500 Tea Party Protesters Storm a Government Building, Take Hostages

[Jerome]

500 Tea Party Protesters Storm a Government Building, Take Hostages

Hundreds of Tea Party protesters stormed City Hall in Longview early Thursday, overpowered and held security guards, damaged office furniture, and dumped files out of the Hall’s archives, said Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha.

Six guards were held hostage for a couple of hours after 500 or more Tea Party protesters broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, he said.

Police from several agencies in southwest Washington, the Washington State Patrol and Burlington Northern Santa Fe responded to the violence to secure the scene that followed a demonstration Wednesday.

“We’re not surprised,” Duscha said. “A lot of the protesters were telling us this in only the start.”

[ceptimus]

Honest journalists wouldn't make up headlines and stories just for shock value.

[laughing dog]

Originally Posted by ceptimus

Honest journalists wouldn't make up headlines and stories just for shock value.

And honest posters wouldn't use the made up headlines and stories as true.

[Clutch Munny]

To be fair, a lot of this goes back to the use of Pinkertons, the National Guard, police forces, and mere thugs to shoot, beat, burn out, and intimidate Teabaggers who tried to exercise their right to be ignorant bigoted dimwits.

[Demimonde]

Celebrating the anniversary of 9/11 with the only solemn response possible.

More terrorism.

[chunksmediocrites]

Gosh, Jerome (Jerry) Soetoro! That is a very exciting story! What was the purpose of those Tea Party Members in what they were doing? Is your version of events corroborated by the other versions being reported?
Daily News Online- how it was reported locally in Washington:

Hundreds of longshoremen and their supporters stormed the EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview early Thursday morning, dumping grain from train cars, smashing windows on a guard shack and leaving six security guards feeling trapped and fearing for their safety, the Longview Police Department said.

The protesters, who rushed the $200 million terminal around 4:30 a.m., yanked a security guard from his car and drove the vehicle into a ditch, authorities said. They also cut the brake lines of train cars, according to Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha. Police estimated 400 people were involved.

Initial law enforcement reports suggested the protesters held the security guards hostage. Investigators, however, later learned that the six guards inside feared they would be injured or killed if they stepped into crowd of protesters roaring past a guard shack, Duscha said. He said the guards were unable to leave the area for about two hours.

So not hostages.

WSWS:

Thousands of workers throughout the US Pacific Northwest were involved in Thursday's solidarity actions, which were not called by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). Some of these workers joined the hundreds in Longview who stormed the grain terminal run by EGT, allegedly dumping some grain cargo off a train inside the facility.
...>snip<...
EGT is seeking to establish the ability to hire non-ILWU workers on the West Coast docks for the first time in 80 years.

During its earlier negations with the ILWU, EGT had sought contractual conditions that would have forced workers to accept 12-hour shifts with no overtime, along with other concessions. The conflict at EGT is also seen as a test case in a campaign to cut jobs and push through concessions during contract discussions between the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association in 2014.

The federal government, through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), has intervened aggressively on the side of EGT, filing a court case backing the company and seeking to criminalize any organized opposition to its business operations.

The conflict between EGT and the longshoremen has been building over the past several months, as EGT prepares to open the $200 million terminal in the spring. In January, EGT filed a lawsuit before US District Court Judge Robert Leighton against the Port of Longview. The company is insisting that it is not bound by contractual provisions restricting employment at the dock to workers in the ILWU.

Hey also, is the government the same as a business entity, or would that be a false equivalency, when offering a comparison? Is a wildcat strike by labor the same as a racist, political, anti-government faction storming a government building?

Let me make sure I understand: taxes on the working class bad, but attempts by business to further drive down and undermine the wages and benefits of the working class good, and organized labor- what little there is left in this country- bad.

Oh, and the Tea Party are victims of the mean and vile liberal media.

In Opposite World where your brain resides, things must be very clear, and you mustn't be a slimy piece of shit.

[Jerome]

These poor downtrodden workers making only $136,000 per year.

Longshoremen are among the best-paid blue collar workers in the country, partly because of union-negotiated contracts. Longshoremen with 10 years’ of experience earn roughly $30 per hour, according to payscale.com, a website that tracks typical salaries across various U.S. careers.

Wages for East Coat longshoremen are moderate because of competition among ports. But nearly all West Coast dock-workers are part of the ILWU, which uses its monopoly to boost wages for its members.

