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Today's Top News
12-Year-Old War Peace Activist (and Her Mother) Arrested for Trespassing at Sen. Tom Harkin's Office
DES MOINES, Iowa — A 12-year-old girl has been arrested for
trespassing after she allegedly refused to leave U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin's
office in Des Moines while protesting the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Frankie Hughes was arrested late Wednesday. Her mother, Renee Espeland,
who was standing outside the Iowa Democrat's office, was ticketed for
contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Police were called
after another woman, Christine Gaunt, allegedly refused to leave
Harkin's office when it closed. Police found Gaunt and Hughes in the
office, and both were arrested.
Sally Frank, a law professor at
Drake University, says she will probably defend the protesters. She
says she thinks police were "trying to put a scare into the peace
movement."
More at the DesMoines Register, here.
- Posted in
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20 Comments so far
Show AllNot much information here. How many times had they been asked to leave? Did staff refuse to meet with them? Was their presence at the office beyond usual business hours?
I have full sympathy for this child and her mother - but we really need more info.
Remember Tinker vs. Des Moines - free speech for students in schools? Seems like momentous things happen in the Hawkeye State - Senator Grassley excluded, of course.
They refused to leave after closing, which seems clear enough. It is direct nonviolent disobiedient action, and until the distant day comes when the police join the cause, getting arrested should be expected.
I was ready to type a piece that called the girl "courageous" but I relized that, if we were a true democracy, there should be nothing courageous about it - the arrest and police record for such a thing should not, and in real democracies doesn't, have any repercussions as far as gettng a job or economic security - not to mention being brutalized by the police themselves.
In the old days, it would have at least led to some local reporters interviewing the girl and her mother about Afghanistan and their convictions, but now, the reporters are simply spokespersons for the police.
"In the old days, it would have at least led to some local reporters interviewing the girl and her mother about Afghanistan and their convictions, but now, the reporters are simply spokespersons for the police."
The 'reporters' know better than to bite the MSM Corporation hand that feeds (and pays) them...
What, no stun guns? They were peace protestors, for godsakes!
It appears our U.S. Corporate Police slipped up on this one.
That's true. I read an article recently about several elderly nuns and elderly Catholic Workers who stepped across a line at a military site in a symbolic protest of the wars. They were roughly thrown to the ground, kicked, handcuffed, hooded, and kept on their faces on the cold ground for several hours. Can't have those twelve-year-olds and little old ladies challenging the military empire now, can we?
This is the chickens coming home to roost. As more of our "heroes" from the imperialist adventures return home and get jobs in police dept's and security firms, we can expect an escalation of brutality and torture here at home.
The Pentagon has created yet another monster.
And, of course, Harkin is not merely a "public servant" but "one of ours", a "good guy".
Uh-huh.
It's just like that Sen. Schumer of NY--having single payer advocate doctors arrested who were protesting outside his office last summer.
Worthless Democrats........good grief....
Chelsea
(self-deleted: timing is everything)
Congratulations to the girl, her mother, and the other woman.
Theirs were not Acts of Civil Disobedience, but Acts of Obedience to a Higher Authority. International law, the Geneva Convention, and also moral law require acts such as this.
I know what it is like to be arrested for an Act of Conscience - one of the best things I have ever done. (I have a Courtroom Speech that has only been used once. Maybe it could be helpful to you. It is under my name and A COURTROOM SPEECH on the Internet.)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1205-01.htm
And I thought I began my activist days young at 13! I tip my hat to the young lady and her mom!
Believe it or not friends, we need more of this across the nation in order to bring attention to these costly, bloody, and unjustified wars!
This is an outrage. I hope the good people of Iowa remember this the next time Harkin is up for reelection.
That said, how many of us are expressing outrage at the arrests of "right wingers" for making phone calls?
We do well to remember
First they came for right wing Republicans (according to many on this board and the man himself any one who criticizes or disagrees with Obama) but I was a liberal Democrat so I did not speak up. (
Then they came for the Christian fundamentalists but I was a UU so I did not speak up....
Then they came for...
And when they came for
me there was no one left to speak up.
Yep. It's just like the mistake women's groups made in urging the use of RICO against clinic protestors. As Tom Paine said it would, it set a precedent and now RICO is being used against progressive communities.
How many Corporate Lobbyists are ever tossed out much less arrested?
Des Moines, Iowa:
You actually have prison cells for 12 year old girls?
You need to update your state motto then;
'OUR LIBERTIES WE PRIZE AND OUR RIGHTS WE WILLL MAINTAIN."
How about:
Our CHILDREN we terrorize, and our rights, they have no name.
At least it rhymes with the old motto.
Harkin is a phony neo-lib asshole.
Indeed.
Chelsea
Has any politician ever been more duplicitous than Senator Tom Harkin?
Having met then-Congressman Harkin in Dubuque in 1981 and followed his political career, I truly marvel at his ability to stand on both sides of an issue, simultaneously! Except when it comes to promoting peace.
Senator Harkin was gung-ho to send our troops into wasteful military misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he voted for history's largest military spending package last year. It tops one trillion dollars, annually, even though the state of Iowa gains so little from it.
Senator Harkin famously promised "the public option" component of health care reform, by Christmas of 2009. Perhaps he should have said Christmas of 2020. Senator Harkin prides himself as a friend of labor but has done nothing for Employee Free Choice Act.
At least with Senator Grassley, you know he's an unthinking obstructionist. Congressman Braley appears to be following Harkin's lead; better to follow 12-year old Frankie Hughes.
Bill in Dubuque
We spent eight years of GWB being cautiously quiet, now we want to make noise about these wars. We didn't need MSM to keep up steady, unrelenting, pressure, but we were so sure that we did. Now that GWB is gone we think we can come out and protest to our hearts content. We can, but I am sorry to tell you, the GWB police state and its mindset are still in place.
These people taser pregnant women and small children. Hyper-active K-6th grader's, who act out in school, are cuffed and frog marched off to jail and its legal. There is a lot of damage control to be done in our own back yards. We have to rewrite the moral code of our local Sheriffs and Police Departments. They're the ones who are likely to hurt us first and the worst. They no longer look at citizens and see someone to protect and serve. They see someone who is a threat. So no surprise here that a 12 y/o went to jail for not leaving the Senator's office when asked.
So...you cannot assemble a peaceful protest at your local politician's office? No wonder why Joe Stack flew that plane into IRS Building in Austin.
Censorship in the works, very foreshadowing
Copy and paste this link, if you want to see this developing outcome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA25ll4gfr4