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News :: War and Militarism |
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Veterans for Peace Arrested at Veterans Day March in Boston [video] |
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by Paul Rifkin
(No verified email address) |
13 Nov 2007
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Veterans for Peace, in their own voices, talk about their action of civil disobedience Sunday where as many as eighteen members were arrested during the Veterans Day Parade in Boston. Every year, veterans against the war are banned from marching officially on the parade.
SEE VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YnwXHBxD9s&eurl=
LISTEN TO INTERVIEW:
Veteran Kenneth Farr, on "What's Left", WMBR 88.1FM
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=25520 |
 Veterans for Peace Arrested at Veterans Day March in Boston |
Veterans for Peace, in their own voices, talk about their action of civil disobedience Sunday where as many as eighteen members were arrested during the Veterans Day Parade in Boston. Every year, veterans against the war are banned from marching officially on the parade.
See video: |
See also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YnwXHBxD9s&eurl=
http://smedleyvfp.org/index.html
|
This work licensed under a
Creative Commons license. |
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more Action Report - Boston Veteranes Day 18 - |
by 4NG
amatulhannan (nospam) yahoo.com (verified) |
13 Nov 2007
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"Hi folks,
Congratulations to the Boston Veterans Day 18 for a great action today. We stood peacefully with gags over our mouths and signs saying
"American Legion SILENCES messages of peace from veterans". since they refused our request to have Iraq veteran Liam Madden speak. 18 of us
were arrested by the Boston Police and charged with disturbing a public assembly, which we were definitely not doing. We were completely silent and peaceful. 15 of the 18 are veterans and 3 of them are women."
"Getting arrested along with 92 year old Paul Brailsford (who managed to get the plastic cuffs off in the police wagon!!), 80 something year old
Sev Bruyn, 76 year old Tony Flaherty was a privilege that I have trouble expressing. Seeing these guys in cuffs was just such an inspiration.
Amazingly enough we get the best media coverage from the local Fox affiliate. Go figure. Thanks to Paul Rifkin for the pictures
In the next day or so we will be figuring out how to fight this thing in court. Stay tuned."
Nate
Smedley D. Butler Brigade Chapter 9 of Veterans For Peace
---For more Info:
http://www.pobox.com/~nateg
http://smedleyvfp.org |
See also:
http://smedleyvfp.org
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rights |
by karl roenfanz ( rosey )
k_rosey48 (nospam) hotmail.com (verified) |
14 Nov 2007
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very interesting method of instructing our studants of the constitution and what it stands for. to bad the organizers were so anti-free speach and pro war. |
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Support the Vet 18! |
by nate
(No verified email address) |
15 Nov 2007
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Hi folks,
The Veterans Day 18 have been arraigned on charges in Boston of disturbing a public assembly, which we did not do. In the description of the charges it is alleged that we were "loudly chanting anti-war slogans" which is absurd since we had gags in our mouths.
I have gotten lots of emails asking how people can help us. At this time the best support you could give us is to write, call, fax, and email the Mayor of Boston, Tom Menino. Or do all four. The thing that is best is regular mail, then calls, then fax, then email. Let's inundate the Mayor's office with outrage at our arrests. Please do this in the next day or so, while the story is hot. And please forward this email to friends and political mailing lists, far and wide. If you live outside Massachusetts please write anyway. This story has gone out worldwide.
Mayor Menino's contact information is given below. And to make it really easy we are including a template of a letter you could write. Feel free to copy and paste it into a Word document and modify it as you see fit, or write your own.
Phone 617.635.4500
Fax 617.635.2851
Email mayor@cityofboston. gov
Address given below in letter
Thanks for taking the time to do this. And apologies if you receive this email more than once.
Best Regards,
Nate Goldshlag
Co-Coordinator, Smedley D. Butler Brigade Chapter 9 Veterans For Peace
http://smedleyvfp. org
P.S. Here are some interesting links:
10 minute video:
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=-YnwXHBxD9s
Keith Olbermann's Countdown show on MSNBC:
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=H8-VQbbgCKo
VFP member's blog on Democratic Underground:
http://tinyurl. com/yr29uk
Mayor Thomas Menino
Mayor’s Office
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Dear Mayor Menino,
I am writing to express my outrage at the arrest of 15 veterans and 3 supporters on Veterans Day for silently, peacefully protesting the exclusion of Veterans For Peace from speaking at the city-sponsored Veterans Day event on City Hall Plaza. The pictures of these gagged and silent men and women being carted off, which have gone out around the world, are an embarrassment to a city that calls itself the Cradle of Liberty, and to its Police Department.
What has happened to free speech in Boston? Why is Veterans For Peace being prevented from speaking at this event, which always features pro-war, pro-Bush administration messages? Why are these men and women being charged with “loudly chanting anti-war slogans” when it is obvious to the world that these gagged people did no such thing?
The only thing these real patriots are guilty of is their expression of free speech and dissent against this illegal and immoral war. You were in a position to prevent this travesty from occurring but did nothing. Your lack of intervention serves only the interests of those who would eliminate our constitutional rights - the American Legion and George Bush. Shame on you.
Sincerely,
XXX |
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disturbing a public assembly |
by Captain Butter
(No verified email address) |
17 Nov 2007
Modified: 05:06:05 PM |
.
I think you should have disturbed the rally .
I was there 2 years ago and the veterans for peace just stood there snickering when speaker after speaker outrageously re wrote history to justify the trespass and murder of war with outright lies.
Why insist on legitimizing it with your participation ?
Instead of running away quietly into the paddy wagon you should have done what the guy did 2 years ago.
Jump up and shout at the top of your lungs over the national guard commander " Victory to the Iraq resistance and the Taliban ! " and " the Israelis did 911 " untill the hundreds of troops there almost deserted on the spot.
That was disturbing a public assembly.
. |
