photo by Mike Schillingby
by Jane Stoever
Tamara Severns was arrested unexpectedly during an April 6 protest of drone warfare at Whiteman Air Force Base, near Knob Noster, Missouri. A member of the PeaceWorks, Kansas City Board of Directors and a Co-member of the Loretto Community, Tamara was walking toward the Visitors’ Center to use the bathroom. She and other resisters had used those facilities with no problem during about five earlier protests. On April 6, Tamara and several others had arrived at the base entry after authorities had warned the resisters not to step across the white line on the entry road. Unaware that “the rules” had changed, Tamara crossed the line to go toward the Visitors’ Center, was taken into custody with no warning, and was handcuffed, searched, and detained on the base about an hour.
“The officer said, ‘Turn around. You’re being arrested,’ and clamped the metal handcuffs on my wrists,” Tamara said after her release. “They gave me no warning to leave the property.” Her wrists still showed red marks two hours after the handcuffs were removed. A male officer twisted the chain between her handcuffs to direct her where to walk and to hurt her, Tamara said. “I was scared because he was being so rough.”
Tamara received a U.S. District Court Violation Notice for “trespassing on military installation” and expects to be summoned to court. Brian Terrell of Maloy, Iowa, a speaker at the rally, said later he hoped Tamara would not be taken to court because no date or location was listed on the notice. Tamara fears she will receive a court date because the officers told her she would, and it says it on the ticket.
One complicating factor: Officer John Sullivan, who was debriefing the protesters, had gotten inaccurate information from someone else, said Tamara. Sullivan told protest organizer Jeff Stack that another security officer said Tamara had tried to go around the driver’s side of the police car toward the Visitor’s Center after being advised not to. The truth, said Tamara, was that she never left the sidewalk on the right side of the car and no one said anything except “You’re being arrested.”
Former CIA intelligence analyst Ray McGovern, who spoke during the rally, said afterwards, “It’s so obvious Tamara’s civil rights under the First Amendment have been violated. Somebody said to this officer, ‘Make an example of Tamara and brutalize her,’ and he did.”