I apologize for the use of strong language, but I dont want to dilute my words. Youve been warned!

Strykers Protest Oly style

So I went to the strykers protest in olympia last night.For those who dont know what strykers are (and here Im assuming all my east coast pals) heres the rundown. Strykers are very lethal machines, kinda like hummers i think, that are being shipped from the port of oly to the war on iraq. So, being opposed to the iraq war, and for that matter war in all forms, i went down there.

When i got down there, a pretty sizeable crowd had gathered, but were in disarray because the cops PEPPER SPRAYED them because they were banging on the gate. Fucking pepper sprayed them. We reorganized and went to the other gate and started shaking it. I dont think this would have happened were the cops not to have used extremely excessive force against the protesters in the first place, but, regardless, the very fact that our port, in our town is being used for such a reprehensible war and the shipping of weapons designed to KILL PEOPLE, we had every right to make our extreme displeasure known.

Anyway, the pepper spraying continued, and let me tell you, if you have never seen this excessive force being used then you might not know what its like. I did not until now. people writhing on the ground, eyes red and watering, screams of intense pain.

Somehow in this melee, I got some residual on my hands and touched my lips. I was probably smoking a cigarette. I should quit, but thats neither here nor there. Pepper spray fucking BURNS. I was in intense pain, but chose not to use up the limited resources of cleaning agent as there were many people in worse pain than I. So, and heres where the story, in my mind, gets so rediculous its actually kind of funny, I went into a restaurant to wash off my lips. During this, some of the water splashed into my eye. With. The. Pepper. Spray. In. It. Ow. I let loose a scream of pain that was actually a prolonged "Fuck!" I had now felt the pain I had seen others writhing in. And it wasnt nice.

Anyway, that pain went away after a while and was replaced with what Im now dealing with- a raging headache and back pain that I think is my body reacting again to the chemical I breathed in. It hurts. Alot.

Basically I wrote this because I dont understand why the police would spray us. And Im not talking aboput the usual "gestapo capitalist pigs protecting their masters" shit I heard being shouted at them. We all know that, theres no need to wallow in it. I just dont get how human beings can do such things to one another over such abstracts as property damage (this was given as the rationalization by the police). It just makes no sense to me that they would cause such pain. It didnt help anything and just made the situation worse.

Thats my rant. Eoin