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Marine Corps veteran and father of three, Laro Nicol worked until March 4 as an air traffic controller at a Phoenix-area municipal airport. For many years, Nicol has been active in peace and human rights organizations, particularly Phoenix Copwatch. The group monitors state violence in a metro are where police are 2.5 times more likely to use deadly force than in L.A. or New York (Arizona Republic study), killing 23 people in 2001 alone. Acting on a tip from (yet another) "confidential informant," agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) raided Nicol's home the afternoon of March 4. Nicol was not home, but told of the raid, he turned himself in to Tempe police a few hours later, and was taken into custody.
At Nicol's arraignment in federal court a few days later, BATF agent Tristan Moreland said they found two homemade explosive devices and a fully automatic gun among a small collection of firearms in the home. The alleged bomb-making materials can be purchased at most Walmarts, Moreland acknowledged, and there was no evidence to indicate Nicol was going to use the weapons to harm anybody or damage any property. His attorney explained that like many former Marines, Nicol has a small firearms collection, and that the "explosives" seized are part of Nicol's hobby: model rocketry. Despite no evidence of ill intent, U.S. District Judge David L. Duncan declared that Nicol, once editor of the Current, a metro Phoenix peace newsletter, is "a danger to the community," and ordered him held without bond until trial, now set for June 1.
Activist friends of Nicol, who since September 11, 2001, have watched Phoenix police horses repeatedly charge peaceful demonstrators on sidewalks and even arrest a legal observer for interfering with police, are suspicious of the charges. Nicol, wrote one, is "one of us," and another told a reporter the outspoken advocate is also "squeaky clean."
For more information, email freelaro@yahoo.com.
Laro and his family are in need of financial support for legal and personal expenses (such as Laro's commissary account). Send donations to Phoenix Copwatch, POB 1543, Phoenix, AZ 85001. Letters of support may be sent to Laro Nicol, #80430008, CADC, POB 6300, Florence, AZ 85232.
