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Posted by Amy Jenniges at 12:57 PM
Matt Davis just called in a report from the World Trade Center, on SW Salmon downtown.
Nine anti-war protesters (including one who’s holding a baby) are camped out at the base of the escalator that leads into the building (it’s a weird building—basically, they’re on the outside plaza, barred from entering the building). They’re demanding a meeting with Senator Gordon Smith—or one of his staffers—and they’re refusing to leave until that happens.
It’s likely they’ll be arrested soon, says Matt, because they’re on private property (at the public Federal Building, where another anti-war sit in happened last spring, the activists were arrested when the building closed at the end of the day). There are four cops standing around, in addition to the building’s security guards. The activists are with Civil Resist Portland—the group that organized a similar sit in last spring at Senator Wyden’s office—and four are freshmen from Lewis and Clark, affiliated with the group Students for a Democratic Society. “There are about 300 actions like this starting today around the country,” says Kelly Campbell with the American Friends Service Committee. She’s on the scene, lending support to the action. Their message? “It’s time to end the war in Iraq. Here in Portland there are nine people ages 18 to 55, who are trying to get a meeting with Senator Smith to get him to sign the declaration of peace,” and co-sponsor a bill that would end the war, Campbell says. “They’ve been prevented from going up to his office,” Campbell adds. “They were prevented by police and security from even getting onto the escalator.” Samantha Downs, one of the Lewis and Clark freshmen, says the activists gathered at 9 am—she doesn’t recall when they tried to enter the building.
“But we are now sitting in front of the world trade stairs leading up to Senator Smith’s office, and we are waiting for him to possibly send a representative down to speak with us. And until he does that we are going to continue sitting here,” Downs says. She’s not sure how long they’ll be allowed to block the escalator before the police move in to arrest them. “They really aren’t answering any of our questions right now. We’re pretty much just going to stay here until something does happen or until the place closes.”
Matt checked in with the cops to see when the cops might make a move: “Hopefully it won’t take that long because I’m hungry,” Police Officer Mark Friedman told Matt.
Stay tuned…