United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

The Olympian (Olympia, WA) reported Thursday that City Manager Steve Hall believes the city has nine "good" cases among those arrested during last year's Nov. 5-17 Port of Olympia port militarization resistance (PMR) protests.[1] -- On Apr. 22, the Olympian reported that in a "quite unusual" move and with City Manager Hall's support, the Olympia City Council has decided to reimburse the city of Tumwater $7,243 for overtime costs to its police department that were incurred during the November PMR protests.[2] -- Matt Batcheldor noted that "the Port of Olympia reimbursed the city of Olympia $70,000 for its expenses" during the protests, in which 66 protesters were arrested. -- COMMENTARY: What is not stated in these accounts, and what is never stated in mainstream media accounts, is the rationale for protesters' actions last November. -- For one version of that rationale, see UFPPC's statement of Dec. 20, 2007, entitled "The Failure of Democrats to Stop the War Is a Crisis of the Republic Legitimating Civil Resistance," and which notes international law expert Francis Boyle's argument that "American citizens possess the basic right under international law and the United States domestic law, including the U.S. Constitution, to engage in acts of civil resistance designed to prevent, impede, thwart, or terminate ongoing criminal activities perpetrated by Bush administration officials in their conduct of foreign affairs policies and military operations purported to relate to defense and counter-terrorism." -- Such action, Prof. Boyle tells us, constitutes not civil disobedience but "civil resistance." -- In other words, mainstream media is effecting a role reversal: those who are defending the rule of law are represented as lawbreakers, and those who are defending illegality are represented as officers of the law. -- It's all part of the neo-Orwellian Bizarro World in which we live. -- For more on the November PMR protests, see UFPPC's statement of Nov. 15, 2007, on the outrageously excessive force that Olympia police used against the demonstrators — another point that has disappeared from the Olympian's coverage." -- As Greek historian Thucydides said more than 2,400 years ago in his History of the Peloponnesian War, in describing the effect on its culture of a great power (in his case, Athens, in ours, the United States) meddling in the politics of another country. "Good deeds can be shortly stated, but where wrong is done a wealth of language is needed to veil its deformity." -- UFPPC commented in a statement "On War and the Corruption of Language" on Jul. 8, 2004: "Those in power are unable to accept that their deeds be described accurately. Instead, they insist on descriptive terms that justify their actions, while finding the means to suppress, censure, or marginalize true descriptions. Some of the people who do this are self-deceived. Some of them are scoundrels. The self-deceivers and scoundrels have different motives, but they have a common interest in finding ways to deal with those who use language accurately." ...

OLYMPIA CITY MANAGER SEES NINE GOOD CASES FROM NOVEMBER PROTESTS
By Matt Batcheldor

OLYMPIA -- City Manager Steve Hall said Wednesday that the city has nine good cases against people arrested during protests of military shipments at the Port of Olympia five months ago.

He said that it is his goal for city prosecutors to decide within two weeks whether to charge any of the 66 protesters who were arrested.

Kalo Wilcox, a city prosecutor, said the department is "looking at evidence and making decisions about who, if, when to charge."

Hall said the city is reviewing photographs and video evidence before making any charging decisions.

From Nov. 5 to 17, protesters attempted to stop military cargo coming back from the war in Iraq from being transported out of the port back to Fort Lewis.

He said the city has an especially good case against nine people who linked arms with PVC pipe, partly blockading Plum Street near Union Avenue in an attempt to keep military gear from entering Interstate 5.

"We know who they are," Hall said. "It's clear what they did. The other cases are, I guess, not as obvious."

Forty-two people were arrested for blocking the entrance to the main gate of the port, Hall said.

Attorney Larry Hildes, who said he might represent the port protesters, said that taking five months to determine whether to charge the protesters "seems strikingly long."

"I have to think they were waiting to see who was filing civil claims," Hildes said.

Four people, all but one of whom were arrested during the protests, filed brutality claims against Olympia police in January and are seeking $13 million in damages.

"I think it would be a mistake for them" to charge the protesters, Hildes continued. "If they're trying to protect themselves against civil liability, it's not going to do that."

If people are charged, Hildes vowed a "long, drawn-out fight" and said "nobody will plead."

Hildes previously represented those charged in military protests at the ports of Tacoma and Grays Harbor.

The Olympia protests cost the city $112,168 in police overtime and equipment and damage to a police car. The port reimbursed Olympia for $70,000 in expenses, and the city, in turn, reimbursed Tumwater $7,243 for overtime for assisting.

OLYMPIA -- The Olympia City Council moved Tuesday night to reimburse the city of Tumwater $7,243 for overtime costs that its police department incurred during last year's protests at the Port of Olympia. The measure requires another vote, which likely will happen next week.

In an interview, Olympia City Manager Steve Hall acknowledged that the reimbursement is an unusual gesture. Cities do not typically reimburse other cities for mutual-aid responses, backing one another up when necessary.

But Hall said that Tumwater, a small police department, supplied seven or eight officers during the protest of a military shipment Nov. 5-17.

"Every night we had confrontations, they were there," Hall said. He said Lacey and Thurston County provided other support by helping respond to police calls outside the port area, but Tumwater was consistently at the port. He said there are no plans to compensate the other agencies.

"Tumwater was the one that suited up and brought people to the protest," Hall said.

"The council felt this was kind of extraordinary support from the city of Tumwater, and they wanted to recognize it as such."

Tumwater Mayor Ralph Osgood said the reimbursement was "quite unusual" but added that mutual-aid responses usually are not as extensive or expensive as the support Tumwater police offered at the port protest.

Also, the Port of Olympia reimbursed the city of Olympia $70,000 for its expenses.

"It was felt that if the port was actually willing to pay the city of Olympia for their cost," Osgood said, "it only seemed right that we request reimbursement as well."

Matt Batcheldor covers the city of Olympia for the Olympian. He can be reached at 360-704-6869 or mbatcheldor@theolympian.com.