16,000 Rally at Ft. Benning, 12 Headed to Federal Prison
Nuclear Resister › Nbr. 136, January 2005
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Summary
Sunday, the gathering culminated with a vigil and solemn funeral procession to the gates of Fort Benning. Fifteen people were arrested, many negotiating a 10-foot-high barbed-wire fence to enter the base. They took this action despite knowing they likely face three to six months in federal prison. Two minors were released and the others were held overnight while outside the jail, 250 or more people and several large puppets held a spirited and entertaining vigil. The next day, ten arrestees were released from custody on $1,000 bond; one Georgia resident was released on $500 bond. Seventy-nine-year-old Tom MacLean initially refused to pay bond but was released on his own recognizance about ten days later. Ed Lewinson, 75 and an emeritus professor from Seton Hall University in New Jersey, was not charged. Lewinson, blind since birth, was also arrested at last year's direct action but not charged. "This court treated me differently than other arrestees last year because I am blind," Lewinson stated, addressing Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth. "This year you're discriminating against me again by refusing to charge me, while charging everyone else who participated in nonviolent civil disobedience to close the SOA/ WHINSEC."
Three people were arrested by the Columbus City police during the vigil. Patrick O'Neill and John Redman were cited with obstructing an officer, and O'Neill also with simple battery for allegedly pushing an officer as they challenged the new fence barricades. O'Neill has a date in court January 28. Redman pled not guilty and awaits a trial date. Roger Scholl was charged with wearing a mask under a seldom-invoked Georgia law aimed at the Ku Klux Klan. He pled no contest and was fined.A shadow that hung over the weekend was news that two former SOA Watch prisoners of conscience Sue Daniels and Niklan Jones-Lezama - were missing under suspicious circumstances. Days after Daniels' rural Virginia cabin was found entirely consumed in flames, and investigators confirmed that her remains were among the ashes, the Giles County sheriff's office concluded their deaths were a murder-suicide. It is believed that Jones-Lezama, whose body was found by friends a couple of hundred yards away from the cabin, took Daniels' life and then his own on Thursday morning, November 18.See the full content of this document
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16,000 Rally at Ft. Benning, 12 Headed to Federal Prison
A record 16,000 human rights activists gathered in Columbus, Georgia, November 19-21, for the 14th annual weekend of protest and resistance demanding the closure of the infamous School of the Americas (now known officially as the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation) at Fort Benning.
A significant legal victory preceded the event on W...See the full content of this document
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