“Raytheon Six” Defendants Get Community Service; Four of Five Charges Dismissed. : AZ IMC

“Raytheon Six” Defendants Get Community Service; Four of Five Charges Dismissed.

Four Tucson residents were each sentenced November 2 to eight hours of community service for their part in a nonviolent protest at the Raytheon Missile Systems Plant south of Tucson last March 20, the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Pima County Justice Court judge Maria Felix accepted their pleas of no contest to a charge of obstructing a highway, a class 3 misdemeanor. Two co-defendants who could not be in court today will be sentenced at a later date.

The sentences came as a result of a plea agreement that included dismissal of four of the five original charges laid against each the anti-war activists: unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct, being a public nuisance and being a pedestrian on a roadway.

Before the formal hearing, the court invited Tucson’s Raging Grannies to sing. The Grannies were among nearly two dozen supporters who had rallied outside the court house prior to the hearing, and now filled the small courtroom. They obliged with one of their trademark anti-war parodies, “God Help America.”

The four sentenced today were Gretchen Nielson, age 73, Bill Moeller, age 52, Pat Birnie, age 76, and Jack McPherson, age 61. Before pronouncing sentence, Judge Felix invited the defendants to address the court. The statements of Pat Birnie and Jack McPherson follow, along with a poem by Gretchen Nielsen that concluded her own brief statement. Bill Moeller chose not to address the court.

Poem read as part of sentencing statement of Gretchen Nielsen

HELL'S GETTING READY
to be lit with missiles
built by robots
programmed with misconceptions
(while ridiculed into silence
the wise watch wordless)
bombs are bought and sold
by parents
still not knowing what they're doing
'til the children they have nurtured
scream in fiery beds

Hell's getting ready
to be lit by leaders
proud and vengeful
still not knowing what they're doing
'til they're judged as they've been judging
watch their children's children burn
(while the merciful moan in madness
anguished with compassion)
wealthy preachers mock the truth
the pope parades in a funny hat:
prophecy fulfilled

(wise and ridiculed
merciful and mad)
Where is the leader of the meek?

Gretchen Nielsen (1980)

=============
Sentencing statement of Pat Birnie

I strongly oppose the U.S. invasion and continuing violent occupation of Iraq, a sovereign country that threatened no provocation to our country.
Because I consider the U.S. military actions in Iraq to be immoral and illegal by U.S. law as well as International law, I am ashamed and distraught that a local business, Raytheon Missiles Systems, is participating in and profiting from the human suffering their products cause in Iraq.

I have tried to communicate my angst via direct correspondence with Raytheon management, letters and phone calls to our elected officials, letters to the editor (unpublished!) of our local newspapers, and regular legal protests at Raytheon Missiles Systems factory.
Because these efforts have failed, I had to resort to my least -favored form of free-speech, to put my body on the line.
I will not willingly allow, by my silence, these atrocities to continue.

========
Sentencing statement of Jack McPherson

My participation in the blockade of the Raytheon munitions plant was done to express solidarity with the tens of thousand innocent civilian victims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I do believe it is my moral obligation:
To speak out against - war crimes
To speak out against - war profiteering
And to speak out against - weapon contracts emanating from huge political contributions.
Raytheon is not as they would have you believe a defender of freedom and democracy, but rather are in the business of killing for profit.

Photos to go with the Raytheon 6 protest action in front of the Courthouse in Tucson.

i'm very proud of the raytheon 6 who had the commitment to making a statement for peace and against wanton, criminal murder and maiming of, esp., civilians, that the public might actually get to hear about, via the corporate media.

the citizen has mostly positive comments posted about the article; on the star website all i see are negatives, to the same mostly uninformative article.
i did hear the bare-bones soundbite on kuaz on friday.

as we know, it's impossible to publicize this message any other way in the commercial media, and they leave SO much to be desired when they print the story about such arrests and court proceedings.

maybe we need to demonstrate at some of those corporate outlets demanding full coverage of what the majority of ''we the people'' are thinking, and what those of who can, are doing, about the ongoing obscenity of killing and torturing for profit.

i only regret that i drove to the wrong raytheon site on 3/20/06 (in the university of arizona industrial park in the southeast part of town!) and that it was too late to try to find the correct location. my blessings were upon you!

brava! bravo! to the raytheon 6, all pro-peace demonstrators, jack c-j and indymedia
for what you are doing to create change for the better.

Who cares? No one cares about these geriatrics opinions anyways except, perhaps, themselves......

We of Raging Grannies Action League here in Northern California salute the action of the Arizona Grannies. Their actions are deeply moral and absolutely patriotic.
Granny Gail S.

keep on raging. as the button says, if you aren't raging, you aren't paying attention. we do make a difference!

You people are a bunch of sick wierdos who deserve to all behind bars for life just for the crime of being stupid.

You got off easy...if I had been the judge your ass would have been locked up for terrorism.

Get a life and a job and stop living off the damn government