In 2007, average annual full-time wages for 15,000 workers at 29 West Coast ports topped $136,000, according to the Pacific Maritime Association, which negotiates and administers contracts between ports and the ILWU. Longshoremen earned an average of more than $125,000, clerks more than $145,000 and foremen more than $200,000.

Workers also get benefits packages worth $50,000 per year, according to the association’s 2007 report.

Longshoreman | union | rant | The Daily Caller

[Kyuss Apollo]

This is so fucking stupid it doesn't justify a response. One look at the source and who's posting it says it all.

[Nullifidian]

Originally Posted by JEROME DA GNOME

These poor downtrodden workers making only $136,000 per year.

I thought that trying to incite anger over others' annual salary was class warfare. I guess that term doesn't apply to the warfare of the wealthy against the working class.

One learns something new every day.

[Jerome]

Originally Posted by Nullifidian

I thought that trying to incite anger over others' annual salary was class warfare. I guess that term doesn't apply to the warfare of the wealthy against the working class.

I think you are confused, these workers are taking hostages and destroying property because $136,000 a year is not enough for them.

They are the people preforming violence.

[Ari]

Damn, how did they fit that many HoverRounds into one building?

After damaging property I assume the tea partier's took responsibility for it and paid up instead of making the tax payers pay for their socialized cleaning services.

[LadyShea]

These poor downtrodden workers making only $136,000 per year.

As per signed contracts. Do you disagree that parties can enter into contract agreements?

[D. Scarlatti]

Originally Posted by Kyuss Apollo

This is so fucking stupid it doesn't justify a response. One look at the source and who's posting it says it all.

Only Jerome Soetero could render ad hominem non-fallacious. Quite an accomplishment, really.

[Jerome]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

As per signed contracts. Do you disagree that parties can enter into contract agreements?

No, of course not. I do have a problem with kidnapping and destruction of property as a negotiation tool.

[LadyShea]

As do I, but I fail to see how your sarcastic post regarding their relatively high pay is pertinent to condemning their methods.

[Jerome]

That was in response to Chunks and his apparent blind allegiance to the 'worker'. Sorry for the confusion, I am aware that at times I can be unclear.

[Nullifidian]

Originally Posted by JEROME DA GNOME

That was in response to Chunks and his apparent blind allegiance to the 'worker'.

"Blind allegiance" in this case being the fact that he inconveniently rebutted your claim (which you continue to make even though shown to false) that the union members held people "hostage".

Besides, given that the self-styled representative of the bosses here is you, it's hard not to find oneself on the side of the workers.

[Sauron]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

As do I, but I fail to see how your sarcastic post regarding their relatively high pay is pertinent to condemning their methods.

High pay is only relevant when it applies to workers.

When it applies to CEOs, bankers, Wall Street investors, and so-called 'self made millionaires', then payscale is none of your business and has nothing to do with the question that Jerome wants to distract everyone with.

Silly woman. Go back to the kitchen.

[Qingdai]

You know why the ILWU is such an effective union that's been able to get and keep a living wage through contract negotiations? Each local is really run by the workers who are in the local. It's almost like the free market or something.

Honestly, I wrote my B.A. thesis on a local of the the ILWU, and I say fuck Longview.

[Vivisectus]

Actually, a longshoreman makes anything from 25K a year to about 120-130, but that last figure is the absolute top bracket. What the article says was that there are 15 thousand ones in the top bracket but fails to say how many people are employed in total? This does not look accurate or complete.

I am an employer myself, and I can certainly predict what would happen if I tried to unilaterally change my employees contract into one where they are not obliged to work 12 hour shifts without overtime pay. What would happen if you tried that in your 5 medium sized corporations, jerome? They would down tools at once, and the odd horhead might even go further.

[Qingdai]

Thanks to the tier system, longshoremen earn less every year.

Also since work typically lasts 2-4 days, unless you get a regular gig at something like a grain elevator, you aren't guaranteed regular work. So of course wages have to be reasonably high or good luck getting someone to tie up your ship and unload your cargo. Unless you work in Long Beach California on this coast there is frequently less work than there are workers, but small ports still need dock workers. So you better make it worth their while to look for your ship coming in with goods, or you're just going to sit in dock.

Oh and all that expensive difficult to drive machinery isn't going to drive it's self.