aware that they could be arrested, she said.

She said those crossing the fence carried copies of a "Citizen's Injunction" that ordered a halt to shipments of military equipment through the Port of Tacoma.

Frank said the groups prepared for the civil disobedience and the arrests. The first group of eight were protesting the prohibition on backpacks in the protest area.

Johnson's wife, Stephanie, declined comment when reached by telephone.

Several other Olympia anti-Iraq War activists were among those arrested. Molly Gibbs and Sandy Mayes were booked into Pierce County Corrections, according to a jail roster on the county Web site. A News Tribune photographer who witnessed the arrests confirmed that Phan Nguyen of Olympia also was arrested after making a speech and refusing to surrender a backpack.

Tacoma Police declined to identify the protesters who were arrested.

Police estimated about 100 protesters were at the Port of Tacoma on Sunday afternoon. Since the first weekend in March, anti-war activists have been protesting the Army's use of the Port of Tacoma for the shipment of military equipment to Iraq. Shipments include vehicles and other cargo.

Paul Sand of The News Tribune contributed to this report.