Peace Activists to Stand Trial in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday, January 12
For Immediate release: January 5, 2009
United States District Court, 120 North Henry Street, at 1 PM
Press Conference at the Vigil for Peace on the corner of M. L. King Jr. Blvd. & Doty St. in front of the Madison Municipal Bldg, at 12 noon
Charged with trespassing are thirteen participants in WITNESS AGAINST WAR, a 450 mile walk from Chicago to last summer’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul “to challenge and nonviolently resist our country’s continuing war in and occupation of Iraq” (http://vcnv.org/witness-against-war). The activists from around the country were arrested by Department of Defense Police on August 10, as they attempted to enter the gates of Fort McCoy, a military installation in Wisconsin’s Monroe County.
Fort McCoy’s “vision” according to its mission statement is “To be the Premier Training Center and Force Projection Site of Choice for America’s Defense Forces,” training more than 122,000 soldiers in 2007, active military as well reserve and National Guard troops from Wisconsin and around the Midwest and beyond. Included among those trained at Fort McCoy are “troops processing for mobilization/demobilization through the installation.” (http://www.mccoy.army.mil/AboutFortMcCoy/documents/FactsFig.pdf) In plain language, Fort McCoy is the site from which a large portion of US soldiers, reservists and National Guard members continue to be trained and shipped out to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The activists who will be on trial on Monday came to Fort McCoy with another “vision,” expressed with banners and signs calling for an end to the war and a leaflet meant to be distributed to soldiers there reading: “We come to Fort McCoy to, in some small way, act in solidarity with members of the military who choose to nonviolently resist this war by refusing to be deployed to Iraq. We encourage members of the active duty military, Reserve and National Guard to consider refusing deployment orders and to be in contact with the GI Rights Hotline regarding their rights within the military at 1-800-394-9544.”
Soldiers leaving and entering Fort McCoy on August 10 gave friendly greetings to the WITNESS AGAINST WAR walkers they passed in the few miles before they reached the fort’s main gate and seemed to welcome their plea for the wars to end. Several of the DoD police officers who met them at the gate, most of them veterans, some recently returned from combat, also expressed appreciation for the message brought by the walkers even as they arrested them. Any support for the activists among Fort McCoy personnel did not, however, rise to the higher ranks. In a letter responding to the activists’ peaceful intentions, Col. Daniel A. Culver of the fort’s Office of the Command Judge Advocate, cited “risk of disruption to Fort McCoy’s mission” as grounds to ban the activists from the installation.
The members of the public are invited to attend the trial and the press conference preceding it. Some of Monday’s defendants will be attending a fund raising event for the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice (http://www.wnpj.org/node/955) the evening before, on Sunday, January 11th, 5:30 - 9:30 pm – at the Harmony Bar and Grill, 2201 Atwood Ave, Madison. They have been invited to speak about their Ft. McCoy actions and the “Keeping the Guard Home” campaign from 6:15 - 7 pm as part of the evening’s program. The rest of the evening will include graduation cake for peace organizer, Todd Dennis, guitar music by Jason Moon of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, an ‘open mic’, and more. All welcome. ($10 suggested donation- sliding scale.)
The defendants, who will be representing themselves at trial are: Kathy Kelly, 54, Co-Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence ; Jeff Leys, 44, of Watertown, Wisconsin; Joy First, 54, of Madison, WI; John Bachman, 56, Eau Claire, WI; Brian Terrell, 52, of Maloy, IA; Renee Espeland, 47 of Des Moines, IA; Kryss Chupp, 49, Christian Peacemaker Teams, Chicago; Ceylon Mooney, 33, Memphis, TN; Eileen Hanson, 34, Winona, MN; Joshua Brollier, 25, Clarkesville, TN; Lauren Cannon, 38, seminarian at Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL; Alice Gerard, 51, of Grand Island, NY; and Gene Stoltzfus, 68, of Ontario, Canada.
Contact:
Joy First at (608) 239-4327 or < jsfirst@tds.net>
Jeff Leys at (773) 878-3815 or jeffleys@vcnv.org
Renee Espeland at (515) 664-1326 (cell) or
Trial Statement for Joy First
January 12, 2009
Good afternoon Your Honor. Thank you for hearing our case.
