"brutally beaten"... "12-hour journey of incarcerated misery"... "

The preacher's hyperbole disrespects the millions of people around the world who endure real brutality and real misery. They can't avoid their circumstances by, simply, stepping out of the roadway.

Swear a complaint, John.

@BlueLight, I'll admit John's language is a bit over the top, but so is yours. It's hardly disrespectful for a man of peace to describe what sounds like a harrowing experience as he experienced it. I hope he does "swear a complaint."

The people throwing flares, rebar, etc deserve to be arrested. So do police who overreact to peaceful protest.

BlueLight: I'm guessing you've never had the crap knocked out of you by a cop, or been under arrest and detention. It hurts and it isn't fun -- anywhere or any time. As a man of the cloth, and whose bio I took the time to find on the web, I'm sure that John Helmiere has infinitely more respect, love and compassion for "those millions of people around the world who endure real brutality and real misery," than you have ever demonstrated in your crosscut posts. He sounds like he's trying to make some change in this life. That deserves some respect, especially from a self-designated "concerned citizen" like you. Why don't you give him a call at his church and arrange a meeting with him, instead of "disrespecting" him. You might be surpised at what you learn.

It is hard to tell his activism from his narcissism. Ditto those with whom he associates.

Characterizing truck drivers as "the most underpaid and overexploited laborers in the city" is an insult to truly exploited, miserable, people around the world. Casting himself as their savior shows an arrogance that, hopefully, his God condemns.

I have no use for his church Swifty. You go. Be generous with your tithing (for it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, no?).

BL: look in the mirror, and there you will find the narcissism. Merry Christmas.

I wonder how the Reverend would react if people started protesting his "church" and blocking his "flock" from attending services and making contributions? The Reverend is nothing but a "Flock-Blocker" for people at the Port.

Cameron. I'm sure the Reverend would react by allowing people to protest in front of his church for as long as they felt like it. Part of living in a country like the United States is allowing people to protest and express their concerns in the public space. Your post seems to imply that he would send in the police to beat down the protesters as the Seattle Police did at the Port protest. Ridiculous.

It's so sad that people like you and BlueLight seem to favor whatever treatment and abuse that the government feels like doling out. Since you're obviously perfectly ok with the police force beating a citizen protesting in public, how about tazoring? Rubber bullets? How about real bullets? Do you have any standards for restraint by the government when citizens protest?

When you are blocking the public right of way and preventing legal commercial activity, you are in violation of the law. When you are asked politely by law enforcement to cease your illegal activity and you fail to comply, you can expect to be arrested. If you attempt to build barricades to block traffic in a public street and hurl projectiles at law enforcement, you can expect law enforcement to do their job and restore order. The citizens have the right to civil disobediance, the key word here being civil. If you would not like the behavior visted upon you, don't do it to other people, even government employees tasked with maintaining order.

The problem with lodging a formal complaint to the grandiose bureaucratic void known as the Office of Professional Accountability is that it's a waste of time. As we all know, the SPD is accountable to no one.

Note to the peanut gallery: the question is not whether one likes the good reverend or his politics but whether it is acceptable for public employees to assault him for expressing his Constitutionally protected views.

Cameron. You didn't answer my question.

I remember a comedian once said he had a solution for the population problem... death penalty for speeding tickets. He obviously was kidding.

Let's say the Reverand was pulled over for speeding and the government police pulled him out of his car and abused him in the same way. After all, he's breaking the law.

It's a matter of reasonable force.

Escalating violence by the police just encourages violence by the protestors. This seems to be another case of amateur hour at the Seattle Police. In New York, the cops understand that abusing people is a really bad idea because the protests typically number in the 5000-20,000 range. The cops know they are horribly outnumbered.

I just checked with Port Commissioner John Creighton if he
knew what went down, but he doesn't, and was glad that it wasn't the Port's
own Police that were involved. From the Reverend's account it would appear
that no traffic was being blocked, and that he himself tried best he could
to keep matters peaceful. Perhaps we will know why the Seattle Police
intervened, it appears, without provocation. Did someone, say SSA Marine/ Carrix Corporation who operate Harbor Island, call them and what did they claim when and if they asked for Police intervention. > http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref=name

Dear peanut gallery, one and all:

The long, albeit alternative, history of our country amply charts the occasions that grant people the right to "protest and express their concerns in the public space" and the occasions that either seriously water down or violate those rights. The former remains the ideal, the latter the reality. So yes, people expect to be arrested and how it is done remains in considerable dispute.

I appreciate your frank views. Consider this: globalization to ever expand consumerism may be a reach too far—the discussion is also global and no longer limited to consumerism. Before we all perish from the earth, we might even get past the combative stage, although Obama now pressing to sell armed drones does not sound very promising.

here a link to the forthcoming Occupy Control robot:
http://animalnewyork.com/2011/12/the-occubot/

and to Greg Mitchell's Occupy blog, which has a lot of
instances of over-the-top cop reaction, getting to look
like the way the intial 'Nam protests were greeted.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/greg-mitchell

Ok, have it your way. The next time a group of these "protesters" decide to shut down operations at a port, the Union members will not be compensated as they were in this instance. No police should respond, I am certain that the good reverand can use his magnetic personality and the just nature of his cause to convince those Longshoreman and Teamsters to give up their pay checks and join him in the struggel against global capitalism. If he doesn't convince them, I am sure he will be back complaining about how he was treated.

