Posted on 08/23/2002 4:08:58 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
PORTLAND, Oregon - Riot police used pepper spray and struck some demonstrators with batons after ordering hundreds of people to leave a protest near a hotel where President George W. Bush ( news - web sites) attended a fund-raiser.
Protesters hammered on the hoods of police cars as pepper spray wafted through the air. Protesting Bush's foreign policy, they chanted "Drop Bush, Not Bombs."
Bush supporters in formal attire were jostled and taunted by protesters as they arrived for a fund-raiser for the re-election campaign of U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith ( news, bio, voting record). After elbowing through the demonstrators, they were checked by Secret Service agents before they were allowed inside the hotel.
Brian Schmautz, spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau, said protesters threw things at the police.
Protesters at one point pushed down a barricade and a female police officer who was standing behind it, Groepper said. The officer sprained or broke her wrist falling down, and two patrol cars were damaged, Groepper said.
Police ordered about 500 protesters to move. Riot police wearing helmets then walked into the area, pushing activists with their batons. Some activists fell. Police then fired aerosol canisters of pepper spray at the protesters.
Police also used pepper spray after about 150 demonstrators blocked vehicle access to Morrison Bridge.
Five protesters were arrested through the afternoon, police spokesman Henry Groepper said.
Many of the protesters criticized a new forest initiative announced earlier in the day by Bush that would make it easier for timber companies to cut wood from fire-prone national forests.
"The new policy is classic doublespeak," said Kenneth Kreuschu, 24, of Cascadia Forest Alliance. "It has been shown time and again that more cutting leads to more fire. The new policy is a hoax."
Some of the activists were worried about a possible war with Iraq.
"I don't think any American boys' lives are worth a barrel of oil," said Rob Moitoza, 57, who carried a sign that said: "Vets Against Bush."
Moitoza said he served two years in the Navy aboard an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War and fears a much worse conflict if U.S. troops are sent to Iraq.
"If he (Bush) starts a war against Iraq, it will be to get re-elected. All he cares about is wealth and power," Moitoza said.
Before flying to Portland from Medford, Bush was taken to a still-smoldering fire.
About a dozen protesters dotted Bush's motorcade route. Some waved signs saying, "No attack of Iraq. You can't fix Daddy's mistake" and "More forests, less Bush."
The demonstrators along the route were far outnumbered by people waiting at the ends of their driveways who held signs saying "We love you" and "We support you."
Activism works both ways. The Left doesn't have a "lock" on mobilizing their constituents.
Not true. Some of the students killed and injured were hundreds of yards away. The closest was about 85 yards. What is stupid is firing indiscriminately into a crowd of people.
It was probably just couple professional agitators that through the first brick...
For clarification, things were thrown but not bricks.
In my less then humble opinion, throwing bottles, rocks, or bricks is potentially lethal force and should be answered with a bullet.
Firing indiscriminately into a crowd of people is stupid.
Gee, the hippies only peaceably burnt down the ROTC building the day before.
Perhaps they did. However, there is no evidence.
I wish I could find some more 'balanced' accounts of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, for an example -- it was NOT as the popular press would have you believe from what little material I can find. Intelligent folks can read between the lines.
Oh, come on. Lets not sugarcoat any of this. The "anti-war" movement was in reality a "don't draft my sorry a#$" movement, which promptly went away once the draft was rescinded. The country was in complete chaos by 1968, and while I lament the loss of life at Kent, it was in large degree predictable.
I'll stand by my assessment that they need their butts blistered good and often! It'd be a hell of a lot more merciful than what they have coming on Judgement Day when they find out there IS a God and their beloved Mother Nature was as ficticious as Mickey Mouse.
I prefer real bullets be used on you these assholes.
Yeah, they should have shot the instigators, not distant bystanders. "F" in marksmanship.
Heh Heh! Yeah, but after 10+ years of listening to lousy music, I suspect that they are immune to any audio stimulus. :)
How you get from an agressive environmentalist rally to anti-abortion efforts here is the US is puzzling...By all standards (including US Dept. of Justice numbers) the number of radical environmentist crimes in both property and human injuries (inc. death) far exceed anything the anti-abortion crowd has proferred. Especially the past two years....It's one thing to sabotage logging equipment, quite another to support and attempt murder in cold blood....
"It's one thing to sabotage logging equipment, quite another to support and attempt murder in cold blood...."
It's obvious that by that statement you do not have a complete understanding of what spiking a tree does to a logger with a chain saw. I suggest you go visit the rehabilitative ward in a hospital in the NW and talk to some loggers who have experienced it. Or perhaps try the cemetary or talk to their family and friends.....
Besides, abortionists are murderers.
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