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Peace Grannies Arrested in Times Square Wednesday, March 18th
Relax, everyone! The New York City police are really on the job these days. With rapists, murderers, bank robbers and dope peddlers, not to mention corporate thieves, rampant throughout the City, they made a significant dent in the crime statistics yesterday, March 18, when they arrested seven grandmothers aged 67 to 90 in Times Square.
The grannies, all members of the Granny Peace Brigade, were sent to jail while protesting at the Times Square recruiting station. Their arrest occurred during what is believed to be the first antiwar protest of the Obama Administration, in an attempt to urge the President to reconsider his decision to retain 50,000 troops in Iraq after the official withdrawal scheduled to be completed in the next 18 months and his order for 17,000 more troops sent to Afghanistan. The women feel strongly that these measures will only result in increased death and destruction for Americans, Iraqis and Afghanis and further solidify anti-American feeling throughout the world.
Said 94-year-old Brigadier Marie Runyon, "Peace can only be achieved through diplomacy and humanitarian aid." The Granny Peace Brigade women are mostly strong supporters of Barack Obama but were responding to his request that his constituency pressure him to do the right thing when they feel he is on the wrong path.
The Brigade is not new to demonstrating at the Times Square recruiting station -- eighteen of the grannies were arrested and jailed on Oct. 17, 2005, when they attempted to enlist in the military to replace America's grandchildren in harm's way in Iraq. After a six-day trial in criminal court, they were acquitted.
The seven grannies were arrested at approximately 1:45 p.m. and taken to the Midtown South police precinct. They were not all released until early the next morning, a total of approximately 12 hours. Some of them became shaky and weak after many hours of not eating, but were given no food for another hour and a half.
Prior to the arrest, about 50 grannies and their supporters gathered on Military Island at which a press conference was held including speeches by mayoral candidate Rev. Billy, legendary Broadway actress and activist Vinie Burrows (one of the original 18 granny jailbirds), and a young member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Matthis Chiroux. A sister group, the Raging Grannies, performed some of their original anti-war songs.
During the press conference, grandmothers wrapped yellow police crime scene tape around the ramp near the recruiting center, after which a group, some in wheelchairs and hanging on to walkers, assembled on the ramp leading to the center.
The team of Norman Siegel and Earl Ward, who successfully defended the grannies in 2005, will represent them in their current case, for which the grandmothers are profoundly grateful. Siegel, currently a candidate for New York City Public Advocate, is a favorite of the ladies for his continuous support of them.
Joan Wile is the author of "Grandmothers Against the War: Getting off Our Fannies and Standing up for Peace"
(photos by Eva-Lee
Baird and Masahiro Hosoda)
35 Comments so far
Show AllGood job NYPD. Those grandmothers were a real threat to New Yorkers. Now if you could grow enough balls to arrest the real criminals that have ruined this country instead of destroying the lives of patriotic citizens expressing their grievances with the government, you might not be so reviled.
You can start on Wall St. Lots of dangerous economic terrorists there.
I would not be a NYP for all the money in the world. These guys should really think about getting a real job. Same for the pigs (opps, that dates me) in the rest of the country.
The only good news is that our grandmothers for peace weren't shot fifty times by the NYPD for protesting. Our police are nothing more than goon squads for the royalty and elite that have taken over the nation and have proven to be as corrupt as the criminals they are sworn to protect and defend.
Please stop referring to these parasites as "royalty and elite".
Use instead: Lice, traitors, usurpers, criminals.
...scum, liars, greedheads and well off vermon also come to mind!
Still, they have most of the money and all of the power. They hold balls and fly in private jets and get to vacation on their own islands. Most in our benighted land are greedhead wannabees.
"Most in our benighted land are greedhead wannabees"
You have nailed one of the biggest problems in America. Why do the wage-slave Joe Plumbers identify with their corporate masters? Why do they vote to enrich the rich? I totally don't get it.
They vote to enrich the rich because the Republicans are good at giving out red herrings like abortion and gay rights. Also, they believe that around the next corner it's their turn to make a million dollars. I live among poor conservatives and I read their mail. It's all about how the UN is taking over the country, how gays are destroying marriage and morals, and how countless unborn lives (that includes week old fetuses) are being murdered. These letters always ask for donations, and my poor relatives always give generously. And my poor relatives always vote, every election.
Of course it was necessary to handcuff them because, you know, a ninety-four year old woman can be quite dangerous when she is unjustly arrested.
Actually, you are right! These women, and I know some of them, are pistols.
Joe
Wasn't that what they wanted? To be arrested?
You guy's that argue for these ladies right to disrupt a recruiting office are also arguing for allowing recruiters into our schools. You cannot have it just one way.
"You guys" ...what "you guys?"
And don't you mean that the same people that don't like the way cops mis-treated some older ladies exercising free speech also don't want to allow recruiters in high schools?
Because I do expect both senarios to be just one way...not to happen.
You don't sound like the real Thomas More, Thomas More. Yes, blame the grannies because they don't want to see any more young people killed or wounded in this miserable excuse for a war.
