Protesters stop military-cargo truck (11/13/07)

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Protesters stop military-cargo truck (11/13/07)

Submitted by Rick on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 2:28pm.

Video by Zoltan Grossman

Rick's blog
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What are you going to do if

Submitted by Ehver Green on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 2:33pm.

What are you going to do if someone gets run over? I'm sure you've planned for it.

What if those logs decided

Submitted by Merwyn Haskett on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 2:38pm.

What if those logs decided to break free at that moment? They're taking a huge risk for no good reason. As much as I admire her legacy (you might disagree) Rachel's death hasn't changed a blessed thing in the four years since.

Please give me a second grace. Please give me a second face. I've fallen far down, the first time around, now I just sit on the ground in your way.
Nick Drake

op ed

Submitted by enpen on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 3:20pm.

They're taking a huge risk for no good reason.

Perhaps the problem here is that you can't accept that it's a good reason to them?

What if what if what if

Submitted by Guglielmo on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 3:03pm.

One concern after another. I imagine the folks involved are considering the risks.

Is that our one Rob W. talking to the driver?

Yes, that's Rob Whitlock

Submitted by jlw on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 3:40pm.

That's Rob, all right.

Peace became pizza. -- Guglielmo

Pretty foolish

Submitted by BLUE on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 3:23pm.

If you ask me.

Everyone needs to believe in something... I believe I will have another beer.

The driver should have put

Submitted by The Fire Inside on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 3:37pm.

The driver should have put his foot on the gas. You only need to make an example out of one for most of the rest to scatter.

Only the brave would step out into the street after that.

Do you really want that to happen?

Submitted by Guglielmo on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 3:52pm.

Or is that just your way to affect the tone of this thread? I have a hard time believing you would honestly like to see someone crushed under the wheels of that semi.

I can't say I'd want it to

Submitted by The Fire Inside on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 4:00pm.

I can't say I'd want it to happen, but if people are going to repeatedly step out into the middle of the road and block moving vehicles, it would be a good life lesson and something I wouldn't lose sleep over.

I'm not making the decision to touch the stove to see how hot it is. I just hope if they're going to touch it that it's hot.

This isn't a game. It's life. And unfortunately, there are times when people have to decide whether their physical well-being is worth giving to "the 'cause."

Right now there's little demand of sacrifice being made, other than time and comfort (I'll never be convinced that pepper spray is real sacrifice.) Everyone knows those trucks are going to stop.

I'd actually have a lot of respect for the people who still went out in the middle of traffic knowing that truck isn't going to stop. Disagree still, but I'd at least respect.

Doesn't make sense

Submitted by Rob Richards on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 4:19pm.

You've completely lost me.
So you're saying that if people were getting run over by the trucks you'd respect them more? You wouldn't just call them idiots?

I think your logic here is rice-paper thin.

I don't think any activists expect credit for bravery from you

Submitted by jlw on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 4:42pm.

The driver of the truck carrying the military vehicles was tailgating the logging truck, and it actually was rather dangerous for people to insert their bodies between these two large vehicles. Still, if you acknowledged it was dangerous, then you'd probably just harp about how stupid the protesters were, wouldn't you? I don't think the protesters will ever get any credit for courage, strategy, or commitment from you, but really, who needs it? The fact is, they stopped military shipments at the Port today, which is quite an achievement.

Peace became pizza. -- Guglielmo

I think paused is a better

Submitted by Ehver Green on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 5:13pm.

I think paused is a better description just as the shipments on Saturday were paused.

Don't stop there

Submitted by Guglielmo on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 5:28pm.

Pause

Slow

Hinder

Interrupt

Disrupt

Suspend

Postpone

Delay

Impede

Hamper

Slow down

Obstruct

Frustrate

Harass

Any one is a tactical success.

Yeah they stopped...

Submitted by Tschida on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 5:31pm.

