In a video entitled "Barricades Were Not Thrown — Full Footage Response to Police," Joe La Sac of the Univ. of Puget Sound refutes widely circulated claims of the Tacoma police that in the early morning hours of Sat., Mar. 10, antiwar demonstrators at Milwaukee Way and Lincoln Ave. provoked police violence by throwing barricades at police officers.[1]  --  "In fact:  No barricades were ever thrown at these police," the video states.  --  La Sac's seven-minute video corroborates this, and concludes:  "This is what a POLICE STATE looks like."  --  The port militarization resistance movement continues at the Port of Tacoma tonight.  --  Citizens are urged to support the constitutional right peacefully to assemble and protest an illegal, immoral, and disastrous war.  --  Indeed, many believe Americans have not only a right, but a democratic, moral, and even legal duty to resist the shipment of illegal war matériel through the publicly-owned Port of Tacoma.  --  Following the video and Joe La Sac's commenetary is the text of the Citizen's Injunction to Halt the Shipment of Military Material to Iraq, a document involved in the protest that led to the arrest of 23 persons at the Port of Tacoma on Mar. 11, 2007.[2]  --  This is a text that can be reproduced and handed by any citizen to any legally constituted authority involved in shipping of Stryker vehicles through the Port of Tacoma to Iraq, or in protecting that shipment.  --  The port militarization resistance movement continues Mon. night, Mar. 12, at the Port of Tacoma at 9:00 p.m. ...

1.

BARRICADES WERE NOT THROWN -- FULL FOOTAGE RESPONSE TO POLICE
By Joe La Sac

YouTube
March 11, 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-w7g_8ZCYU

Police claimed that barricades were thrown at them during the protest on Mar. 10, 2007. This claim is false. It was reported that it happened just before protesters were tear-gassed. But as you can see, nothing involving barricades happened just before that. The whole footage could be uploaded to prove this point, which was running the entire time. However, this videos shows 5-6 minutes before the tear-gassing.

Since the justification for tear-gassing was based on the claim that sawhorses were thrown at police, and that didn't in fact happen, it appears Tacoma Police are once again lying about the events that have happened at this protest.

King5 is apprectiated for getting both sides of the story here. They're trying to be objective about this. However, since my camera was in fact running the entire time protesters were at this particular place (about 30 minutes) and these barricades remain in the same exact place, I have concluded that the police are in fact mistaken about their justification for gassing protesters.

UPDATE: This is how confident I am that no barricades were thrown at police:

I spoke PERSONALLY to Detective Graham, the officer interviewed on King5, and told him I had full footage and recorded NO barricades thrown at police.

Detective Graham wasn't at the protest. He told reporters what he read on a report that a riot officer had issued. I told him to make that report public and he said he would.

2.

CITIZEN'S INJUNCTION TO HALT THE SHIPMENT OF MILITARY MATERIAL TO IRAQ

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5911/

Whereas, the invasion and occupation of Iraq is contrary to the rule of law inasmuch as it defies agreements that expressly prohibit the belligerent and aggressive invasion of a sovereign nation, and

Whereas, the invasion and occupation of Iraq defies both the letter, and the spirit, of internationally and domestically recognized legal statutes such as the United Nations Charter, the Nuremberg Tribunal Charter, the Geneva Conventions and the United States War Crimes Act, and

Whereas, the invasion and occupation of Iraq has resulted in a humanitarian crisis of significant proportions, and

Whereas, the escalation of conflict in Iraq is counterproductive to the goal of establishing a stable sovereign nation, and

Whereas, a majority of United States Citizens oppose both the occupation of Iraq and the escalation of the conflict through the deployment of additional United States military forces, and

Whereas, the cost of the invasion and occupation of Iraq now exceeds $500 billion, money which could have been spent to meet domestic and international needs such as health care, education, and the provision of essential public infrastructure, and

Whereas, the best way to support United States soldiers is to prevent them from being placed into the middle of a conflict in which they have a high risk of killing and being killed, and

Whereas I have exhausted every legal means available to me to petition my elected leaders for the cessation of the conflict, and

Whereas, under legal precedent and historical practice, control over the American military rests firmly within the civilian population,

Now, therefore be it resolved that I, the undersigned, as a citizen of the United States of America, do hereby prohibit the shipment of military vehicles to the 4th Brigade through the publicly funded Port of Tacoma.

Signed on this ________ day of March in the year 2007.