OWS attempted shutdown of Long beach port - observations

Report on Long beach Port attempted shutdown by OWS. I drove down to the protest start location at Harry Bridges Park. I had no problem getting there. Access to harbor area was very easy coming down Pico ave and transferring to Harbor Scenic Drive. Inbound truck traffic seemed very light Time 7:30 AM

It was raining steady in Long Beach as i entered the area of protest. Encountered a small group of hard-core OWS protestors numbering no more than 100-200, clustered at corner of harbor plaza drive and harbor scenic drive. The anarchist element was there and some of them were just starting to leave the area to march down S. harbor scenic drive toward SS Marine terminal at south end of Pier J. There were 20-30 PD cars and motorcycle cops at that intersection keeping the OWS crowd within bounds.
It was not an overly big crowd of OWS there- the rain and dismal cold day and early morning 5 am monday meet time likely kept the crowd small. Tiime now 8:00 am

I left area to attempt to find parking nearby so i could watch protest on foot or by bike but everywhere in dwtn LB/harbor area there is no free available parking. In Entire dwtn LB area you have to pay for parking and I do not like paying for parking. If the weather was dry and sunny i would have parked several miles away, out of the DWTN LB restrictive parking zone and rode my bike to the OWS protests but it was raining and i don't ride my bike well in rain.

After looking for parking and driving a bit i returned at spot of protest to observe from my vehicle. It appeared that port traffic outbound was a bit clogged and tied up by protestors and by PD roadblocks and traffic diversions. I was held up about 10 minites by one traffic seizure which was right at Queen Mary parking entrance and exit. The halt was only 10 minites however and the outbound port truck traffic again moved. There was a 2 mile-long backup of inbound big-rigs coming off the 710 freeway and backed up along S harbor scenic drive but that is nothing unusual on a Monday morning for LOng Beach Port inbound truck traffic. From my observation the 710 long beach freeway truck traffic volume was unusualy light for a Monday starting work week.

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Report summation- the small band of protestors numbered no more than 400 tops and there were 50-60 cop cars and 50+ motorcycle cops in my immdediate viewable vicinity. At least 200 and likely far more Long beach police personnel plus other Fed/State/local law enforcement agencies enveloped & smothered the port protestors. I even saw 2 unmarked but ominous black vehiciles( Feds. DHS?) observing/ photographing the protestors from a nearby bridge.
As the entire LB port protest group was happening at the huge Pier J shipping terminal and entire LB/LA ports have 12 terminals this protest will not shut down entire port, not even close. They may delay or perhaps block truckers entering/ exiting Pier J terminal but that will be at most a several hr delay for truckers. As the ILWU union is not a participant there is no way to shut down entire port operations by a tiny band of 300-400 protestors. They could attempt as a last ditch drastic move to lay down and block incoming trucks at several vital trucker ingress roads but that is a federal violation of impeding interstate commerce and subject to immediate arrest and removal of protestors on the spot. I do not see that as happening today.

Update: at 1:00 pm i went back to Port of Long Beach Harbor's huge shipping terminal at Pier J to check on progress of OWS port protests. I did not see any sign of the protestors anywhere, even at the original Harry Bridges Park start point. The entire Huge Pier J complex seemed rather empty of trucks or activity except at the Pier J south entrance, where there was a two-block long line of trucks waiting to enter south pier entrance at end of South Harbor Scenic Drive. Police presence was fairly light as well but there were a few squad cars posted at strategic intersections along vital port roads. I apparently had missed the real action early in the morning, in which a small band of 200 or so protestors had marched to Pier J South entrance to block the entrance. Some arrests had taken place and the PD had rounded up the protestors and moved them back to an impound location near the park. All this had taken place between 5 and 7 AM before i got to the scene at 8 am. I looked at LA Times pictures of port protest and they make out the crowd to be bigger than it actually was, due to up-close picture crowding, but the active picketing crowd was never larger than 200 or so any any time. By 1 pm the entire Pier J port complex was cleared and port was operating normally.