BlueRinse Brigade

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April 21, 2006 by the New York Times

 

What Did You Do in the War, Grandma?

by Clyde Haberman

 

 

No ageism is intended, but we're willing to lay heavy

odds that it has been a long while since the Manhattan

district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, found someone

older than he is to take to court.

 

 

Attorney Norman Segal (L) and Court Officer Sgt. Peter

Dolan ®, assist Betty Brassell © into the state

court building in New York April 20, 2006 to face

charges of protesting the war in Iraq. Brassell is one

of 18 grandmothers charged for blocking access to the

U.S. military recruiting station in Times Square

during a recent protest. REUTERS/Chip East

 

Bear in mind that Mr. Morgenthau is 86. He has held

his job for so long that it sometimes feels as if he

began before they invented Ovaltine. How many

90-year-old drug dealers or mob hit men cross his

path?

 

Yesterday, things changed. The district attorney's

office pursued a criminal case against a band of

women, some of them old enough to call Mr. Morgenthau

" sonny. "

 

Not that Marie Runyon, 91, is what you'd call a

hardened criminal. Nor is Molly Klopot, 87, nor

Lillian Rydell, 86. Nor, for that matter, are any of

15 other women — a few of them practically kids, no

older than 61 or 62 — who went on trial yesterday in

Manhattan Criminal Court, charged with disorderly

conduct.

 

The Granny Peace Brigade, they call themselves. Last

October, they descended on the armed forces recruiting

station in Times Square. They wanted to enlist, they

said. They've been around. Send them to Iraq, they

demanded, instead of some 20-year-old who has barely

tasted life.

 

When the military, shockingly, showed no interest in

signing them up, this Walker and Cane Brigade held a

sit-in. The police ordered them to leave. They

refused. So officers young enough to be their

great-grandchildren handcuffed them gently and put

them under arrest.

 

Obviously, theirs was an exercise in street theater,

intended to draw cameras and scribblers to record

their opposition to the war in Iraq. The tactic

worked. Grandmothers being hauled away in a police

wagon is what we in the news business call a story.

 

While the style was somewhat whimsical, the grannies'

message could not have been more serious. A similar

mixture of soberness and good cheer was evident

yesterday at a pretrial pep rally outside the Criminal

Court building on Centre Street. Sure, there were

denunciations of the war. But there were also photos

of grandchildren and great-grandchildren hanging from

strings around the women's necks.

 

The mood was a contrast to much of the political

dialogue these days — simultaneous monologues, really,

often about as witty as a Pat Robertson fatwa. The

grannies are " positive, upbeat, respectful, loving

America, " said their lawyer, Norman Siegel, who added,

" But they also recognize that we have some fundamental

problems that need to be overcome. "

 

The nonjury trial that got under way yesterday, before

Judge Neil E. Ross, did not have to be. Mr.

Morgenthau's office proposed a plea deal that would

have allowed the dismissal of the charges in six

months provided the grannies, forgive us, kept their

noses clean. But the women insisted on their day in

court, hoping for a chance to speak against the war

from the witness stand.

 

" We are at a very important point in the history of

our country, " Ms. Klopot said. " It is our

responsibility as patriots not to be silent. "

 

Whether Judge Ross will give her a courtroom soapbox

remains to be seen. As far as the prosecution is

concerned, Iraq is a nonstarter. " It's not about the

war, " Amy Miller, an assistant district attorney, told

the judge. " It's about disorderly conduct. "

 

That's not how Mr. Siegel saw it. The purpose of the

protest was " to alert an apathetic public, " he said to

Judge Ross.

 

He also argued that the grannies did not entirely

block access to the recruiting center, a point

conceded by police officers who testified. And so, Mr.

Siegel contended, the order for the women to clear out

was not lawful. They had " acted on principle, " he

said, " in a great American tradition of peaceful,

nonviolent protest. "

 

Then again, a guiding principle of nonviolent protest

is that one must be prepared to suffer the

consequences. Age should not matter.

 

If convicted, each of the women could be fined $250

and sent to jail for 15 days. Are they prepared to do

the time? Absolutely, said one of the younger

defendants, Jenny Heinz, 61. " A number of us have made

a decision that we will not accept fines or community

service. "

 

Of course, a guilty verdict would have to come first.

Then Judge Ross, 46, would have to decide if sending

some women nearly twice his age to the slammer is

really how he wants to be remembered.

 

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company