Part 3: Pepper Spray
\(Read the first 2!)
Everyone came back to the port and gathered on one of the corners to regroup. As we wait for the next convoy, a bus full of riot cops shows up, so we know we need to discuss what we're going to do, or if we're doing anything at all. We start trying to figure it out, thinking we have time since it's only been about 20 minutes since the last convoy and it had been taking them anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour between convoys. however, before we can really plan anything, we see that the riot cops have formed a barricade diagonally across the street, trapping us on our corner. As the convoy passed we walked right up to the cops with a line of women in front, but didn't do anything to try and stop them.
the next convoy we were more ready for. we spread out to more corners instead of just one, but since so many people had gone home and we were all tired, we didn't try a blockade. however, things got a bit confrontational when the riot cops formed their line again. since we were now on a corner where we could potentially get to the strykers, they tried to push us back off of a certain part of the sidewalk. we protested, since we have every right to stand on any part of the sidewalk that we want, and the cops started to shove us around a little bit. luckily it didn't get out of hand.
after this convoy even more people leave for the night. we decide it would look better for us to all leave as a large group than for us to slowly dwindle in numbers. we decide to all march to the police station to meet the person who had gotten arrested, because he was being released soon. (did i mention that? one person got arrested when we were sitting in the street. i'll tell you details later). We all march down there, leaving a few people so that we could maintain a presence, and just sort of hang out for about 20 minutes. All the Lewis & Clark people decide to leave, along with the people whose house we're staying at, so we all go get our stuff from the car and then meet at the corner.
5 of us are at the corner, waiting for everyone else, when we see a convoy coming down the street. it turns out that the road that the police station is on is the one the army is using to get to the highway. we yell for all the people at the car and they come running. one guy from olympia, Shyam, runs out to the median, but the rest of us just stay on the corner. all of a sudden we realize that Shyam is trying to barricade the strykers, but they are travelling too fast down the road and they are slow to stop, and he only barely avoids being hit by running back towards us. the cops are yelling that he's under arrest (there's only about 5 of them that were escorting the convoy), but we yell back at them "no he's not!" over and over. people link arms around him to try and protect him. i was a bit separate from the clump of people, and i realize that a cop has walked right behind me towards the group. right as i turn around, he pulls pepper spray out of his belt and sprays them, making the clump fall apart, and he grabs Shyam and pulls him to the ground. there's still one girl holding on to him, so the cop sprays them again, and then they cuff Shyam and take him away. one of the cops had called for backup, and the van of riot cops shows up along with at least 5 other police cars.
There's chaos for about ten minutes as we help people wash their faces and irrigate their eyes. only obout 5 people got sprayed in the eyes (only one from LC), but at least 5 others got it to the point where they were coughing and had it in their hair or on their hands or lower face. the cops try to get us to leave, but we just swear at them and keep washing up.
The people who got it badly in the face leave to take showers. the rest of us start talking to a guy who had been at the rally and had just come from the group at the police station, and he leads the rest of us on a little walk. we weren't quite sure where we were going or why, but soon our mission is made clear when he starts showing us just how easy it is to shut down a city, and how easy it is to find materials to use to barricade the streets. it's at least 2:30 by now, probably later, making this experience quite surreal. As we're walking down the street, we see another convoy coming; they've changed the route since the pepper spray incident. we know we don't have enough people to try anything, so we just stand and wave peace signs, and most of the soldiers wave or make peace signs back. another convoy passed about 7 minutes later.
we go back to the corner by the police station, and right as we get there, the first guy who was arrested gets released. we talk to him for a bit, and it turns out that he was arrested after a cop shoved him back and then tripped over his own feet. the only way for the cop to avoid embarassment is to arrest him, of course. he was originally going to be charged with assaulting a cop because he "touched the cop's wrist", but that was dropped and all he got charged with was obstruction of traffic.
we go back to the house, and about half an hour later, Shyam shows up. it only took about an hour for him to get processed, which is really quite amazing. he's being charged with obstructing traffic and resisting arrest.
So this is the crazy adventure of my Wednesday night. i got to bed at 4 and got up the next morning in time to drive back and get to class. it was a slightly surreal experience, but it was one of the most amazing nights of my life.