Occupy protesters disrupt West Coast ports

I did a search for today's occupy activities and got no results. Sometimes the search misses, so sorry if I'm repeating.

Occupy protesters disrupt West Coast ports

Besides a few arrest up and down the West Coast the protests today have so far been largely peaceful. No major issues to report, a few terminals where disrupted and shut down and a few scuffles but other than that, nothing.

The protesters, affiliated with the nationwide "Occupy" movement, set out in the pre-dawn hours in Oakland, California; Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, to shut down ports in an effort to "disrupt the economic machine that benefits the wealthiest individuals and corporations," according to organizers.

Long Beach police arrested two people during the demonstration there, police Chief Jim McDonnell said. Port operations were not significantly impacted beyond some traffic delays, he said.

A spokesman for the port in Portland, Oregon, said the protests had partially shut down the port there. In Oakland, the port said in a statement that operations were continuing "with sporadic disruptions for truckers trying to enter and exit marine terminal gates."

www.cnn.com...

Local news for the Port of Portland:
www.kgw.com...

Portland Port spokesman Josh Thomas said they decided to erect a fence at the two terminals and shut down for the day, citing concerns about personal safety of workers. One of the closed terminals is for grain and potash exports, the other for imports and exports, Thomas said.

Early Monday morning, two men who said they were part of the protest were arrested with a loaded handgun, sword and gas masks at one of the entrances, police said. And in another incident, some Occupy Portland protesters were involved in a crash in a stolen truck on Marine Drive.

The Longshore Union was on the side of OWS until they shut down their ports.. this has apparently made workers very unhappy at being targeted by OWS. Personally, I really don't see the reasoning behind shutting down the ports, I get what they are trying to say but why the ports? They did promise not to actually "blockade" the ports, just protest "around" the ports .. but several members decided to block trucks eventually leading to several terminals shutting down.

That means middle class workers had to be sent home without pay.

Port of San Diego board chairman Scott Peters issued an open letter to the community on Sunday asking that protesters not disrupt work.

"The Port of San Diego is made up of working people with families who serve the public each day by helping to bring in goods that are important to the people of the San Diego region," Peters wrote.

"They are the 99 percent, the gardeners, the maintenance workers, the dock workers, the Harbor Police officers, the office workers, the environmental workers -- all working to improve the quality of life in San Diego Bay and on its surrounding lands," he said. "It is these people who would be hurt by a blockade of our Port."

www.cnn.com...

From online polls I've seen on news sites this morning an overwhelming majority, usually 80-90% do not support blockading the ports. IMO it seems another antic by OWS that will lead to them alienating themselves from the rest of the population.

let me tell you something about that... without imports this country dont sell foreign stuff, without exports we aren't worth ANYTHING.. you take BOTH of those away???? Seriously...I hope pepper spray is a domestic made product!

reply to post by DrNotforhire


That's actually what made me angry about the whole thing.. why the hell are they blockading export terminals? They should have done their homework on which terminals did what. Some are just imports, some both, some exports.. At several ports they blocked the Exports terminals, the one in Portland was for Grains and Potash. So they end up hurting the dock workers an support staff as well as farmers.. I'd totally understand a blockade of a port in Cali that imported goods from China or something, but their actions instead seem irrational.

My point:

"Maritime activities support over 12,000 family wage jobs in the Portland metro area alone," he said. "The Port is also important to the agricultural and small business communities – 88 percent of Oregon exporters are small- and medium-sized businesses."

reply to post by Rockpuck


Thanks for the update thread, Rock.....

Originally posted by DrNotforhire
let me tell you something about that... without imports this country dont sell foreign stuff, without exports we aren't worth ANYTHING.. you take BOTH of those away???? Seriously...I hope pepper spray is a domestic made product!

LOL......Nice........

reply to post by Rockpuck


Glad to see some people starting to stand up for their Constitutional rights and wearing gas masks and bringing weapons to defend themselves. I hope a lot more people start doing it. If they had just let them have their protest where they were having them according to their constitutional rights this would not be happening.

How misdirected can people be? Yep, make a token effort to shut down imports and exports- that's a fantastic initiative to rectify internal problems... why has this not been thought of before!?.

I'd love to see 'occupiers' try and pull this crap at the Melbourne docks...plenty of oldschool dockers still around who wouldn't be too happy...

IMO; Shark Bait

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption


I don't know the story behind the guy with a loaded gun.. in Oregon outside of the major metro areas it's all open carry without a permit. So I can only assume that the guy arrest was not permitted to carry a weapon. All in all bringing weapons to a protest probably isn't a smart idea though. I see stupid people doing stupid things.
(bringing the sword though.... hilarious.. wtf)