Protesters Confront Quayle on Trip to Portland; 21 Arrested

Vice President Dan Quayle met what his press secretary said was the largest demonstration in his term as vice president during a five-hour visit to Portland.

Twenty-one people were arrested during a protest Monday evening outside the Hilton Hotel in downtown Portland as Quayle spoke to a Republican Party fund-raiser and a pro-military group.

Several of those arrested were later injured in a traffic accident as they were being taken to jail.

“There were about 200 protesters out there. I would say out of respect for the office of vice president there should have been 500,” Quayle quipped at the fund-raiser.

The protesters against U.S. military aid to Central America, chanted slogans and attempted to cross police lines toward the hotel.

Police used night sticks to quell the demonstration after protesters stormed the hotel’s doors chanting, “Bush, Quayle, we know you; Hitler was elected, too.”

The protest began as a “die-in,” with 11 demonstrators wearing red-stained clothes lying on the sidewalk in front of the hotel. When police asked them to move, the protesters tried to push their way through the glass doors.

“It was hats and bats and shoving and pushing,” an unidentified Portland police officer said.

The 21 arrested protesters, including two juveniles, were loaded into buses and taken to police headquarters shortly after Quayle left the hotel.

Quayle’s press secretary, David Beckwith, said it was the only demonstration that had disrupted the vice president’s schedule. Quayle left the hotel, en route to San Francisco, at 8 p.m., about 30 minutes late.

At about 11 p.m., a van carrying 10 of the protesters collided with a pickup truck in an east Portland intersection. Several people were taken from the scene in ambulances, but there was no immediate word on the nature or extent of their injuries.

Quayle’s schedule today began with a San Francisco breakfast talk. He was to speak before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council in early afternoon and finish his day in San Diego with a visit to the Miramar Naval Air Station and a speech to the Big Brothers of America.