I am here before you today because I cannot and will not remain silent when my government is engaged in an immoral and illegal war in Iraq and other places around the world. I am compelled to continue to do everything I can to call attention to the horror and suffering resulting from our government’s imperialistic and aggressive policies.
My co-defendants and I have done everything we can to try to bring the war and occupation of Iraq to an end. We have petitioned our President through letters, phone calls, and visits. We have petitioned our members of Congress, calling them, writing them, and visiting their offices countless times. We have been part of vigils and demonstrations, organized and attended town meetings, signed petitions, collected signatures for petitions and followed many other means to try to stop the unnecessary killing of innocent people for over five years.
Though what I have done has not stopped the war and occupation of Iraq, I strongly believe it is imperative that we, the people, speak out and I must continue my work for peace and justice.
So on August 10, 2008 I went to Fort McCoy to deliver a letter that has been introduced into evidence, a letter asking our young men and women in the military to follow their conscience and refuse deployment to a war that is illegal and immoral. During this action I was very aware that there will be 3500 members of the Wisconsin National Guard going to Iraq early in 2009. This is the largest deployment of the National Guard from Wisconsin since WW II. How many more of our young men and women have to die? How many more innocent Iraqis must die?
I was arrested for this action. But I am not sure why I was arrested. I do not think I broke any law. Citizens are allowed on the base to hunt, and fish. The night before we went to the base, there was a concert with hundreds of civilians being allowed on the base. Just an hour before we tried to deliver our letter, a friend was allowed to go to the PX on the base to buy supplies. It was because of our message and for that reason alone that we were denied our First Amendment right to free speech and were arrested on August 10, 2008, not because we did anything wrong.
We are a peaceful people, and engage in our actions peacefully, calling for an end to the violence of war, following the principles of Gandhi, King, Day, and others. I would not participate in any kind of violent action and I do not think that I broke any law on August 10, 2008.
I am called to continue to do everything I can to stop the suffering of war and work towards a peaceful world. I am at a point in my life where I think about the future generations. As a grandmother I feel like my arms must reach wide and embrace all the children of the world and work for a better world, a world without the terror of war.
I believe it is my First Amendment right to free speech that allows me to voice my concerns in this way. I also believe it is my obligation under the Nuremberg treaties to speak out when my government is acting illegally. According to the Nuremberg Principles, if we remain silent while our government is engaged in illegal and immoral activities, then we are complicit, we are guilty of being in violation of international law and of going against our most dearly held values.
It is our responsibility as citizens of this great country to speak out and call attention to the unjust actions of our government and demand that they stop the war now. We believe that we can make a difference.
Please find us not guilty as charged and join us in saying that we need to stop prosecuting those who speak out against the war. It is time to bring the real criminals to justice.
Thank you Your Honor.
Trial for August 10, 2008 Civil Resistance Action at Fort McCoy
January 12, 2009
by Joy First
On August 10, 2008 I participated in an action of nonviolent civil resistance at Fort McCoy. This was in conjunction with the Witness Against War Walk, an event organized by Voices for Creative Nonviolence, walking 450 miles from Chicago to St. Paul for the start of the Republican Presidential Convention.
Fort McCoy is a military base where many of our young men and women are trained to be deployed to Iraq. The basis for our action was to bring a letter to the soldiers supporting them and advising them that they have the right to refuse deployment to a war that is immoral and illegal. About 50 people participated in the 3 hour walk from Tunnel City to Fort McCoy on August 10. Once at the main gate, 13 individuals chose to peacefully try to gain access to the base to deliver our message. We were arrested, processed, and released in about an hour or so.
On January 12, 2009 twelve of us were on trial at the U.S. District Court in Madison, WI under Judge Stephen Crocker with a large number of supporters in the audience. Those on trial were Brian Terrell, Jeff Leys, Alice Gerard, Kryss Chupp, John Bachman, Gene Stoltzfus, Lauren Cannon, Ceylon Mooney, Eileen Hanson, Renee Espeland, Joshua Brollier, and myself. Kathy Kelly was also arrested, but she was in Egypt attempting to provide humanitarian aide to the people of Gaza under siege by the Israeli army. She had notified the judge by letter and her case will be reviewed when she returns home.
