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Overpass protests are booming

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Seven states and growing!!!!

January 27 (Bellingham) - Overpass protesters have now spread to seven states across America with more coming on line weekly. Previously, we reported on actions in Oregon, Florida and Colorado. This week Connecticut, Texas and Indianna sent in reports of overpass actions. In Washington state, over 300 protesters took to the overpasses between the Canadian border and the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Seattle. Support for the protests increased noticably, with more drivers honking, waving, and giving the peace sign. Nationwide, the action continues to build towards President's Day weekend with thousands expected to wave signs and banners on February 15 from 11am to 1pm.

In Connecticut, all sixteen overpasses on RT 91 carried an anti-war message. Traprock Peace Center has a nice web page showing how the action came into being. It's enoughto make a dog laugh, as Divya says at the Laughing Dog Farm.

In Austin, Texas, "banner drops" on overpasses were in their third week. Our correspondent Christyne in the Lone Star capital says "Thanks for the inspiration." We say "Thank you for showing Texas standing tall." Austin IndyMedia covered the freeway festivities.

The Indianapolis-Bloomington corridor in Indianna saw Indy Iraq Action in the fray. Their first batch of fifty signs "went like hotcakes" as Hoosiers covered several overpasses during rush hour. Another 150 signs are on the way to demonstrate on Wednesday over Bush's State of the Onion message. Peaceful Pete of Indy Iraq Action says, "Nine degree temps didn't dissuade some of us from showing the slow moving traffic heading to the Indianapolis burbs what we think." Go Hoosiers!

Breaking News! Indianapolis police uphold First Amendment

Our correspondents from Indy Iraq Action, Peter and Sean write:

As a part of the run-up to the State Of The Union Address our group headed out to the I-70/I-65 connector that runs through Indianapolis. As with previous vigils, we've gotten lucky enough to have a traffic problem up the road to slow the drivers. As before we're dealing with some really cold weather, though the snow held off until later last night...
Unlike two weeks ago, we got a very positive response from about 30%-50% of the cars and even better from the truckers. This may be due to the difference in socioeconomics of the two highways -- before we were in SUV-dominated whiteflighturbia. Nevertheless the crowning moment came when the IPD [Indianapolis Police Department] (see pic 1) came and left in five minutes. After hearing that we have ICLU [Indiana Civil Liberties Union] backing and the o.k. of city atty's and law enforcement higher-ups, they boogied. That was when the cop in car two flashed a peace sign!
More as it develops!

Whatcom turnout surges to 188

Meanwhile, back in the country's Northwest Corner, 188 people covered sixteen out of twenty Whatcom County overpasses. Samish Way screamed ahead with 52 people on the overpass at one point. Part of the surge was due to Western Washington Universitystudents taking time out from their enegetic on-campus organizing to hit the overpasses. Alabama overpass clobbered Sunset 34 to 21, even with the return of the two sign-carrying dogs at Sunset. We'll try to get a picture of the pooches next week. The North Lake Samish overpass jumped up to 19 sign-wavers. H Street in Blaine anchored the northern end of I-5 at the Canadian Border while Hughes Ave., Loomis Trail Rd., Lynden-Birch Bay, Grandview, Portal Way in Ferndale, Axton Rd., Smith, Slater and Bakerview all turned out against war.

Skagit jumps 62%

Skagit County is growing fast with 84 against the war on seven of eleven ovepasses. Bow Hill Road was the bigwinner with eighteen. Alger showed strong with sixteen participants. Cook Road had twelve. Lake McMurray turned out eleven.North 2nd Street and Blackburn Street tied with ten each. Starbird road anchored the southern stretch of sixty solid miles of protest with an enthusiastic turnout of seven.

Snohomish in the cellar, King lags at 36

Moving south, Snohomish County was a black hole - with no overpass activity. In King County, there were three overpasseswith NE 185th heading the pack with a whopping turnout of thirty. NE 130th and NE 50th each weighed in with three. Come on, Seattle!

Ominous developments from people in funny hats

There have been sporadic reports of law enforcement interfering with citizens asserting their First Amendment rights. To date,this has consisted of Washington State Patrol officers responding to an incident of an illegal banner attached to a Mercer Islandoverpass and a trooper in Thorp misinforming some protesters about pedestrian right of ways. There have been no citations and the WSPappears reluctant to issue tickets that could be challenged in court.