Someone in this thread makes the argument that the reverend was simply exercising his
first amendment rights. He was, probably, but he was also preventing wage earners from using public rights-of-way as they are intended to be used (and allying himself with people who throw things at the police). We're all sorry he got hurt but he made a bad bet and lost. Whining is not appropriate.

kieth: "Whining is not appropriate." Is it whining to ask not to be beaten? Is there anything that you feel passion against, but is mandated or sanctioned by the law--whether it be law, person, or action? Would you stand up against that thing, whatever it may be that raises your passion, and believe in your cause? If so, I believe you would be upset by taking a beating for exercising your constitutional rights. If not, you have no needs for such rights, and you live a very convenient life. That does not mean that others do not have that need, and you should be grateful that they do exercise them. We'd all be paying more for tea otherwise.

Please remember that we are talking about a man who acted from compassion, demanded peace from *both* sides, and was beaten for doing so. The people that beat him are paid by you *and* me to protect you *and* me.

Kieth. You and Cameron and BL continue to miss the point here. Going through the ceremony of getting arrested is all part of protesting, if you're a committed human being who really cares about a cause, which Reverend Helmiere does.

The question here is a matter of the appropriate use of force.

Your last comment is particular telling, "Whining is not appropriate".

Maybe this is your answer. So if a citizen breaks the law, the government can use whatever force it wants to in the process of making an arrest: kicking, beatings, tazors, rubber bullets, etc. Once you break the law, game ON. You have no rights. Whining is not appropriate.

How long should the public at large be allowed to be barricaded from work by protesters? How long should police wait to intervene? Wait for a court order perhaps? And when those police that we are paying to keep the peace, do move to tear down the barricades, how much abuse should they be required to take? How much pelting by rocks, bottles, fists,kicks and threats? Should fires be allowed to be set? Maybe everyone in support of protesters will be happy when we have a Mardi Gras riot situation at every protest.

If the Reverend has a case, bring it. If there is a video of the incident showing this situation post it. Otherwise he is simply another professional protester, who will wonder the streets looking for something to complain about. Judging from his resume, this is all he does.

When I went to college, it was taught that minorities are incapable of racism. Maybe the same mindset says protesters are incapable of violence.

And, Cameron, complete overhaul of section 501 of the tax code (the non-profit) might address the "professional protesters" we currently pay to divide us.

Here is a link to the video and the story in the TIMES.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017026662_occupy16m.html

When the ILWU protested in July and September, there were hundreds of union members with baseball bats, blocking trains, and doing some vandalism. This was met with a few security guards.

In contrast, when a bunch of pacifists protest, the police respond with overwhelming force.

What does that say?

It says you missed the fact that those "pacifists" were throwing bricks and rebar.

http://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2011/12/12/pier-18-demonstration/
i have tried to load this SPD video several times.... it never
gets beyond the revolving circle that indicate that it is loading.
if there was violence on the demonstrators' part, this is entirely against the original ethos of the "occupy" movement, which is entirely non-violent Ghandi and ML King inspired, and with a deep cooperative ethos, too; that is, it is not populist anarchist!

It is finally loading, although at such a slow rate, here is a statement from SPD, indicating that
this demonstration differed from the other Occupy ones: they clip has out-takes of a few of the objects the SPD says were thrown at them.
Remains to be determined who started the violence, according to the Reverend who says he sought to intercede to have peace prevail,
the SPD start it.

"The Seattle Police Department would like to share some more information about the Monday, December 12th Occupy Seattle demonstration. This purpose of this demonstration was to disrupt traffic to and from Port of Seattle facilities. The demonstration was not permitted and not lawful.

This event was heavily influenced by several bad actors intent on breaking the law and assaulting officers. Many came prepared with flares, paint and other construction debris including bricks and rebar that they obtained by burglarizing an adjacent construction site. This is in stark contrast to other Occupy Seattle demonstrations that were permitted and peaceful.

At approximately 2:40 p.m., the first protesters began arriving at Terminal 18, at the Port of Seattle. Later, a second group arrived and blocked vehicular traffic on S. Spokane St in both directions by standing in the roadway. The protesters then took multiple sections of fencing and dragged it across the roadway leading to the terminal gate. The demonstrators subsequently blocked vehicular traffic leading to the terminal gate and all truck traffic was immobilized by the protesters in the roadway. Numerous dispersal orders were given to the marchers. Many responded by pulling more fencing into the roadway. Many marchers then began throwing flares (which burns at 1400 degrees Fahrenheit), bags of bricks and paint, rebar and other debris at the police officers and police horses monitoring the demonstration. At least five officers were injured after being struck with a bag of paint, flares, rebar and other debris thrown by suspects. Eleven adults were arrested for various violations including Failure to Disperse, Obstructing and Assaulting an Officer. Those subjects were booked into the King County Jail.

