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Protesters stop military transport, delay work

Trucks unable to leave as police can't muster manpower

By Jeremy Pawloski | The Olympian • Published November 10, 2007

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Bjornstad added that police didn't anticipate protesters blocking trucks Friday afternoon. Police also didn't anticipate that small children would be among them, he said.

Two grade-school-age boys and a toddler were among the people in the path of the trucks Friday, a development that Bjornstad said was "quite disturbing" and "quite appalling, in my opinion." Police want to ensure the safety of the protesters, should they have to be removed, and police were not prepared for safely removing children Friday, he said.

"We're going to have to figure out how to address that issue," Bjornstad said.

Protester Anna-Marie Murano said she does not think the presence of the children posed any problems.

"I grew up in a family where I went with my mother to demonstrate against the use of nuclear weapons," she said. "War is what kills children, not bringing them to anti-war demonstrations."

During Friday's standoff, protesters sat and stood in the road near the gates of the port and blocked the path of the trucks, causing one driver towing a Stryker to honk his horn. Protesters said the truck bumped them, though no one was hurt.

One protester with a megaphone shouted to the truck driver towing the Stryker to halt, warning him that he could be subject to prosecution for vehicular assault.

The second truck driver who was blocked, Darin Davenport of Tacoma, said he was angry that the protesters were keeping him from doing his job and returning to his wife and children.

"I have kids, too; I need to get home," he said. "My father was military, so I support the military. It doesn't look like I'm going anywhere. I'm not going to run anybody over, but I'd like to get home."

After 4 p.m., Olympia Police Lt. Ray Holmes told The Olympian that the police department didn't have the manpower to keep the streets clear of protesters so the trucks could leave. By the time extra officers could arrive, it would be after the port was scheduled to stop moving equipment, he said.

He added that he'd "prefer to have a resolution to the whole thing" and that protesters might encounter a different police response during future incidents.