Demonstrators shut down half the terminals at Port of Portland
The Port of Portland shut down two of its four terminals on Monday after police arrested two people and seized weapons in the hours before a demonstration by the Anti-Wall Street movement, The Associated Press reports.
Security concerns were raised when police found the suspects in camouflage clothing with a gun, sword and walkie-talkies. who said they were doing reconnaissance.
Kari Koch, a spokeswoman for Occupy Portland, said the two people taken into custody were not part of the demonstration.
“We do not send out folks with guns,” Koch said.
Police did not identify the two suspects or say what charges they might face.
Limited operations continued throughout the day at the port’s two other terminals.
Operators of Terminal 6, one of the facilities shut down, planned to keep it closed until 8 a.m. today due to concerns about worker safety, said Mark Price, assistant manager of International Container Terminal Services Inc. in Oregon.
The decision to shut down the two terminals was relayed to about 200 workers from the longshoremen’s union, which said it sympathized with the goals of the Occupy movement but disagreed with shutting down operations that would deprive its members of pay.
Port officials erected fences and told workers to stay home, port spokesman Josh Thomas said, and the full economic impact of the move was not yet known.
“We’re talking about tenants, customers, truckers, rail providers, a pretty far-reaching group, and most of these people are not employed by the port,” Thomas said. “To say it’s going to be X amount of dollars right now is impossible.”
A couple of hundred protesters blocked semitrailers from making deliveries at the two major terminals.
Businesses that lease space from the port at two other terminals were conducting limited operations.
About 100 people stood at Terminal 5, with 12 police officers on bicycles between the protesters and the street. Passing trucks occasionally honked their horns, and a few that tried to enter the terminal were let through.
Protesters said the trucks allowed to pass were not serving one of the organizations targeted by the demonstration.
Protesters set their sights on two West Coast companies — port operator SSA Marine and grain exporter EGT.
Gov. John Kitzhaber said almost 5,000 Oregon companies depend on exports and employ thousands of people who are part of the so-called 99 percent that the Occupy Wall Street protests purport to represent.
“In trying to force a public debate — and I cheer the public debate, I think it’s important — I think the movement does some damage to the people that it’s ostensibly trying to” help, Kitzhaber told reporters at a gathering of business and political leaders in Portland.
Security concerns were raised when police found the suspects in camouflage clothing with a gun, sword and walkie-talkies. who said they were doing reconnaissance.
Kari Koch, a spokeswoman for Occupy Portland, said the two people taken into custody were not part of the demonstration.
“We do not send out folks with guns,” Koch said.
Police did not identify the two suspects or say what charges they might face.
Limited operations continued throughout the day at the port’s two other terminals.
Operators of Terminal 6, one of the facilities shut down, planned to keep it closed until 8 a.m. today due to concerns about worker safety, said Mark Price, assistant manager of International Container Terminal Services Inc. in Oregon.
The decision to shut down the two terminals was relayed to about 200 workers from the longshoremen’s union, which said it sympathized with the goals of the Occupy movement but disagreed with shutting down operations that would deprive its members of pay.
Port officials erected fences and told workers to stay home, port spokesman Josh Thomas said, and the full economic impact of the move was not yet known.
“We’re talking about tenants, customers, truckers, rail providers, a pretty far-reaching group, and most of these people are not employed by the port,” Thomas said. “To say it’s going to be X amount of dollars right now is impossible.”
A couple of hundred protesters blocked semitrailers from making deliveries at the two major terminals.
Businesses that lease space from the port at two other terminals were conducting limited operations.
About 100 people stood at Terminal 5, with 12 police officers on bicycles between the protesters and the street. Passing trucks occasionally honked their horns, and a few that tried to enter the terminal were let through.
Protesters said the trucks allowed to pass were not serving one of the organizations targeted by the demonstration.
Protesters set their sights on two West Coast companies — port operator SSA Marine and grain exporter EGT.
Gov. John Kitzhaber said almost 5,000 Oregon companies depend on exports and employ thousands of people who are part of the so-called 99 percent that the Occupy Wall Street protests purport to represent.
“In trying to force a public debate — and I cheer the public debate, I think it’s important — I think the movement does some damage to the people that it’s ostensibly trying to” help, Kitzhaber told reporters at a gathering of business and political leaders in Portland.