“Activists” Occupation Justified..... comment on article from the CR Gazette.
11 “peace activists” who are in trial in Linn County for Criminal Trespass insist they were justified in staying at the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids after hours on 2/26/07 because of the urgent need to speak to Senator Chuck Grassley about ending the war in Iraq. These “activists” are part of a group called the Occupation Project, an anti-war campaign of “sustained civil disobedience”
They say they were just participating in Democracy... First off, Senator Grassley doesn’t make the call to end the war or not, furthermore he wasn’t even at his office, he was out of the state and actually on a flight at the time. These Protesters... oops they don’t want to be called that, “activists” were told he wasn’t there and spoke to aides of the Senator. At 5pm when the courthouse was closing they were asked to leave... all but 11 of them did... What good reason did they have to stay after they had found out that Grassley was not there, nor was he coming there that day? Short answer... no good reason at all. They just wanted the publicity that it generated... I found it interesting that of those who were arrested almost half of them aren’t even from Iowa... most are U of I students, but I take it since they listed their residences as out of the state, Mr. Grassley is not even their Senator. I’m all for freedom of speech and can support the right to protest, but other than being a stunt to create publicity, there is no reason they had to stay at the courthouse after hours, since the one they claim they were trying to see was nowhere near the building. They should pay the penalty for their trespass.
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