Jan. 13, 2016
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate
release
Contact: Mary Anne
Grady Flores 607-280-8797
Carol Baum 315-383-5738
Grandma
Drone Protester Remanded to Jail for 6 Months
Mary Anne Grady Flores to be taken into
custody Tuesday, January 19
Ithaca, NY.
On January 12, the National Day of Action to Stop Killer Drones, grandmother
and drone resister Mary Anne Grady Flores learned that she is to go back
to jail for six months starting Tuesday, January 19. She is to report to the
Dewitt Town Court (5400 Butternut Drive, East Syracuse, NY) at 5 pm to be
remanded to Jamesville Correctional Facility, East Syracuse NY.
Mary Anne had been
out on appeal of a lower court convicting her of violating an order of
protection.
It had been given on behalf of Col. Evans of the Hancock Air
National Guard Base 174th Attack Wing (in Syracuse, NY), to “protect” him from
nonviolent anti-drone activists. She had been charged with violating the order
while taking pictures of eight Catholics protesting the US drone assassination
program at Hancock on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. Onondaga County
Court Judge Miller upheld the lower court conviction. Of note is that all eight
Catholic drone resisters were acquitted because they went to uphold law, not
break it.
Orders of
protection, typically given in domestic violence situations, have been
used by the Court and the Base in an attempt to deter protest and suppress free
speech. Judge Miller also upheld a lower court ruling on the Hancock 17,
seventeen nonviolent drone resisters given orders of protection, jail time, and
fines.
Mary Anne, a
grandmother of three, has been a part of The Upstate
Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars, resisting the drone
assassination program since 2011. According to leaked military documents
called the Drone Papers sent to the Intercept, 90% of drone assassinations target
and kill civilians, including children. On the National Day of Action,
drone resisters were arrested at Creech Air Force Base (Nevada), Beale AFB
(California), and Volk AFB (Wisconsin), and Ramstein AFB, Germany and in
Pakistan, all a part of the worldwide resistance to drones.
Mary Anne received
the verdict and sentence by mail, even though she was originally told to appear
in County Court on January 22 to hear the court's decision. This may have been
an attempt to prevent a full courtroom and press with cameras from attending,
as occurred at the time of her original sentence.
###
--
Mary
Anne Grady Flores
Ithaca, NY 14850 1-607-280-8797
Ithaca Catholic Workers / Los Obreros Catolicos de Ithaca
Ithaca, NY 14850 1-607-280-8797
Ithaca Catholic Workers / Los Obreros Catolicos de Ithaca
"If you think one person can't be effective, you've never
been
in bed with a mosquito" -War Resister's League
"Si usted
piensa que una persona no puede ser eficaz, nunca
he estado en
la cama con un mosquito" Liga de Opositores de
Guerra
"Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely
essential to it" Howard Zinn (1922-2010)
"La
protesta más allá de la ley no se aparta
de la democracia, es
absolutamente
esencial para que" Howard Zinn (1922-2010)
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly
romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only
of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness...
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction...And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." -- Howard Zinn
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction...And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." -- Howard Zinn
www.democracynow.org
www.upstatedroneaction.org
www.cpt.org
www.catholicworker.org
Aljazeer a- look it up on line
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gaza
Donations can be sent to
the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.
Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"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
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