February 2014 IN THIS E-BULLETIN: 35 & 62 MONTH PRISON SENTENCES FOR PLOWSHARES NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT ACTION MEMO TO JUDGE: REALLY? HANCOCK DRONE RESISTERS JAILED CALIFORNIA DRONE PROTESTERS CONVICTED OF TRESPASSING JAPANESE ACTIVIST’S TWEET LEADS TO CRIMINAL CHARGE —————- 35 & 62 month prison sentences for Plowshares nuclear disarmament action [On the morning of February 28, […]
Monthly Archive for February, 2014
NOT WAITING TO BE ASKED . . .
TO HELP MIKE, GREG, MEGAN
from the Transform Now Plowshares Support Group
Three peacemakers are in prison.
How can I help?
Where can I send money?
Donations can be made through Nukewatch www.nukewatchinfo.org by scrolling down to the Donate button. After entering a Paypal account or credit card number, proceed to the review page, click a link, and indicate that the donation is for TNP.
OR, mail a check, TNP on the memo line, to: Catholic Worker, PO Box 29179, Washington, DC 20017.
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In a highly political case, a Japanese anti-nuclear activist faces criminal prosecution over a Tweet she sent in July.
Mari Takenouchi is the founder of Save Kids Japan and a free-lance English-bilingual journalist publishing at savekidsjapan.blogspot.jp. She advocates that mothers and children, who are most sensitive to radiation exposure, be supported and relocated outside of the contaminated zones around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power site.
She tweeted a pair of quotes dismissive of radiation concerns – one from the CIA-funded father of Japan’s nuclear industry, Mr. Yasuhiro Nakasone, and the second from Ms. Ryoko Ando, director of the Fukushima ETHOS project — prefacing them with the words, “Common points of the 2 criminals of the century”.
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Here is the prepared statement Megan Rice read to the court on Tuesday, February 18, 2014:
PART I
As I sat observing the facial expressions of participants present in the hearing on January 28th, I sensed a clear sense of a shared mental reaction during the arguments on this restitution evidentiary Table submitted by the Prosecution (identification…) (display my Exhibit I)
I think we felt something of a Master’s compassionate consternation with the hypocrisy at his accusers. (Luke 6:5-11 Mark 4:20-30)
I was stunned that 8 months had elapsed with apparently no prior conversations, out of court, between the opposing sides and the court in this case, and would have imagined it had been resolved by negotiation during those delays, and relegated to where it deserved to be disposed. – unworthy of evidence in any court of law.
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Photo © by John P. Kernodle, at July 2010 Y-12 protest
Memo to Judge: Really??
From CounterPunch by Ralph Hutchison
We’ve heard it from the bench in Oak Ridge city courtrooms and from state judges in Clinton, Tennessee. And on February 18 we heard it from a federal judge—there are two variations. The first: There are plenty of ways for you to protest and deliver your message without breaking the law. The second: If you people would just put this time and energy into working for the change you want in the political system, you might get the change you seek.
Both sentiments are either disingenuous or naïve.
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by Felice and Jack Cohen-Joppa
Nine months after their conviction on charges of sabotage and criminal damage at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, three nuclear abolitionists were sentenced to lengthy prison terms today, February 18, in federal court in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Federal Court Judge Amul Thapar imposed prison terms less than what federal guidelines recommend and prosecutors asked for: 35 months for Sr. Megan Rice (84 years old), and 62 months for Michael Walli (64 years old) and Greg Boertje-Obed (59 years old), followed by 3 years of supervised release. Divided among them, the three Transform Now Plowshares activists must also pay restitution totaling $52,953.
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by Toby Blome
Sentenced to 10 hours of Community Service and a $10 fee;
Judge Claire warns of harsher consequences next time due to “ban & bar” orders served to them at the time of arrest
The “Wheatland 4” were arrested in April last year, while protesting drone warfare at Beale Air Force Base. They were found guilty of trespassing after a day-long trial in a Sacramento Federal Court on Monday, February 3.
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Photo by Carol Baum
All found guilty of disorderly conduct but acquitted of trespassing; Order of Protection extended 2 years; Judge decides to send a message
[UPDATE: On February 25, Elliot Adams (the last defendant of the Hancock 17 drone protest group) was taken right to jail from the courtroom. He was found guilty of disorderly conduct and sentenced to 15 days in jail, a $250 fine and a two year order of protection to stay away from Col Earl A. Evan.]
from the Upstate NY Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars
On Friday, February 7, Town of DeWitt Court Judge David Gideon found twelve of the Hancock Drone War Crimes Resisters guilty of disorderly conduct, but acquitted them of trespassing.They had gone to Hancock Air National Guard Base near Syracuse, NY on October 25, 2012, to bring a Citizens War Crimes Indictment to the base and symbolically block the gates. Their nonviolent action had called for an end to drone warfare.
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