Port aims to dissuade future protests

By Christian Hill | The Olympian • Published October 14, 2008

Frustrated with police and prosecutors, the Port of Olympia threw down the gauntlet Monday night, promising to haul to civil court anyone who violates the law at a future protest.

Port commissioners passed a resolution outlining that promise with a unanimous vote.

The resolution noted that none of the more than 60 arrests made during protests at the port over a Fort Lewis-Iraq War military shipment in November has led to criminal prosecution.

The port commissioners announced their intention to "pursue appropriate damages and all available remedies through civil actions against protesters who block port roads, refuse to disperse, interfere with port business and/or damage public property."

"If you don't do negative reinforcement on inappropriate behavior, then it just becomes positive reinforcement that will be repeated. It's sure to happen again," Commissioner Paul Telford said in explaining why the board passed the resolution.

The port will not file civil lawsuits against people who participated in past protests, just future ones, the members added.

Only one person testified about the resolution at the meeting.

Keith Bausch, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 47, voiced his support of the move.

"It's a shame that the judicial system has fallen flat on its face," he said.

A lawyer representing some of the port protesters of the past said little will come from the board's action.

Such a civil action is known as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, a threatened or filed lawsuit intended to silence critics by making it so expensive for them to mount a defense that they abandon their opposition, he explained.

"The courts take a very dim view of SLAPP suits, and tend to award attorneys fees when they dismiss them," attorney Larry Hildes said in an e-mail.

'Obligation to resist'

Patty Imani, a member of Olympia Port Militarization Resistance, which has organized some of the previous protests, said it is the port, not the protesters, that is breaking the law by accepting military shipments.