GOVERNMENT DROPS CHARGES AGAINST PENTAGON PROTESTERS

Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 Ph: 410-366-1637 or 727-543-3227; Email: mobuszewski at verizon.net

PRESS RELEASE-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 14, 2015

GOVERNMENT DROPS CHARGES AGAINST PENTAGON PROTESTERS

Contact: Max Obuszewski [410] 366-1637 or 727-543-3227 or mobuszewski at verizon.net

WHO: The Pledge of Resistance was formed for individuals willing to engage in nonviolent civil resistance to first prevent and later to protest the war in Iraq. It is affiliated with several national peace groups, including the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance and United For Peace & Justice. Baltimore Pledge members, over the years, have repeatedly engaged in acts of nonviolent civil resistance to protest U.S. government policies. One Pledge member, Max Obuszewski, joined in the December 29, 2014 Holy Innocents Pentagon Witness, organized by Baltimore’s Jonah House and the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker of Washington, D.C.

WHAT: Over 50 people from the Atlantic and Southern Life Communities held a nonviolent witness at the Pentagon to commemorate the feast of the Massacre of the Holy Innocents (the actual feast was on Sunday, December 28). The noon-time witness began with a procession in which participants carried banners and signs from Army Navy Drive to the designated "protest" area located near the Pentagon south Metro entrance. The lead banner, carried by young adults, read: "Peace To All Children of the Earth." A sizeable Pentagon Police presence directed everyone to go into the fenced off designated protest area. Ten activists did not comply and remained outside holding signs with these messages--"Wage Peace--Practice Nonviolence" and "Love Your Neighbor Means Don't Bomb, Occupy and Kill Them!"

The police gave the first of several orders for the ten protesters to leave the sidewalk or face arrest. The group did a litany remembering all those who have been massacred—the Lakota, the Palestinians and many others. Obuszewski and nine others were arrested-- Nancy Gowen, Patrick O'Neill and Bernadette Rider-O'Neill, all from North Carolina, Art Laffin, Washington, D.C., Steve Bush, Bill Frankel-Streit, Joan Wages, Kim Williams and Steve Woolford, all from Virginia. However, before the trial, the charges were dismissed

WHEN: Wednesday, February 11, 2015

WHERE: by Paul A. Embroski, Special Assistant United States Attorney, 2100 Jamieson Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22314

WHY: It can only be speculated why the charges were dismissed. The ten activists were charged with "Failure to Comply With a Lawful Order" and were scheduled to appear for trial on March 19 at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA. The group was well prepared to challenge the charge and to speak some truth to power in the courtroom. Perhaps the U.S. attorney recognized that the defendants at the Pentagon were simply exercising their constitutionally-protected right to speak out against our government’s wrong-headed policies. Or possibly he agreed with the defendants’ messages.

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"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs