INDIAN ISLAND — Thirty-five war protesters were arrested Saturday afternoon after 22 Jefferson County deputies greeted them at the gates to Naval Magazine Indian Island.
“I thought it was really lovely,” said Liz Rivera Goldstein.
She and her husband Dan were among those arrested — many of them smiling — and taken away in two Jefferson Transit buses to the Jefferson County jail in Port Hadlock.
All were to be charged with disorderly conduct said Jefferson County Undersheriff Tim Perry.
They were to be cited there, and then released Saturday night, he said.
March of 200
More than 200 people marched almost four miles to the entrance of the Naval Magazine, a military ammunition depot and the only such facility of its kind on the West Coast.
Earlier in the day, an estimated 500 attended a Peace and Justice Festival earlier in the day at H.J. Carroll Park in Chimacum.
There, they enjoyed music and looked over the Arlington Northwest exhibit of white memorial markers to American soldiers who have died in Iraq.
Aside from a long line of booths promoting anti-war and nonviolent causes, rap and blues performers sang anti-war songs.
The event drew representatives from anti-war groups across the state, including the Port Townsend and Seattle Raging Grannies and the Clallam County Peace Coalition.
The Jefferson County sheriff’s contingent, which included reserve and animal control deputies, was joined by 10 Washington State Patrol troopers, who stood on state Highway 116.
Some directed traffic past protesters who chanted anti-war slogans and carried signs as they stood across the highway from the Naval Magazine entrance at South Indian Island County Park.
“It was powerful,” said Rob Goldstein, 19, who watched as his mother and father were led away in plastic handcuffs.
“I’m really proud of her,” he said of his mother.