Cross Posted at Flickr.com:
Activists gathered at the Port of Tacoma to protest the deployment of the 4th Stryker Brigade (2nd Division) from Ft. Lewis to Iraq.
Participants gathered and held an open and inclusive democratic meeting for nearly an hour in order to discuss and strategize the night's actions.Finally, the demonstrators took action, and the group, by some estimates around 200 individuals, took to the street and marched approximately 1/2 mile to an intersection nearby the USS Soderman - the military vessel which is accepting Stryker vehicles for shipment to Iraq.
I told the police that I believed that their barricade was an obstruction of justice, as the activists gathered were prepared and willing to serve justice and uphold the rule of law by stopping the deployment of the Stryker Brigade via actions based on nonviolent civil resistance.
The federal government has failed us. To whom and where do we turn?
I think it is to us that we turn, to our communities, to our local governments and institutions.
...
I think it is imperative that local institutions, like the Pierce, Thurston and King County Sheriff's departments; and the Tacoma Police Department, not hinder or obstruct the citizens' volition to uphold the rule of law by stopping this shipment.
I believe that to nonviolently occupy the USS Soderman in order to prevent its departure is an appropriate tactic at this time. But the relevant police forces are not allowing this democratic and humanitarian mission to fruition.
robert,
ReplyDeletei cant find an email / way to contact you. so i'm doing it here. i really like some of the photos you took at one of the Lt. Watada rallies, and was hoping to use them for the National Lawyers Guild newsletter. I will give you photo credit of course and mention your flikr site. hopefully this is all good with you. my name is ian and you get email me at nlgno at nlg.org. great photos!
bully for you!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I guess I had a little flavor of the bully.
ReplyDeleteIf I could do it over again, I think that I would have phrased it differently.
Instead of telling the cops that they were obstructing justice...
I would have asked them to ask themselves if they truly believed that they were serving the truth and true Justice.
Indeed, I would have asked them who they were serving and how they were aligned with Justice.
But I still see their actions as an obstruction and a mis-alignment with the values of the community and a miscarriage of Justice.
But, I don't think that a bunch of kids yelling at them is ultimately going to break the chains that are binding them into the service of a false and untrue master.
I think that there will need to be a wide spectrum political/social/legal movement. And another thing that would help would be infiltration. Yes, if those of us with pro-Justice, pro-Peace and Pro-Truth beliefs take up the public protection service, then we can begin to have an effect from the inside out.
Just a possibility to consider.
Basically, the true laws, the high laws, the laws that ought to be protected and enforced - the laws that protect our essential humanity and dignity - were not respected and not enforced by the relevant law enforcement agencies, which were in force at the Port of Tacoma during the week and a half between March 2, 2007 and March 13, 2007.