Things went to hell at yesterday's regular port commission meeting. Port commissioners ended the meeting early (before the public comment session) in response to some of the more vocal anti-Arctic drilling protesters in the room. Soon after, police from the Port of Seattle, Tukwila, and Auburn began clearing the room and aggressively pushing people out of the building altogether.

If you watch the video, you'll notice that not all of the activists are being super polite. But verbal rudeness is not illegal. They're also embodying a wide swath of very Seattle behavior—some shouting, "Fascist!", others singing about peace, and Zarna Joshi, an activist with a strong British accent, yelling: "You're breaking the law! Are you breaking the law?" But that's not illegal, either. The police seemed to have a hard time taking it all in stride, and I spoke to activists yesterday who said that the police actually shoved some people down the stairs.

I didn't have a good view myself (I was stuck between two lines of police and shuffling forward when the melee broke out), but a port commission candidate named Mark Hennon sent along an iPhone video he took that has a better view of the situation. (Don't worry, it's only sideways at the beginning.) Things get intense at the 0:25 mark, and at the 0:32 mark you can see a police officer shove a 69-year-old activist named Bob Barnes as he's standing at the top of the stairs. The video doesn't show what happened next, but Barnes said that he almost fell and was luckily caught by another protester before he hit the ground.

When I reached out to the port for comment about police actions yesterday, port spokesperson Peter McGraw wrote by e-mail that "our police did their job today clearing out the commission chambers after issuing a lawful order to disperse." We'll update if we hear back anything specific with regards to what's shown in this video.