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Monday, May 07, 2007

Aberdeen--In the Spirit of the Wobblies

"Many out-of-town protesters, however, claimed they were harassed and intimated by officers throughout the weekend. They said they were constantly watched, and accused officers of making illegal traffic stops.

“It’s a gross violation of our civil liberties to be harassed, followed and photographed,” Esworthy said. Officers have been “unprofessional and rude. We have every right to be here as citizens of the United States.”

Before the parade started, Esworthy told the crowd that officers continued to cruise by a restaurant where nine protesters had gathered to eat. One person picked up a toy gun that he found lying on the ground and seven cars raced up the alley to confront him, she said.

They were also prevented from speaking at an event at the Polish Club after officers talked to the event organizer, she said.

Cars of protesters leaving the Port on Sunday were also followed until they left town.

Capt. Johnson acknowledged that officers “shadowed” the out-of-town protesters. Officers were informed that one tactic some protesters have been known to use is to create a disturbance in a residential area — starting a fire, for example — to draw police and fire resources away from the protest line.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure of your comparison to the wobblies other then a general dislike of bosses' wars. The wobblies struggle in Aberdeen, in their heyday, were indigenous to the community--they worked there. And the pressure against the constabulary in response to their anti-union anti-free speech activity was economic pressure--boycotts and strikes (even different then the tactics used in Spokane and Everett).

LJansen said...

Hi, Anon. I guess in the loosest way, the "indigenous" Democrats and Greens and other citizens from Aberdeen were looking for free speech at all the events of the weekend.

There was a lot of police intimidation but in the end, the point was made in the gentlest of ways that they and we had a right to be in the streets to proclaim our displeasure with the Port of Aberdeen being used as a staging area for the illegal war in Iraq.