BY ROBB FREDERICK
Erie Times News
March 20, 2007
An odd bit of political theater played out in the lobby of the U.S. District Courthouse on Monday when nine members of the Erie Peace Initiative blocked the doors to protest the Iraq war.
The group locked arms at the elbows. They asked that the building be closed. Then they let a lawyer through.
“We’re not against you,” Molly Brechtel said to him.
They spread the line. Outside, a dozen supporters sang and carried signs. “How Many Lives Per Gallon?” bumped up against “Bring Them Home Now!”
The protesters sat cross-legged. They sang “Give Peace a Chance.”
A tall lawyer stepped over them.
They stood. They bunched up in front of the metal detector, which beeped.
A federal marshal in a suit jacket shut it off.
Katie White offered a loud prayer. She’s a war mom, with a son in Afghanistan and another who served in Iraq.
“Our government has become a corporation without a conscience,” she said. “And that’s happened because the citizens have not done their job. They’ve become discouraged. They’ve become cynical. They just don’t care.”
Jim Wise held her arm.
“As citizens of a democracy, we are all responsible for what is happening in Iraq,” he said. “I bear some responsibility. And I’m here to do something about it.”
Security officers gathered behind the front desk. The FBI arrived.
“As our government officials escalate the war in Iraq, we escalate our nonviolent efforts to end it,” Matt Ochalek said. “We’ve written to them. We’ve called. And they have not yet heard our message.”
Four Erie police cruisers pulled to the curb.
Federal officer Todd Carlson cleared his throat. “You will be arrested if you do not move,” he said.
“You do what you have to do,” Wise answered.
The group knelt again.
Carlson returned a few minutes later. “You have three minutes to disperse,” he said. “We will give you those three minutes. And then we will arrest you.”
Anne McCarthy, a Benedictine sister, thanked him as he stepped over her.
It took more than 30 minutes — and some huffs from lawyers and courthouse employees who knotted in the lobby, not wanting to squeeze through the group — for security to finally move. They started by ushering out the news cameras.
The nine protesters were arrested without incident. They were put in three holding areas — the four women in one room, the five men in two others. They waited two hours for their turn before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Paradise Baxter.
In that time, the Pentagon announced the deaths of two more U.S. servicemen. The war went on.