They stopped a shipment of equipment from being repaired and sent back to our troops who are by the way winning now that the surge is working. But they don't need that equipment right? The protesters don't deserve any credit. They are (minimally) interfering with the mission of our soldiers, they have demonstrated very little grasp for what is actually going on when it comes to Iraq. They have chosen to even interfere with the poor guy driving the truck. (So much for the working man they profess to support). They are breaking the law and still think they are supporting freedom and being patriotic. This is bogus, and everyone can see that for themselves. This is a self serving protest seemingly organized by a band of rabble rousers, and with their shanty trailers they have moved into our town and made Olympia look like... well San Francisco. These people should be shunned, and be rejected for their behavior and their foolishness. C.

One of the great non sequiturs of the left is that, if the free market doesn't work perfectly, then it doesn't work at all-- and the government should step in.

Thomas Sowell

OK

Submitted by Rob Richards on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 5:38pm.

On what hard evidence do you base your statements regarding the surge?

Based on the fact that...

Submitted by Tschida on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 5:48pm.

Thousands and thousands of Iraq's are returning home. The 70% decline of violence in some of the worst parts of the country. Based on stuff like that. Based on what is most likely the news that you don't trouble yourself to read. Perhaps you should open your eyes a little. Even the NYT has had to concede that there are improvements. But I am sure you will fail to acknowledge this widely available information. C.

One of the great non sequiturs of the left is that, if the free market doesn't work perfectly, then it doesn't work at all-- and the government should step in.

Thomas Sowell

This is what I mean by casutic

Submitted by Guglielmo on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 5:52pm.

"Based on what is most likely the news that you don't trouble yourself to read." I can deal with a little sarcasm. But spare me the insults.

You made the statement

Submitted by Rob Richards on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 6:13pm.

Therefore, the burden of proof is on you. Again, prove it. Citing statistics without sources and then insulting me doesn't do anything.

And I get my news from about 10 or so different news sources worldwide, daily. Some mainstream, some independent, some local, a variety. About all I get from the NYT is movie and book reviews.

Glad to see you acknowedge that the protesters

Submitted by Guglielmo on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 5:41pm.

aren't hurting the troops, since that is certainly not their intent. Just as it is not our intent to kill civilians when we drop a bomb on the wrong house, eh? What matters is what we "mean" to do. I am moved be these recent events, as are others. To say it doesn't make a difference ignores the charges on my credit card to several organizations I made donations to today. But you are certainly entitled to your opinion about the Boston Tea Party: "They are breaking the law and still think they are supporting freedom and being patriotic."

Please...

Submitted by Tschida on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 5:52pm.

Don't compare yourself or the groups of unkempt 'protesters'. You are not worth to compare yourself to the likes of the Boston Tea Party or the marches of Martin Luther King. Like I said it is all self serving implacable ignorance. C.

One of the great non sequiturs of the left is that, if the free market doesn't work perfectly, then it doesn't work at all-- and the government should step in.

Thomas Sowell

I don't think the protesters

Submitted by The Fire Inside on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 8:37pm.

I don't think the protesters will ever get any credit for courage, strategy, or commitment from you

Just because I'm not rushing to build a statue doesn't mean I don't respect something. I respect Rachel Corrie for having the guts to stand in front of a bulldozer. I don't agree with the movement she put her courage toward, but I respect her nonetheless.

Is it the brightest idea to get in front of a moving vehicle? No, it isn't. But there are a lot of things that aren't the brightest that are necessary.

I just don't think that the people who are getting in front of the vehicles believe the vehicles are going to keep on moving. They know it's going to stop.

Maybe that's why there's such a outcry against the police department? The police finally reacted in a way they haven't done in Olympia and now everyone is up in arms. Time and again the police department has let everyone dance in the street and do whatever they wanted. For one reason or another (for the better in my opinion), the department finally decided to start pushing back.

All I'm saying is that maybe now the truckers should throw a curveball, too.

That might makes sense except

Submitted by Rob Richards on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 8:43pm.