Originally we were charged under a Federal Statue for trespassing. For some reason, they were not able to charge us under that statue and the final charge was trespassing under a Monroe County Statue. Judge Crocker said this was no longer a criminal charge, but he was treating it that way so that we would have more rights and the burden of proof would be higher.
The U.S. District Attorney called four witnesses. The first witness was the Deputy Chief of Police at Fort McCoy, who described what happened that day. Then three officers who did the processing on the day of the arrests took the stand. As in many cases of mass arrest for civil resistance, they identified us by our pictures taken at the time we were arrested. The whole process of identification was bogus. They went through looking at a copy of each citation attached to a picture of the person arrested. Judge Crocker asked the person who was issued the citation if they had any objections on this being entered into evidence. So when we said no objections, we were identifying ourselves. Nevertheless, the officers never pointed to us in the courtroom and said that is Joy First who was arrested at Fort McCoy, but only looked at the picture and identified the picture as Joy First.
After the prosecution rested, Jeff Leys made a motion for judgment of acquittal based on the fact that we were not properly identified. Judge Crocker denied the motion.
Judge Crocker explained that each defendant would have five minutes to speak. He said we could not use the necessity defense or international law, but rather than argue over what we were saying, he would just give us each our five minutes to say whatever we wanted to say and then he would make his ruling.
The statements made by the defendants were elegant and moving, but we also knew by the judge’s words that it was just an exercise in futility that would not really have any impact on the eventual ruling by Judge Crocker.
Brian Terrell said that he looked up the vision of Fort McCoy on the web and it said that they are the premier training center for America’s defense system. We brought our own vision, an alternative vision, to the base disrupting their mission of providing cannon fodder in Iraq. It was our legal and moral responsibility to go there.
Gene noted that the soldiers being trained there will be facing an incredible legal and moral dilemma. He said that he did not feel guilty and will accept the consequences.
Ceylon explained that he had been to Iraq twice and seen the effects of war. He works with soldiers who have come home and sees the long-term effects of war on them. What we did was not illegal.
Jeff introduced the letters we wrote and pictures of the action into evidence. He said he hoped that we would be in front of the judge again as we build the movement of nonviolent civil resistance.
Eileen declined to speak.
Alice said that she went there to speak to the soldiers. The pressure on the military is necessary and we did nothing wrong. It is the government that is violating the law.
I talked about all we have done to try to stop the war, and that we must and will continue this work. I noted that it is my First Amendment right and my obligation under Nuremberg to do this. Bush and company are the real criminals.
Renee asked the judge if anything she said would really make a difference. She spoke directly to the officers who had testified earlier beseeching them to see what they were doing in a different light. She noted that grave injustices are being done to the soldiers at Fort McCoy.
Kryss noted that laws are important, but when laws are used to protect institutions of injustice, she will follow God’s law. She sang “Finlandia”.
Josh said that government exists by the people and for the people, for the common good, but it is sometimes used to hurt people. Not advising soldiers of what is really going on is illegal. He believes our actions were consistent with the spirit of the law.
John said he felt it was time to vote with his feet. The war was unpopular and undemocratic. When he was trying another case in northern Wisconsin, both the judge and prosecutor told him they were supportive of what he did.
Judge Crocker said that our right of free speech ends when we trespass. And he added, “Let’s face it. You all trespassed.” He said he had to find us guilty though he noted that it is wonderful that citizens will do what we did.
The maximum penalty for this charge was 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. The prosecutor recommended a $100 fine. Judge Crocker sentenced us to a $75 fine. In sentencing statements, a number of defendants said that their conscience would not allow them to pay the fine. Judge Crocker said he would check and see if the fine could go to a victim’s compensation fund rather than the general treasury which was more acceptable to some of the defendants.
For a newspaper report of the trial, see http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/01/13