Seven Arrested at White House Protest against Iraq War

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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022806T.shtml

 

Seven Arrested at White House Protest against Iraq War

By Mike Ferner

t r u t h o u t | Report

 

Tuesday 28 February 2006

 

Washington - Holding a banner that read " GOD FORGIVE AMERICA, "

seven peace activists were arrested yesterday in front of the White

House, in a civil disobedience protest against the war in Iraq.

 

Arrested by US Park Police were Brian Terrell, Ed Bloomer, and

Elton Davis, all from Catholic Worker communities in the Des Moines,

Iowa, area; David Goodner, a University of Iowa student;

Hansen, a Catholic Worker from the Winona, Minnesota; Jeff Leys,

co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (VCNV); and Bernie

Meyer, a retired social services worker from Olympia, Washington.

 

The seven were charged with the federal misdemeanor of

demonstrating without a permit, fined seventy-five dollars, and

released yesterday evening. The action was part of VCNV's " Winter of

Our Discontent " demonstrations in the month leading up to the third

anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq on March 20.

 

Terrell organized the group of 15 from Iowa, which included

students from Loras College, a hospital worker, and a farmer from

Missouri who drove 140 miles to Des Moines to join them.

 

" If not now, when? " Terrell replied when asked why they drove 20

hours overnight to get arrested in the nation's capital. " Some people

consider civil disobedience an extreme measure for extreme times. If

these aren't extreme times, I don't know what are. "

 

The Maloy, Iowa, farmer and Catholic Worker added, " We came here

to use two complimentary methods to protest this war. Some of our

group are visiting members of Congress, and some are putting our

bodies on the line. "

 

Goodner, the 25-year-old Iowa Hawkeye, said his reason was " a deep

concern for the plight of the world. I worry where the world is

heading when I think of global warming and war. I believe the

capitalist model of globalization is the root cause of the

institutional problems facing us, and governments aren't going to

solve those problems, individuals are. "

 

Bloomer, 58, an Army draftee who served from 1966 to 1968, is also

a member of Veterans For Peace. He said he became a Catholic Worker in

1983, when he was active in the Nuclear Freeze movement to stop the

spread of atomic weapons, because he agreed with the Worker's

approach. " They say if you see something that ain't right, fix it. I

see half the world starving without a crust of bread, while are

resources are going to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is the right

thing to do, and it's good to show your colors. "

 

The entire group demonstrated on the sidewalk in front of the

White House fence, walking slowly with placards and banners for about

30 minutes. The seven who were arrested took their signs to the

portion of the fence ruled off-limits to protests where they stood,

attracting the attention of Park Police, who warned them they risked

arrest.

 

When they refused to move, police called in a large team to make

the arrests. The team included six officers on motorcycles, one on

horseback, and over a dozen in patrol cars and unmarked vehicles,

several command officers, and four Secret Service officers observing.

 

After police roped off a large, square area in front of the

protesters, a lieutenant, speaking through a patrol car loudspeaker,

warned the seven that " You must leave the enclosed portion of the

White House sidewalk. All those not leaving will be arrested. " Three

warnings later, officers approached the activists and began

handcuffing and searching them one at a time. To cheers from

supporters, and under the eye of dozens of tourists, the arrestees

were lead into a large police wagon and taken away. The whole

operation took about 90 minutes.

 

Last night, Jeff Leys said they had been processed, fined, and

released later in the day around 5:00 p.m.

 

Leys, a former union representative from Milwaukee and three

others are participating in a 34-day, liquids-only fast and vigil at

the Capitol as part of the Winter of Our Discontent. He noted the

fasters are observing the period between the February 15, 2003, when

millions of people around the world protested the likely US invasion

of Iraq, and the date of the invasion, March 20. He added that VCNV

plans additional protests in Washington and elsewhere in the country

before March 20.

 

Mike Ferner is a freelance writer from Ohio.

 

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