And, apparently, Geneva, New York is trying to follow in its footsteps.
Posted on 12/01/2005 9:00:19 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
GENEVA, NY—A group of anti-war protesters who threw blood on a soldier, a recruiting station and the U.S. flag will deliver a lecture at Hobart and William Smith campuses today.
According to a campus press release, the four Ithaca residents-- Daniel Burns, Peter DeMott, Clare Grady and Teresa Grady--are expected to address students on “the use of unconventional politics as a means for political organizing and resistance in a time of war and in a time of the Patriot Act.”
In addition, the group’s sponsor, Professor Craig Rimmerman of the HWS political science department, hopes to ask the group "what they were thinking about at the time that they made their decision, and how they have dealt with the legal ramifications of their actions."
The four were convicted of charges of trespassing and damaging government property after a jury trial in Binghamton in September 2005.
The group was accused of going to a Army recruiting center near Ithaca on March 17, 2003, and throwing their own blood on the walls, the floor, the United States flag and Staff Sgt. Rachon Montgomery, who was working as an army recruiter that day.
The protesters, while admitting to their actions, claim they have done nothing wrong. The four, who are representing themselves, claimed that their actions were legally justified because they did it to stop the United States from invading Iraq.
During the trial, it was revealed that two of the four protesters, Peter DeMott and Clare Grady, had histories of committing violent acts against federal property.
Sentencing for the four is scheduled for January 2006.
The group is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Miroslav Lovric at the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York, Binghamton branch office. It is unknown whether prosecutors are aware of the four’s lecture.
The lecture is scheduled for 7:30 pm, in Hobart's Albright Auditorium. According to the campus website, “interview opportunities and additional background information may be requested through the Office of Communications, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York. Phone: (315) 781-3540. After business hours, Communications staff members are accessible through contact information on their answering machine at that number.”
Is there any chance one of those clowns could be HIV positive and then they can be all be charged with attempted murder of a federal employee?
Is there anylonger any doubt concerning the agenda of the typical college professor culture?
I wish the government would start getting REAL serious about terrorism and start prosecuting these young terrorist thugs. It's one thing to speak against something but when that "speech" crosses the line into defacing and vandalism, assault of persons and other criminal acts, it's time to prosecute these domestic terrorists.
ping
Stalin's purges come to mind.
These people are in their 40s and 50s. Check out their bios here:
Teresa Berrigan Grady, age 40, is a single mother of a 16-year-old son. They have lived in Ithaca, New York for eleven years, where Grady is a Latin dance instructor at Cornell University and a massage therapist. Grady, who was baptized by Catholic priest and anti-war activist Phillip Berrigan, has been involved with the Catholic Worker movement for more than a decade.
Clare Grady, 46, is the sister of Teresa. She lives in Ithaca with her husband and two daughters, ages 16 and 13. Grady has worked at the Loaves and Fishes Community Kitchen for the last 17 years, and has been involved in activism since she was in high school.
Daniel Burns, 45 years old, is a native of Binghamton and the tenth child in a family of twelve. He is married and the father of two infant sons. He has worked with the Directors Guild of America, and has been making independent films in Ithaca for the last five years.
At 59, Peter Demott is a former US Marine who enlisted in 1967 and served one year in Vietnam. After completing his enlistment, Demott returned to civilian life for about a year and then enlisted in the Army. Demott is married, has four children and has been a part of the Catholic Worker Movement since 1979. Demott has been arrested numerous times for various civil disobedience actions.
Here Demott explains his involvement in civil disobedience (601kb MP3).
Isnt throwing human blood on someone a felony? If its not, it should be.
Second thought: Imagine if a "Christian" had vandalized a Mosque and then wanted to speak at the college?????? Oh, the humainty of the outcry from the Defeatist left wing lugnuts.
I honestly don't know which is sadder. The fact that this numb skulls are using the above as basis of their defense, or the fact that they may actually think that by committing the acts they did, they would be able to stop the US from liberating Iraq.
The color of the sky in the liberal world must truly be a different color.
Funny how anti-war protesters become violent; they engage in a little war of their own. And just where did they get the blood anyway? Isn't drawing blood a violence done to someone? Even themselves?
Given the blood born pathogens that are around these days, throwing blood or even a facsimile should be a felony.
Whoops! I read they were going on a college campus and assumed they were young.
Okay. "Old terrorist thugs". Everything else I wrote still stands.
Record the lecture and present it at their sentencing so they get the max because of their unrepentantance and obvious intent to break the law.
Guys, these are just the future John Kerry's of the world
Watch and see if they get a big media boost. If they do,
then one (or more) of them is probably being primed
for candidature somewhere.
Assuming that the law doesn't apply to you solely on the basis of your personal position/opinion/mission is an extremely dangerous habit. Left unchecked, people like this start committing seriously violent and destructive acts, all in the name of their cause.
Examples for the RESULTS of "the use of unconventional politics" where successful:
Somebody should try to attend their little speech and throw sh!t on them. Then when arrested, demand that the college allow them to give a talk too. Equal time and all that, you know.
I think they'll find that "the ends justify the means" defense doesn't work very well in court. Besides, their actions don't appear to have been very effective. Not, that is, if their intent was to stop the US's entry into the war. However, even a liberal is smart enough to understand that throwing blood on a recruiter isn't likely to amend US foreign policy, so I suspect that was not their intention at all.
But if their REAL intention was to satisfy their attention cravings and relive those halcyon days of Woodstock, they have probably succeeded. It's all groovy, man.
As noted above, these are aging hippies, not young students.
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