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Cases Dismissed Against 13 Arrested in Tacoma Port Anti-War Protests
The Tacoma Police Department's heavy handed treatment of protestors is repudiated by the judicial branch, on the grounds that the charges leveled against them were not applicable. Why did the Tacoma Police Department fabricate irrelevant arrests and waste taxpayer money arresting citizens who had done nothing wrong?
TACOMA, Washington -- On Wednesday afternoon, a Tacoma judge dismissed thirteen cases stemming from last March's antiwar protests on the grounds that the statute under which defendants were charged was inapplicable. Tacoma Municipal Court Judge Pro Tem Karl D. Haugh's ruling dropped to ten the number of still unresolved cases stemming from March 2007 port militarization resistance (PMR) protests during which police made a total of thirty-seven arrests.
The protests, which continued for ten days, occurred when Fort Lewis moved equipment for the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division through the Port of Tacoma as part of President George W. Bush's unpopular "surge" of U.S. troops to Iraq. As of July 8, fifteen of the 4/2 Brigade's soldiers have been killed in Iraq and 108 have been wounded, according to the News Tribune. The PMR protests were the occasion for an extraordinary militarized police response that astonished observers and on occasion inflicted violence on peaceful protesters. Videos seen by hundreds of thousands on YouTube have given the protests nationwide notoriety. (To view these, search for "Tacoma" and "port" on YouTube.)
Wednesday's ruling affected only those defendants charged with "failure to obey a flagman", a gross misdemeanor. Tacoma Municipal Court Judge Pro Tem Karl D. Haugh ruled that the statute under which the protesters were charged did not apply "to an individual where there is no traffic." The defendants were arrested while walking on sidewalks, or when there was no traffic nearby.
Attorney Lawrence A. Hildes of Bellingham, who represents many of the defendants, pointed out that in its brief the City of Tacoma provided "nothing in case law or statutory interpretation that shows this law applies to anything other than vehicular traffic." "When someone is arrested, it comes with the potentiality of punitive measures that can affect their life for a long time, or for all their life," Judge Haugh replied. "I have the responsibility to make sure the law applies." He then set Aug. 17 as the date for further argument on other dismissal motions. With reference to a request from Hildes for discovery of the identity of seven unnamed members of an "intelligence team" cited in police reports, he gave the City of Tacoma until Jul. 25 to respond.
The defendants whose cases were dismissed were Charles B. Bevis, Leah E. Coakley, Dennis H. Dutton (Tenzing Karma Wangchuk), Patrick A. Edelbacher, Somerset D. Fetter, Elizabeth (Liz) Rivera Goldstein, William (Wes) W. Hamilton, Thomas McCarthy, Phan Nguyen, Gloria (Sasha Crow) J. Norton, Matthew W. Reiss III, Jody L. Tiller, and Karen Weill.
The PMR cases involve issues of national importance. Along with the movement to impeach George W. Bush and/or Dick Cheney and the intense pressure on Congress that led to this week's all-night debate in the U.S. Senate, port militarization resistance constitutes a strand in the rope the American people are braiding in order to rein in a government that has, in the opinion of many, lost respect for essential principles of legality and constitutionality.
While the various Tacoma PMR cases differ in their circumstances, all involve protesters who objected to the use of the publicly-owned Port of Tacoma to ship vehicles, weapons, and other equipment to a military venture that has lost its political legitimacy and that they view as illegal.
Mark Jensen is a member of United for Peace of Pierce County
(WA) and of the faculty of Pacific Lutheran University.