Olympia 22 Trial Postponed

The WA Free Press previously reported that in late May, 38 Olympia-area antiwar activists were arrested at the Port of Olympia, Washington. The 22 arrested on May 30 have been charged with second degree criminal trespass for their attempt to nonviolently block the loading of military vehicles bound for the Iraq War.

Members of the Olympia 22 have a good time while fighting the war machine. Photo by Pat Tassoni, from the Olympia-based Works In Progress newspaper.

At a October 3 pretrial hearing, Judge Susan Dubuisson of Thurston County District Court accepted the "necessity defense" for the trial, which was then set to begin on November 13. The necessity defense allows defendants to argue that actions were necessary to prevent greater harm. In this case, the greater harm was sending Stryker Brigade vehicles to Iraq.

This was historic, as these were the first defendants in the US to be granted the right to argue necessity in a case involving Iraq War protests.

Just one week before the scheduled trial, Thurston County Deputy Prosecutor Debra Eurich filed a motion to stay (postpone) court proceedings so that she could try to get necessity defense revoked in Superior Court. On November 9, Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee granted the stay.

The trial date may not happen now until February.

Defendants will also attempt to get the District Court judge to dismiss the case on grounds of the Olympia Police Department's destruction of video evidence and the Port of Olympia's selective admission of pro-war demonstrators.

If the Superior Court upholds Judge Dubuisson's necessity defense ruling, it will strengthen the defendants' position, as it allows the jury the opportunity to make the most informed decision.

See www.olympia22.org for facts relating to the case and updates.

Movie about Seattle WTO Protests, Filmed in Canada

The Northwest Labor Press reports that the movie "Battle in Seattle" about the huge 1999 protest of the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle is set to begin filming this November in Vancouver, Canada. As of early November, the Seattle Film Board was unaware of any plans for filming to take place in Seattle, though industry magazines report that some filming will take place there.

Cost savings were probably the main factor in choosing Vancouver as the main filming location, but the irony of that is great, because a major purpose of the protests was to call attention to multinational corporations taking advantage of cheaper international labor for cost savings.