Six years of what? Destroying a country, displacing its people, leaving a population of widows and orphans, taking innocent men off the street on some trumped up charge and sending them to Gitmo, wrecking their oil production, obliterating their ancient artifacts, and having their best and brightest gone from the medical help they need?
For What?
True. In this case these two women wanted to be arrested. (I almost used the word ladies until I remembered how you got grief for that!) The only latitude the individual police officers had was whether to behave in a decent way, for example to pull the plastic handcuffs so tight they cut off circulation and cause nerve damage or to leave them comfortable. Those are the little choices that can make a difference between enforcing the law and being a sadist.
As for the recruiters in schools, the Grannies were on a public street, not in a school with a captive audience of minors.
Joe
Huh?
Send them to Gitmo with the rest of the so called terrorists!
Stupid, petty, immoral, disrespectful, thoughtless, power-crazed, state-sponsored, a-hole puppets! Bet it made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Shame! Shame! Shame!
I doubt few of you will make it to that age, but if you do, you will sure as hell not have the courage to do what they did without a blackjack, billy club and pistol on your side. Anyway, you'll all be too busy in Miami counting all the graft you took from the crooks in NYC.
Remember not to just blame the cops. I'm not one to use the old, tired line "they are just doing their job" - everyone has a choice, and just as soldiers have a choice as to whether or not to follow orders, so do these cops. But the fault is not entirely, or even mostly (I would argue), theirs. Blame the DA, the Chief, the Mayor, hell - even blame Obama. They are more at fault.
Sure it would be great to see every cop in Manhattan refuse to arrest a bunch of grandma's... but that's unrealistic. It's far easier to convince a DA or a Mayor not to prosecute them...
"Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow"
Remember that song from the sixties?.."Universal Soldiers"...........This is not a way to put an end to war. Personally, I believe it's the cop or the soldier who is more likely about to come to some kind of moral awakening. We've tried to enlighten the others for ages......forget about the higher echelon....they are are already half way in the gates of hell.
O, I'm not saying you need to awaken them. You can't - they are cognizant of what they are doing. The cops/soldiers are the only ones you can awaken.
But you can pressure and force higher officials - and I was saying they are the ones more responsible in the first place. But yes, feel free to try and awaken as many "soldiers" as you can.
"Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow"
I actually had believed that the people had the right to peaceable protest actions with which they disagreed. As another granny, I wonder why they handcuffed the ladies behind the back knowing full well that most women of a certain age have really achy shoulders. It is cruel and inhuman punishment. I hope President Obama hears about this and releases all the grannies for Peace.
When have the rights of property trumped the rights of people in this country? As of GWB and his criminal disaster of a misadminstration, destroying property is a terrorist act worthy of execution. Just who are we protecting by arresting grandmothers? If the cops had left them alone, they would have held their protest and left and minimal if any press coverage. But the police are just thugs hired by the ruling class to compell obedience and order from ther serfs. Don't obey, get pepper sprayed, tasered, arrested, beat up, choked, clubbed, run over, or whatever other form of 'letting off steam' the cop wants to use on you in that particular instance. No matter what brutality is visited upon you, the law views it as your fault and you had it coming and sadly so do a lot of citizens. I wonder how fast thier tune would change if their daughter got caught up in a situation and ended up in the ER with a concussion and half a dozen missing teeth courtesy of the police? When did the police in this country go from peace officers serving the public good to gangland thugs protecting the boss man from the serfs? It is not the job of the police to brutalize non-violent people. A civilized society would not even question this statement.
I recall Amy Goodman, Medea Benjamin, Alice Walker, Cindy Sheehan and others being arrested outside the Whitehouse, protesting the War on Iraq. Alice Walker said the cop arresting her apologized, saying my wife is going to be really angry with me. Yes, because that is the position of the majority of the people vs. the industrial military legislative complex. To be a policeman takes a certain amount of courage and can be an honorable profession; but far too often they are compelled to carry out the wishes of the aristicratic elite.
And then, there are the times when the cops become the criminals, beating and killing our maybe guilty or maybe not guilty citizens. It is then that they, like the corporate criminals, must face the full power of the law.
I really see this as one of the most horrible things going on in our society. Mostly what it is, is that a lot those people that get their information only from the msm or believe whatever the 'authority' tells them, they do it. That these people sure seem to be those that went into law enforcement because they suffered from lack of attention, authority or commonsense as they grew up and now they demand the respect for whatever reason and if they don't get it, a couple of cracks upside the head with the billy club and a tazer here and there will satisfy there 'authoritarian' persona.
I found it high respectable that after 9/11 the fire department magazines began calling for investigations in that attack because being pretty good experts in fires, explosions and such, they recognize the explosions as they were detonating and when the 3 buildings came down they realize those building were set for demolition and when they saw all of the aftermath and the very peculiar destruction, they realized that some very sophistication ordnance was used to bring those buildings down. I only wish people in the law enforcement would recognize something as stupid as arresting a bunch of octogenarians for expressing their outrage of the craziness of our government is NOT a reason to treat these people as they were treated.
