War protestors turn in mugshots to federal agents

[noamnety]

175 war protesters had their mugshots taken at Michigan Peaceworks' "turn yourself in to the FBI and NSA" booth at the Ann Arbor, MI March 19th "Stop the War" demonstration.



Acitivists will be handing over the mugshots to federal agents on Friday March 31st, at the Ann Arbor Federal Building. Special guest speaker: Jim Kleisser, Executive Director of the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh (the organization spied on by the FBI for its "pacifism.")

From their website: Our pre-emptive strike on government spying will save taxpayer dollars. It's the patriotic thing to do!

After turning themselves in, refreshments will be served. :)

http://www.michiganpeaceworks.org/

[MadMaddie]

1. Love it...!!!

[rodeodance]

2. What a hoot.

[ClayZ]

19. Here is a Blank Mug blank ...to print and USE

:kick:

[datadiva]

3. Wow, how cool is that! n/t

[fooj]

4. Good on them!

:kick:

[NanceGreggs]

5. That is just downright BRILLIANT!!!

Maybe we should all flood the FBI with faxed copies of our phone bills - save them the trouble of finding out whether we've been talking to Al Qeada recently!

Save the taxpayers' money - the patriotic thing to do!

ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! Hats off to whoever thought of this!

[noamnety]

7. from their newsletter:

Here's an interesting note: Activists in Pittsburgh - home of the Thomas Merton Center which was targeted for FBI surveillance due to it's pacifism - caught wind of our "turn yourself in" action and decided to do the same! They're sending us 20 mug-shot photos they took of themselves, to add to our collection.

[fooj]

13. I like the "faxed copies of our phone bill" idea.......

:smoke: Seriously.

Peace.

[Rainscents]

6. WOW... Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant idea!!!

:toast: :kick: :patriot:

[Jara sang]

8. That is awsome! We need to work it from the other angle as well.

Taking pictures of and posting names of FBI and Federal law enforcement officials on the internet. Here is a good place to start: http://cryptome.org/

[noamnety]

9. If we do that

do we still get to eat the refreshments? Or are they entitled to half? Let's make sure we think this through.

[BuyingThyme]

10. I wonder what they'll do with them.

[Gabi Hayes]

11. J. Fred Muggshot

[mdmc]

12. R

:patriot:

[meganmonkey]

14. Frankly, I'd be more impressed

if they actually got themselves arrested. This is clever and cute, but we don't need clever and cute.

We need some real dissent. There are people dying every day.

This is like a souvenir. :shrug:

[file83]

16. That's the point of the protest...protesters are getting arrested all the

time, which is wrong. I understand your cry for "real" dissent, but these people are making a point.

Besides, getting arrested is NEVER the intentions of a protester, it's speaking your mind in public. If they do get arrested for exercising their rights of Free Speech, then that doesn't mean they are doing something "right", it means that the Government is doing something wrong.

Not to mention, many of these people were kids, so trying to get them arrested is not a good idea.

[meganmonkey]

18. Actually, people get arrested intentionally all the time

in protest. Civil disobedience. When done carefully and with large numbers it can have a huge impact. Gandhi, Thoreau, MLK, Rosa Parks, many other powerful figures in effective movements used this tactic.

General info from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_disobedience

If Cindy Sheehan had simply attended permitted rallies would we know who she is? Camp Casey in Crawford crossed a major line for the anti-war movement. While she didn't get arrested for that one, she was threatened with arrest and the town was trying to pass legislation so they could bust her and kick them out.

Since then she has been arrested several times, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. Most recent was a couple weeks ago at the UN in NYC (not intentional):

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan and three others arrested outside U.S. Mission to the U.N.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20060306-2243-sheehan-arrest.html


Last September she and I were both arrested at the White House intentionally:

White House Sidewalk Protest Leads to Arrest of About 370
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/26/AR2005092600143.html

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/meganmonkey/4

Peace :patriot:

[file83]

15. This is my FAVORITE picture....

LOL!!:rofl:

[AnneD]

17. Boy, is that a

bunch of terrorist or what. Yeh, I can see them doing hard time in Gitmo.....What a attention getting idea. I love it-just enough 'In Your Face', makes the point, but non violent.

[struggle4progress]

20. DON'Tmake it easier for fascists to find ya. If ya gotta givem a mug shot:

[Hissyspit]

21. Great idea. Love the cartoony backdrop and ID card.

Recommended.

[Neil Lisst]

22. What a terrible idea.

If they monitor you because of your activities, that is one thing, and it's bad enough. I don't see how this helps anyone. If you don't think the feds will open files on each photo submitted, guess again.

Now people who would not otherwise have a file in the hands of feds will have one, and it will be there forever.

This is the kind of thing that sounds cute, but it's really self-defeating.

[blonndee]

23. But I think that's part of the point.

It's like, open a file on me. Go ahead. You can't scare me.

[Neil Lisst]

24. Well, it's dangerously naive.

Now they're tagged, and have no way of ever knowing how it may hurt them.

Kids sometimes like to walk in the middle of the road to prove they're brave, but it's still a dumb thing to do. It's the unfrightened antelope that gets eaten by the lion.

[blonndee]

25. I agree it's potentially dangerous, but I still think it's

worthwhile. Your analogy doesn't quite work because kids walking in the middle of the road "to prove they're brave" has no real political purpose; it's not a challenge to powers that are attempting to oppress them. This IS a challenge to oppressive forces, and therefore is purposeful, despite any naievete or foolhardiness on the part of the participants, which I doubt is a widespread characteristic among these individuals.

Besides, I see it also as a kind of "f--- you." With all the spying that is going on, is it really realistic to think that if the powers that be WANT to know who is protesting, they don't already? I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a good number of DUers have at least a perfunctory "file" somewhere. It's astounding to learn the history of domestic surveillance in this country, and the number of citizens who have had "files" opened on them for one reason or another almost since the beginning. So I see it as kind of like a statement akin to what I said earlier as well as an acknowledgment that we KNOW they are watching.

But I'm not trying to be contentious. I just see it a little differently, and I'm proud of these people for not being scared sheep.

[Neil Lisst]

26. I'm in favor of fighting back against Bush govt oppression

I just don't think this was a smart way to do it.

I'm on the No Fly list, but I didn't get there by asking them to put me there. I got there by being a vocal and persistent critic of the Bush administration.

If you're doing enough, you'll have a file made on you.

[specimenfred1984]

28. Impersonating an American With 1st Amendment Rights

is all they are doing.

If that's all it takes to get a file, we're all doomed anyway.

[kiteinthewind]

27. What a great way to draw attention to illegal spying on Americans!!!

Thanks for the idea!! Mind if we use that in the future??
:patriot:

[Trevelyan]

29. Great idea and Stella looks like she is having fun. This is the kind of

human interest type story that we should be sending to the Corporate media and publishing all over the liberal blogosphere. Someone wrote that the reason the Cheney shooting his fellow hunter story lasted so long is that it was a human interest story, and after all the "hard work" of reading the intricate details of the bush financial crimes - Cunningham, Abramoff and all the connections -- something that is making a difference but appealing to a more easily identifiable and creative way of making the issues known in a less technical way will help get the messages across.