PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Only one person is currently facing charges related to the protest over the Shell icebreaker Fennica trying to leave Portland — and he wasn’t even at the main protest.
Robert Majure faces a criminal trespass charge after he locked himself to a train bridge south of the St. Johns Bridge. He was arrested by Portland police.
It was a rodeo on the river with defiant kayaktivists challenging and – in at least one case – assaulting officers. But PPB Sgt. Pete Simpson said arresting people was not their goal.
“One of the things that we have to consider is what’s our resource availability to make arrests and what’s our goal,” he told KOIN 6 News.
Simpson said the goal of all the law enforcement agencies was not to make arrests, but rather to open the river up to normal traffic.
Because several protesters were removed along the St. Johns Bridge – an ODOT property – it falls to the Oregon State Police to file charges.
The water space was being policed by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s River Patrol. They handled the protesters violating the safety zone around the Fennica, but only arrested the one person who jumped into the water in an effort to flee.
Lt. Harry Smith said 19-year-old Christian Pence refused to leave the Willamette River after being told the waterway was closed Thursday afternoon, and then assaulted a deputy who tried to remove him from the water.
He faces pending charges of resisting arrest, interfering with a police officer and assaulting a public safety officer.
“Working on the water is a resource-manpower-heavy operation and any time that you were to take somebody out of that operation for, say, processing and arrest, that can affect the safety of the entire mission,” Smith told KOIN 6 News.
A number of the protesters detained by the River Patrol are now facing penalties from the US Coast Guard. Thirteen people were given notices of violation – a $500 civil penalty – for entering the safety zone.
There was a lot of coordination between the agencies — police, sheriff, fire and rescue – and since the US Coast Guard was the lead agency it is their decision to bring any further charges that might come from the protest.