Our correspondent at 185th writes:

Unfortunately, we didn't get any photos of the 5-6 police cars that were on the bridge on 185th. There were both WA State patrol and Shoreline police. The two police jurisdictions spent a quite a while discussing with each other how to proceed before telling the 30 of us that we couldn't stand on the bridge because the state patrol was getting complaint calls from drivers saying it was a distraction. (I assume these calls came from the people who were flipping us off, not from the supporters who outnumbered the fingers by at least 10:1)
A Shoreline police officer was overheard saying to a state patrol, "Why the heck did you call us out here?" It looked to me like the Shoreline police at first didn't want to do anything about the protest, but were coerced by the state patrol to do something.
After we carried our signs off the bridge. We got together to call the media (didn't show) and discuss what to do next. Some people wanted to go back with the signs and risk arrest, but we decided without more information, preparation, and media presence the time wasn't right for civil disobedience. We were told specifically that we could not stand on the bridge with our signs. I wanted to cross back and forth on the bridge figuring that it would be very difficult arrest and prosecute pedestrians for merely walking a across abridge carrying a sign. There were 2 people who did this and they weren't arrested. Finally, a woman thinking outside the box said, "Why don't we leave our signs right here and go back on the bridge and stand there just giving the cars the peace sign and waving?" A dozen of us or so did just that, and we received almost as much response from the people in cars as when we had the signs. The police cars actually left while we were there doing this.
We will be back next Saturday from 11:00-12:30.

Celia, our second eyewitness to the embroglio writes:

Some of us were on the 185th street overpass of I-5 from about 11:00 to 12:30. We were waving signs and getting a lot of honks and waves (a few fingers). Anyhow, THREE State Patrol cars and TWO Shoreline police cars pulled up and ordered us off the overpass. Apparently we were "causing a disturbance" Yeah, right! We were definitely peaceful, just standing there waving the signs. The Shoreline Police Officer when asked, could not tell us what law we were breaking. She went to her patrol car to "call it in". I guess she got no response as she still could not tell us what law we were breaking. Anyway, we all had to leave the overpass.

Lt. Bill Gardiner, legal scholar, abolishes the First Amendment

On Monday, Janeen Cook, a member of the SNOW Coalition who was at 185th, contacted the WSP to get their side of the story:

"Last Saturday we were on the I-5 overpass on 185th in Shoreline and we wereasked to get off by the State Patrol. They told us it was illegal to be onthe overpass because we were distracting traffic. In talking to Lt.BillGardiner from the Washington State Patrol on Monday the 27th he told me itwas legal for us to be up there but he said it is illegal to hang anythingfrom the overpass. He has since called me back. They discussed the issueand he said that if the State Patrol decides that the people on the overpassare determined to be a distraction to the traffic below they have the rightto ask them to leave the overpass. He wanted us to know that if an accidenthappens because someone is distracted by the people on the overpass thegroup could be held responsible for damages and lawsuits.

"He cited two codes: RCW 9.66.010 Civil and WAC 468-66-020 .... Lt. Gardiner said people couldcall him with questions."

According to Claire Younker Moe, Legal Program Associate of the Washington ACLU, the lawsLt. Gardiner quotes " arguably apply, although the fit is notperfect for any of them." It remains to be seen if the State Patrol intereference will be argued in court. To date, no citations have been issued.

Check out our handy two-page guide RULES OF THE ROAD: WA Traffic Laws (PDF download). Know your rights and responsibilities!

War Sign Project expands operations

A national web site, The War Sign Project is now coordinating distribution of NO IRAQ WAR signs throughout America with thirty-seven distribution locations now in operation and more coming on line every day. They say " The tide is turning. Across America, hundreds of thousands of signs opposing an Iraq war are sprouting. In yards, newspapers; on cars, clothing, the internet: an entire nation just saying NO to war."

The War Sign Project has distributed over 70,000 signs, stickers and buttons nationwide with 10,000 going out in the last week. Last week they announced plans to start direct shipping of small orders to individuals around the country. Previously 28 distribution centers around the country had signs for pickup and shipping was previously available for orders of 100 signs. Demand for small orders at Boruck Printing in Seattle has been so high that they are now shipping in quantities of 20.