But, the elite don't give a flying rats ass.
thanks sincerious. Cops are good people. Sure they have some bad apples, just like any other profession. People that call cops, "pigs" please never ever call them if you are in need. Call MoveOn or maybe the CPUSA, they will help you.
Man, I bet every cop on the force wanted in on this one, for one, little chance of gun play and two, what a trophy to brag about to your children and grandchildren. Really are setting presidence here. I mean, hell, let's get union carbide to whip up a bunch of zyklon b and start gassing anyone in this country over 70 years of age and with less than $100,000,000.00 in the bank. That's fair isn't it?
Notice the cop inside the van taking a picture of the two ladies and two policemen. I wonder if they all have big grins on their faces that we can't see. Or maybe it is common practice for cops to take pix before hauling people in?
It's certainly reassuring that the "peace officers" of New York's finest are on the job keeping America safe for war criminals, gangsters and swindlers. But don't worry, ladies, I doubt that any jury would convict you of anything, and they need to save that crime scene tape for the White House.
I am so proud of these elders! They are leading the way to the better saner future. Go Grannies!
Illness prevented me for participating in the Grannies "crime scene" extravaganza, much to my regret. I have watched with admiration the actions of these wise elders for years. Everyone who loves this country and treasures its Bill of Rights must feel the same shame and revulsion that I do at the actions of the NYPD. Such cowardice and callousness reflects miserably on the department. Clearly their long incarceration was politically motivated. Let me assure you that it will backfire. Joan, Jenny, and all of the grannies are NOT the right crowd to mess with. If the "boys in blue" had one tenth of their intestinal fortitude, they would have been true to their alleged cause of "Courtesy, Professionalism, & Respect." Instead they disgrace their uniform and bring dishonor upon their department.
Bush is taking away our rights! It is all BU$H'S fault. Wait...Obama is the President now. Isn't dissent patriotic? Looks like the new boss is the same as the old boss. Keep hoping!
In all fairness, if they had been blocking the entrance of planned parenthood and heckling staff would you still object to police intervention? I am 100% anti-war but minority views are protected by broad laws that protect everyone, even if their views are unpopular. For example, a majority of people may want the rights of arabs limited, but because racial discrimination is illegal (no matter what the race) they can't be discriminated against. I fully support the Grannies actions but they did want to be arrested because if they weren't arrested they wouldn't make the news so their statement would be limited to the individual recruited.
Commonsense may tell us that they shouldn't have been handcuffed but that too is a global rule when police make arrests. If it were not the police would be constantly accused of discrimination for handcuffing one person but not another. Business men would claim they weren't a physical threat so they shouldn't be handcuffed etc.
There are lots and lots of cases of police misconduct and criminality but this isn't one of them.
Kudos to the Grannies for their actions but don't blame the police for doing their job.
Bring America Back !!!!....Much thanks to the Grannies for again standing up for our Prog viewpoints on Peace !!!! Driving home once again the fact that for 64 days we have been left down by failed promises of the new President !
***While none of us want to see the Grannies handcuffed, let us not be too
harsh on the NYPD for doing their jobs to maintain public safety at Times Square !
**There is no mal=treatment or jackbooting alleged during the protests,
and the Grannies did make their Peace Points once again for us all !
It is most probable the court will look upon them with understanding, and
all the judicial kindnesses possible.
**Let us also remind ourselves that 25 or 30 NYPD first responders to the
World Trade Center perished on 9/11 with the other innocent victims...they
also were just doing their jobs........WE WILL NEVER FORGET !!!!
Welcome to AmeriKKKa!!!
It's way past time for police to ''stop doing their job'' of protecting the military-industrial-media-agribusiness-financial-medical-privatizing-prison-etc. etc.-corporate-complex. We the People pay their salaries, so that's ''socialized,'' but the protection is privatized about 95% of the time.
(Just consider the further theft of our tax money with the laughably criminal bailout payoffs to the financial corporations' masterminds, on top of the looting of the national treasury to enrich and embolden corporate criminals like halliburton, blackwater, et al., and their ruling class thugs like rove, bush & cheney. Not to mention the minor detail of uncountable lives lost in the perpetual invasions and occupations.)
It's way past time that We the People stop being continually forced to be reactive to all the abuses, assaults & attacks on our lives, health and sanity.
It's way past time for We the People to be proactive about changing how the system is run, at whose expense and for whose profit.
It's high time We the People move out of our comfort zone of doing the same things with the same lack of progress, and find ways to organize ourselves into an effective, proactive, aware, un-co-opted/un-sabotaged Citizen Action movement.
Try the relatively simple, free Community Action Plan to Abolish Corporate Personhood, which links:
a)different groups' common goals,
with: b) the overarching issue of corporate power & control over government, our lives, the planet and space.
Subscribe to: AbolishCorporatePersonhoodAZ-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Meanwhile ~ You Go, awesome Granny Peace Brigade!!!