War protesters plead guilty of disturbing the peace

[babylonsister]

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9318

War protesters plead guilty of disturbing the peace

By Norman Miller / Daily News

NATICK, MA - Flanked by supporters inside and outside Natick District Court, the so-called Sherborn Five, pleaded guilty yesterday to charges in connection with a January protest against the war in Iraq.

Lewis Randa, 59, of Sherborn, Sarah Fuhro, 65, of Natick, Carol Coakley, 58, of Millis, Louise Coleman, 62, of Sherborn, and Judith Rich, 69, of Natick, all admitted they broke the law and were guilty of disturbing the peace on Jan. 10. Even so, they say they believe they did the right thing.

Judge Sarah Singer continued the case without a finding for six months, which means the charges will not appear on their records provided the individuals are not charged with another crime in that period.

Singer gave all five time to make a statement about why they held a chain across Rte. 27 on Jan. 10, the same night President George W. Bush announced a new troop surge in Iraq.

"Some actions will remain on the curb, while others will be conducted in the streets," Randa, the head of the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, said, reading from a statement. "Our outrage is our conscientious response to President Bush's deadly foreign policy that has killed and maimed countless thousands and had literally destroyed any semblance of humanity in what was once known as the cradle of civilization."

more...

[noamnety]

1. A short story about traffic cones

(Editor’s note: This is just a short story, and maybe not a particularly good one. The important thing is that this is fiction, and not suggesting anyone actually do these things.)

She just wanted to see what would happen. Some day, she figured, they were going to do something horrible and over the top — drop a nuke on someone, or start mass arrests, or maybe just that the war would become intolerable to enough people that such an action would be supported. Then this could come in handy, this little technique, and if it were replicated all over the country, it would cost the system billions and billions of dollars each day.

For now, she just wanted to test her hypothesis.

The highway department’s facility was near the main post office. There was gravel and cinders and heavy equipment and a couple of large storage sheds; and there were caution signs and traffic cones. It was fenced in with a 12-foot chain-link fence (and double barbed wire outriggers atop). But she’d walked around the facility and discovered that there was no fence on the side facing into the woods. If there hadn’t been, she’d have purchased a bolt-cutter to snip-snip-snip a passageway through the fence itself. A good bolt-cutter will go through chain-link like a warm knife through the butter. If she’d had collaborators, she might have posted them with cell phones both ways up the road for early warning, but she went in this time on chutzpah and toted out the cones through the woods to a place alongside the road almost a quarter mile away; it took her two hours.

Her map reconnaissance had shown that there were five main arteries that led commuters into the city. She had timed the van drive from point to point in places along the arteries where she had good access from a parking point off the artery itself. She had “liberated” 20 traffic cones from the highway department; and five caution signs. At each point, she set out four cones when there was no one on the road. It was 2 AM when she started and 4:20 when she finished.

(snip)

http://www.insurgentamerican.net/2007/02/27/a-short-story-about-traffic-cones/

(only a couple more paragraphs in the story)