"War protesters arrested at Wash. port"

AP:

Police arrested three people early Monday during a protest of Iraq-bound Army vehicles at a Washington state port.

Several dozen people showed up at the Port of Tacoma to protest the shipment of Stryker vehicles and other equipment from Fort Lewis. Caitlin Esworthy, Walter Cuddeford and Jeffery Berryhill were arrested for investigation of assault.

Zoltan Grossman, a geography professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia who was observing the protest, said he didn't know what prompted the arrests.

Esworthy is an Evergreen State student, and Cuddeford is a Navy veteran, he said.

"There were no rocks, no weapons. People were not carrying anything but signs," Grossman said. "We were on public space, on gravel, and there was a white line that police had told us not to cross. I didn't see any of the protesters cross that line."

Last May, hundreds of protesters objected to similar shipments at the Port of Olympia. Police pepper-sprayed some protesters who pulled down a port gate, and about three dozen people were arrested over several days.

Calls to police about Monday's arrest were not immediately returned.

Esworthy, Cuddeford and Berryhill were being held on $10,000 bail each at the Pierce County Jail.

Howie P.S.: If the Congress was doing its job, Caitlin Esworthy, Walter Cuddeford and Jeffery Berryhill wouldn't be in jail this morning.