Action Alert: Prison for Protesting Drones
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November 29, 2012
The appearance of war being made easy by drones is resulting in more war. In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and in places we don't know about, in places where we are not at war, we're sending these unmanned pilotless airplanes into foreign air space to hunt down people who've been accused of crimes only in the private court of the administration. They're hunted down and killed along with anybody who might be in the immediate vicinity. Drones are creating new wars rather than scaling down old ones. Drone pilots in Afghanistan have been targeted and killed. Drone pilots in the United States suffer PTSD at higher rates than real pilots Drone victims are 98% innocent civilians according to the recent Stanford/NYU study. The other 2% are targeted victims of murder without charge, trial, due process, or in many cases even knowing the target's name. Drones buzzing over houses traumatize children before they kill them. That those children are (in most cases) not American hardly diminishes the immorality. As I head to prison I urge you to add your name to the petition to ban drones and to ask others to do so. Back on April 15th, about 40 people, mostly from the Kansas City area, went to Whiteman Air Force Base and held a short rally outside the gates on a public right of way. We had a petition -- an indictment we called it -- that listed the laws that drones are violating and the damage they are doing. We took that to the gate and were stopped. Three of us asked directions to deliver the petition and were immediately put in handcuffs. About 40 military police in full riot gear appeared (video) and did a choreographed dance including high kicks and grunts and beating their shields, two steps forward and one step back, to get rid of the rest of the U.S. citizens, who were acting legally under the First Amendment. At my sentencing I told the judge: "Our expert witnesses testified that our behavior was consistent with the activities that the drafters of the First Amendment intended to be protected, not persecuted, by the government. The order and security of the base would not have been compromised had the security police allowed us to proceed to the headquarters to deliver our petition. No testimony to the contrary was offered this court. Sign the petition to ban militarized drones now, before it is delivered to government officials. Please forward this email widely to like-minded friends. --Brian Terrell for RootsAction.org Background: Organizations Supporting This Petition (partial and growing list): |
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My name is Brian Terrell. I'm co-coordinator of a group called Voices for Creative Nonviolence. We support the 
