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10 War Protesters Arrested at Leahy's Office
BURLINGTON, Vermont - Police arrested 10 anti-war demonstrators Tuesday participating in a sit-in at Sen. Patrick Leahy's Burlington office to demand he stop supporting an Iraq troop withdrawal bill they said would extend the Iraq war, not end it."This is an immoral war and an illegal war," said Marmete Hayes, 83, of Burlington as she stood in handcuffs at the entrance to the Courthouse Plaza complex where Leahy's office is located. "It demands strong action on the part of dissenters."
All 10 were arrested after refusing to leave Leahy's office when it closed at 5 p.m. Police handcuffed the 10 and issued them no trespassing citations before releasing them.
Three, including Hayes, could face criminal prosecution because they were also arrested at a March 27 sit-in at the Burlington offices of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., or a March 21 sit-in at the Burlington offices of Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt.
"They were warned," said Chittenden County State's Attorney Thomas Donovan, who has chosen not to prosecute the protesters. "At some point, there has to be a response." Donovan said he would decide today whether to prosecute any of the three.
The late afternoon arrests followed three hours of spirited conversation between about 20 demonstrators and Chuck Ross, Leahy's state director. The Senate is in recess this week. Ross said Leahy was on vacation and not at his Burlington office.
"This is not a withdrawal plan," said James Leas of South Burlington, referring to a Senate-passed bill that sets a March 31, 2008, target for ending combat operations in Iraq. "It's a plan to continue the war. Senator Leahy should withdraw his name supporting this legislation."
Leas and others said the bill was flawed because it contains language that allows troops serving in training and security operations to remain in Iraq indefinitely. They also derided a bill with tougher language introduced Monday by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., as similarly flawed.
Ross reminded the protesters that Leahy, a Democrat, has opposed the war from the start, as have Sanders and Welch.
"The senator is frustrated that we are there and has said so from the get-go," Ross said. "He has heard Vermonters speak out on this since before the war began."
Several of the demonstrators, including one who identified herself as an eighth-grade teacher of Leahy, said they respected him and praised his investigation into the role of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
"Thank You For Going After Gonzales," read one of several signs held by protesters as they talked with Ross. "Now Stop Supporting The Fake Withdrawal." Another sign read "Good Job With Gonzales."
The arrests came as the office closed and after the demonstrators briefly debated whether arrests would take attention away from their message that the Senate legislation, as well a similar measure passed by the House, won't lead to an immediate end to the war.
The 10 who decided not to be arrested left the office but stood outside and pressed their protest signs against the windows of the office building as the other 10 were given no trespass citations and then released.
Besides Hayes, the people arrested were Kate Duesterberg, 52, of Thetford; Jay Vos, 58, of Burlington; Owen Mulligan, 33, of Burlington; Shawn Starfighter, 27, of Burlington; S'ra DeSantis, 31, of Burlington; Nicholas Parrish, 27, of Burlington; Will Allen, 70, of Thetford; Rene Kaczka-Valliere, 27, of Burlington; and Patrick Stanton, 36 of Burlington.
Hayes and Vos were also arrested at the March 28 protest at Sanders' office; Allen was arrested at the Sanders protest and the March 21 protest at Welch's office.
Copyright ©2007 Burlingtonfreepress.com
10 Comments so far
Show AllNot only in Vermont. Here in Saint Paul, MN police arrested 25 protesters at the office of Senator Norm Coleman, who is perhaps one of the biggest supporters of the President's failed policies. Additionally, the protesters stopped traffic on University Ave., the main artery that connects Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Here's the story:
http://www.antiwarcommittee.org/News/pipress040307.html
Bravo to the protesters! If only for a little while in a few places they are saying,"business as usual cannot and must not continue".
May their numbers icrease from scores to thousands and may all of us who will not or cannot join them in solidarity support them.
wouldn't we be better off targeting corporate targets? they're the ones profiting from the war.
either that or aim at legislation that has a prayer of being passed -- like repealing the patriot act, or ending no child left behind, or repealing some free trade agreements. stuff like that is what congress can do at this point. without 100s of thousands in the streets (not federal offices) this war isn't gonna end via congressional fiat.
Meddle - Ya gotta start with Congress cause they make the rules that let corporations get their "war dividend". And it is Congressional representatives that take the bribes and subvert legislation for and from the corporations. Congress is DEFINITLY the right target!
Support these protestors!!! Or become one of them if you can!!!
Praise the protesters ? Yes , by all means but THE PROTESTER , Ehren Watada is off the radar screen . Hey Protesters , as exemplery and zealous your protests are , you are speaking to the wrong crowd . The men and women who stand to gain the most from withdrawl and potentially have the most power to initiate withrawl are those who are or plan to be "fatigued",( pun intended ) the undecided , timid but definitely tippable Watada wannabees.
Reverentially speaking, For God's sake get a list of those men and women who signed Jonathan Hutto's Appeal for Redress , publish in local newspapers those war registers and deserters who don't mind being praised and saturate cyberspace with accolades we normally reserve for Gandhi , Parks , Mendala , King ( Mr. and Mrs. )
If Americans say en masse that Watada did the right thing , then thousands of others may muster a kindred courage and do the right thing.
Praising deserters is the ultimate in " Un-American Activities " and asymetric non-violent confrontation but it may just work when you assess the minimal effects of the alternatives.
Ronald - Great post! Where can we get the list of those that signed the Appeal for Redress"? Has it been presented to Congress yet? Maybe that is the time to start getting it into the newpapers? Thanks again!
Rebel Farmer,
I think you can google Appeal for Redress and they may have a website. If not, check out Veterans for Peace, or Iraq Vets Against the War or even Courage to Resist. All great sites of organizations that are supporting war resisters. We all need to do more. We have to stop the madness!
Notice the ages of the people arrested. There's a vast population of middle-aged people who operate entirely without principle or conviction. They're comfortable in their "I don't know and I don't want to know" complacency, and they need to be shaken to consciousness. Let's draft them and put them in harm's way.
hey, rebel farmer, i agree, basically. i agree that congressional regulation of corporate power would be a great lever to push.
the supportive critique i was offering to these protesters is that opposing the war funding bill is a quixotic quest. the war's gonna keep getting funded in the short-term -- the peace movement is nowhere near developed enough to mandate an immediate withdrawl.
so why not push the progressive congress people to introduce something like a hyper-tax on war dividends. that'd have a chance of being introduced and at least debated, if not actually passed. i'd love to see the look on bush's face when he vetoed something that would take money away from hallibacon's profits and put it into GI care, or college funding.
i definitely support the protesters. they're at **least** doing something, and it's hard to figure out what's most effective these days. for my part i was part of a die-in in SF...not gonna end the war in and of itself but it helps maintain visibility.
i just wanted to put two cents on on the strategy of the left at this moment in time.
I don't look so much at the ages but rather the fact there was only 10 rather then 10 times that number. the Universities must come to the forefront and stimulate the conscience of the students to become social activist.Do they all think that they can just get deplomas and every thing will just be hunkey dorey? Professors used to have a impulse to a hiher level of duty then just teaching a micro job level course work form of study, but looked at the big picture of what kind of world their students would be graduating into.