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Monday, November 27, 2006
Sacred Streets and Spaces
Today, two of the fourteen protesters that were arrested outside of Crawford last Easter will be tried. They were charged with obstructing a street. But they weren't obstructing a street. They were in the grass, a few yards off of the road. One at a time, each of the fourteen would enter a tent and the sheriff would pull them out and arrest them. They were challenging the law that was made after the first Camp Casey in the summer of 2005 which stopped anyone from being able to stop alongside a road anywhere near W's "ranch" (see sign above - they are posted for miles around W's place).
ACLU Press Release
CRIMINAL TRIAL BEGINS MONDAY IN CRAWFORD PROTEST CASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Lisa Graybill, Legal Director
(512) 971-2927
November 25, 2006
WACO--The jury trial of two Iraq war protestors charged with obstructing a street near President Bush's Crawford ranch begins this Monday in Waco, Texas. Em Hardy, an Austin psychologist, and Hiram Myers, a retired attorney and veteran of the Korean War, were arrested along with twelve other protestors on April 14, 2006 as they sat peacefully inside a shade tent in a ditch adjoining Prairie Chapel Road, which leads to President Bush's Crawford Ranch about 4 miles away.
ACLU of Texas Cooperating Attorney David Broiles, who, along with his law partner Karin Cagle represents Myers and Hardy, stated, "Our clients were charged with this crime for no other reason than that they were exercising their First Amendment right to protest the war in Iraq."
The protesters were arrested at the scene of "Camp Casey I," which was established in August 2005 by Cindy Sheehan. Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, became a leading voice against the war after going to Crawford in the hopes of meeting with President Bush. She was joined by thousands of activists from across the country at Camp Casey I, including Daniel Ellsberg, author of the Pentagon Papers, and Ann Wright, a Colonel with the US Army Reserve and former Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Afghanistan, who resigned from the State Department in protest of the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Hardy and Myers were charged with violating Texas Penal Code ยง 42.03, which prohibits obstructing the street. It is undisputed that neither Hardy, nor Myers, nor any of the other protestors were obstructing the street or preventing the free flow of traffic; rather, they were sitting well away from the street. Lisa Graybill, Legal Director of the ACLU of Texas, noted, "Discriminatory enforcement of the law based on the viewpoint of the speaker is not permissible under the U.S. Constitution."
Jury selection in Myers' and Hardy's trial begins at 9 am Monday in McClennan County Criminal Court No. 2.
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posted by Carol at 9:11 AM
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