OLYMPIA ? This normally laid-back town is on edge after a week of raucous war protests that have resulted in dozens of arrests, broken windows and police firing pepper-spray projectiles to control restive crowds.


More than 40 people were arrested Tuesday night after anti-war protesters tried to block shipments of military gear at Olympia's port for an Army Stryker Brigade recently returned from Iraq.


Continued protests seem likely.


Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Piek said the Army expects to finish moving equipment from the port in the next day or so.


The protest group watches for military shipments at local ports and monitors military announcements about ships that are arriving. Since the Stryker shipment arrived in Olympia, the group has had members keeping watch at the port. When they see military equipment leaving, they use a phone tree to rally protesters to the port's gates.


"I've been holding my breath all week that no one is seriously injured or killed in all this," Olympia Mayor Mark Foutch said.


As the state's capital, Olympia sees a fair number of organized protests, but they rarely turn violent.


The protesters call themselves the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance. A press release put out by the group said it formed in May 2006. Members have tried to block military shipments in Olympia, Tacoma and even Aberdeen.

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The purpose of the protests is to demilitarize the port, Yankey said. "The message is that we want to completely end the militarization of our port," he said. "We don't want our community to be a conduit and enable the illegal and immoral war in Iraq."

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