Police fire pepper spray in antiwar protest at Port of Olympia

OLYMPIA – Police repeated fired pepper spray as about 150 anti-war protesters tried to enter a port area in continuing demonstrations against the shipment of Army equipment to Iraq.

No one was arrested in the unruly demonstration Monday night, but police and Thurston County sheriff's deputies clad in riot gear fired at least four rounds of pepper spray in a one-hour period and paramedics were dispatched to treat some of the protesters, authorities said.

Protesters chanted "Out of Olympia, Out of Iraq" as they rocked a chain-link gate to the Port of Olympia, and at least three tried to use wooden boards to pry the gate open, The Olympian newspaper reported. A 50-ton piece of equipment was moved against the inside of the gate to reinforce it.

Sheriff's deputies used a loudspeaker to warn demonstrators repeatedly before firing the first blast of pepper spray about 9:30 p.m. PDT.

Dozens of demonstrators crouched in the port plaza, dousing each other's eyes with water and offering slices of onion to soothe their throats.

"It burned. I couldn't open my eyes for 20 minutes," Rachel Graham said while rubbing cold watermelon on her face. "My face is burning. I dunked my face in water and in Puget Sound."

Some protesters tried to block an entrance into the port plaza with trash bins and recycling containers which were moved aside by law enforcement personnel who then took positions in front of the gate. The confrontation subsided after that and by 11:30 p.m. most protesters and police were gone.

"The majority were very peaceful, nonviolent, just exercising their constitutional rights," sheriff's Capt. Bradley Watkins said. "There was a group that was trying to damage port property.

"We asked them several times to stop. We warned them that if they did not stop, we would deploy pepper spray."

Activists began watching for a military ship more than a week ago after learning that Stryker vehicles and other Army gear from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, a 4,000-soldier unit stationed at Fort Lewis, was being shipped to Iraq through the port.

Sixteen people were arrested in three days last week, mostly for pedestrian interference, during protests against convoys through the downtown area to the port from the sprawling military post between Olympia and Tacoma.

The vessel arrived in Budd Inlet at the south end of Puget Sound about 7:30 p.m. Monday, accompanied by Coast Guard vessels with large guns to secure the waterway.

Demonstrators mostly said there was little they could do to halt the shipments.

"I think Olympia can be an example," said Sandy Mayes of Olympia. "If multiple communities begin to emulate these kinds of actions, it might gum up the gears a little bit."