The protests, which lasted for 11 days, centered on a shipment of Stryker vehicles belonging to the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which were scheduled to ship through the Port of Tacoma to the Iraq War.
Port Militarization Resistance (PMR) is an anti-war organization in the United States focused on trying to stop the Iraq War through disrupting shipments bound for the battlefield.
[3] Beginning 2 March 2007, Stryker vehicles and other equipment from the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, based out of Fort Lewis, was convoyed onto the grounds of the Port of Tacoma, to be loaded onto the Iraq-bound USNS Soderman.
The first major incident of the Port of Tacoma protests occurred the night of 4 March, when three PMR organizers were arrested by police.
[8] The night of Friday, 9 March, not long after the USNS Soderman arrived, the next major incident of this round of port protests occurred.
[8] Protesters report that police then shot rubber bullets at them at point blank range and fired tear gas canisters at them as artillery.
The second wave involved 15 people reading a Citizens' Injunction against the war, climbing over police barricades, and being subsequently soft-arrested.
Except for the "Film Is Not a Crime" incident, the city has said it will not investigate individual allegations of misconduct, citing police union contracts.
One video, "Film Is Not a Crime," was instrumental in inspiring the only internal investigation began by the Tacoma Police Department in regards to the protests.