Here the link to the Department of Justice view of the SPD
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017034543_dojfindings17m.html
This report mentions use of excessive force, too quick on the
draw, but perhaps it is confined to a set of relatively few
officers?
And here a link to a NY Times story about OCCUPY in Frankfurt am Main
where there is NO police presence and there have been no incidents
whatsoever. If you check the various OCCUPY encampments across the U.S.
you will note that most of the violence was precipitated by Police pro-active engagement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/business/global/at-occupy-frankfurt-calm-anarchy-has-staying-power.html?scp=1&sq;=frankfurt%20occupy&st;=cse

Maybe we should all rent (or stream) the movie Gandhi. Also give a read to what Bill Moyers has to say about Citizens United. Unless ordinary people do some extraordinary things, we are pretty well assured of adding another powerful plutocracy to the history of the world. Only the privileged will have rights. Occupy is trying (in a perhaps clumsy and uncoordinated way) to do the needful thing. And oh by the way, the Brits said all the same things that Bluelight and Cameron are saying. Only in retrospect does history sort out the heroes from the oppressors. Another good read: the first of Ken Follett's trilogy on the Twentieth Century, Fall of Giants.

So let's all agree to let the protesters shut down the Port of Seattle. Can we stop subsidizing to Port with our tax dollars then? If the Port is not going to be allowed to operate to enrich "the establishment" and facilitiate the international transfer of goods why should we continue to fund it? Obviously the Reverend and his friends have thought through the consequences and decided this is the best course of action for all of us. The Port workers, the manufacturers, the farmers, the truckers, the railway workers none of those folks need a paycheck and almost none of them are in the 1%.

So by all means give tribalism a try, What will the protesters be crying about when the police do not come, when the people who are having their paychecks eliminated decide to strike back at the protesters, no rules, just riots, death and destruction.

The only halfway decent account of the Terminal 18 [Harbor Island/SSA Marine] terminal happens to be in THE STRANGER: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/where-do-they-go-now/Content?oid=11075802
indeed there were a few violent acts by a number of protesters who claim that this constitutes STAGE 2 of the Occupy Movement. Maybe it means the end, since these few made this decision by their lonely selves, which in itself constitutes the abolition of the movement whose linchpin is consensus. That the police, then, feel justified to let out their own pent up angers... surprise surprise! The choice of Terminal 18 is proper since SSA Marine is owned 49 % by the VORACIOUS SQUID, Goldman Sachs, who, too big to fail when it had failed, was bailed out by the American Tax Payer [20 billion] and THE SAGE OF OMAHA [5 billion], whom it went right on screwing. Goldman Sachs, which is also hugely responsible for the Greek Debacle,\ - the relatedness of the US and European bust come into fine focus, Globalization of Everything! - is indeed THE perfect symbol to protest. However, violence of any kind is anything but educational of the relatedness of WORLD WIDE Gangster Capitalism; and education of those fundamentals would seem to need to be driven home, as the OCCUPY movement did with its slogan WE ARE THE 99 PER CENT. So THE STRANGER is Seattle's only real news organ???

Patty Murray's husband is an executive at SSA Marine.

and here is an account by one group that belongs to the OCCUPY movement that describes the events, again in THE STRANGER, the Reverend appears to have been caught up in the melee at Terminal 18. I'd want to see a few others to get an idea of what transpired.

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/12/13/occupiers-writing-their-own-news-article-call-yesterdays-port-action-wildly-successful

CAMERON: Re SSA Marine, note whom they support during Port Commissioner elections. Bryant is their current man! However, SSA Marine started off as a kind of mom and pop enterprise after WW II, and then consolidated lots of small operators, until it became the 800 pound Gorilla that it is now. It's local roots and past may still have a restraining impulse on its monopolistic ambitions???

Cameron, your sympathy for the Port truck drivers should lead you to advocate with the Port for them to be paid decent wages so that they don't have to sleep in their trucks because they can't afford housing. Otherwise, your words are hypocritical.

The SPD is out of control, and the Rev. Spiritual Leader is a whiner. There's no reason why both can't be true.

Sarah90, your sympathy for protesters should lead you to advocate for legal protests, not blocked roads and physical violence. Your sympathy for truck drivers should lead you to advocate for free will and freedom of choice as to where they will work and what they are willing to work for. Nobody is forcing independent truckers to work at the Port, I am sure the Unions would love to force everyone who sets foot in the Port to have to be a dues paying Union member.

Apparently, Patty Murray has as little influence with her husband at SSA as she does in the Senate.

Who cares where Patty Murray's husband works? We didn't elect him.

Talk to Mikerol, he brought it up. Most thinking adults stopped caring about Patty Murray years ago, she is a non-issue, a do nothing place holder.