Most of the people taking part in the direct action portion of the protest(the actual street blocking and so forth), have done this sort of thing before and are no strangers to tear gas, cs gas, rubber bullets, concussion grenades, hickory sticks, etc. The Tacoma Police were particularly friendly. The outcry is most likely coming from folks who are a little less experienced in direct action, the experienced ones know what to expect violence from police.

Bottom line, the video is moving in some way to everyone and

Submitted by Debmonstrative on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 10:02pm.

personally, I don't see how anyone could say the protesters' actions weren't brave. Don't you think every single one of them had at least a heart flutter as they smooshed between those two trucks? It's doubtful that any trucker would intentionally run someone down, but foots slip off brakes all the time.

Sunday, at a time when tensions were getting only minimally tight and the police were edging only slightly forward, I had a heart flutter when I stepped my (clearly) pregnant body into the street toward the police line with my flowers, prepared to turn around immediately if I saw a flash of a weapon. I don't know why I did this, and you might call it stupid, and maybe it was. But I gauged the risk and thought it small. It is worth it to me to be able to tell my twins someday that their mother tried to do something just a little bit brave and a lot conscientious.

Hats off to all these protesters who weigh the risks to themselves and the benefits to people they'll never even meet, and do something. As far as I'm concerned, it's even more important for me to teach my future children to be brave than to be kind, for bravery almost always goes hand in hand with kindness, but the reverse is less often true.

I could just as easily say

Submitted by chaney on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 4:32pm.

...how much I'd like for a protestor to become acquainted with the manufacture of IEDs.

Which I wouldn't.

But hey, only the brave truckers would be moving military cargo after that.

Bravery

Submitted by DrewHendricks on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 4:35pm.

"This isn't a game. It's life. And unfortunately, there are times when people have to decide whether their physical well-being is worth giving to "the 'cause.""

Is that not what you salute the soldiers for doing? Is it more brave to face an opponent with body armor, a high powered rifle, a radio and a team of others similarly equipped, or to face one's opponent in torn bluejeans while holding nothing more substantial than the hand of your friend?

In the Lakota tradition, it was considered bravest to approach one's opponent and touch them, returning to one's own line having shamed the other warrior and proven one's own adherence to the saying: "Hoka Hey!"

I for one would rather live, and serve life by respecting the choices of all. Stepping on the gas would not only remove the choices of the person killed or maimed, it would remove many of my own choices for future actions. It would not serve life to take it from another, and after all that is the point of it why we do this.

I hope, TFI, that one day you actually feel the fire inside you and understand that nothing in life is as important as showing dignity before danger. It is the only force which preserves freedom.

I for one would rather live,

Submitted by Merwyn Haskett on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 4:42pm.

I for one would rather live, and serve life by respecting the choices of all

Thanks for the laugh, a little levity does much to keep us all from hating each other.

Please give me a second grace. Please give me a second face. I've fallen far down, the first time around, now I just sit on the ground in your way.
Nick Drake

the message of the protesters is

Submitted by amnesiac on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 3:51pm.

Take it back to Iraq! Better yet, take it up to Tacoma! Not in our town! Not in our backyard! Who cares what other programs suffer! Who cares if funding for services is lost because of the cost to the city! It's black or white, all or nothing!

So you would consider it a good thing

Submitted by Guglielmo on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 4:01pm.

if instead of the peaceful resolution above, that a bloody body would be sticking out from under the right front wheel of the semi. Sorry, but I smell a bit of misplaced bravado there.

The actions of these people

Submitted by Daisy Ouye on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 5:37pm.

The actions of these people are truly brave. I am humbled by their commitment. Peace and Gratitude

How far are we from the next WTO??

Submitted by security_six on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 5:56pm.

This is what concerns me, that the out of town rabble will wind up starting the next WTO riot in downtown. I for one have no desire to see that. If people keep playing fast and loose with large trucks (and sooner or later those rail cars are going to roll, so start planning to play with trains folks, be fair) something bad will happen, and then the true riots will start. People will be hurt, bystanders will be hurt, citizens trying to just be citizens will get hurt, and I'll be damned if I want to see any of that.

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