Drone Protestor Mary Anne Grady Flores Speaks before Six Month Jail Term for touching a road.

[L. Coyote]

Published on Jan 19, 2016
Hancock resister Mary Anne Grady Flores speaks about the importance of protesting our government's use of drones, just before going to jail.

A Drone Protestor Heads to Jail

Mary Anne Grady Flores is in jail today and American citizens everywhere can surely breathe a sigh of relief that we are safe from her criminal behavior at least for the next six months.

That’s the length of the sentence this 59-year-old peace activist in upstate New York began on Tuesday — one day after the United States honored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for his commitment to nonviolent civil disobedience. If he were here today, the martyred Dr. King would surely be shaking his head that America still has a problem with peaceful dissenters of conscience.

And what exactly did Grady Flores do to warrant spending the next six months in jail? She photographed a peaceful protest outside Hancock Field Air National Guard Base near Syracuse, New York. The base is where the US trains pilots to launch drone strikes in the Middle East, particularly in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. It wasn’t a crime for her to be taking pictures of the demonstration, but when she briefly and unintentionally — yes, unintentionally — stepped onto a road that belongs to the base, she violated what authorities called “an order of protection,” which had been issued in 2012 to forbid protesters from approaching the home or workplace of Col. Earl Evans, a commander of the 174th Attack Wing of the Air National Guard. She had never met Evans, never threatened him, never showed any intention of harming him.
Mary-Anne-Grady-Flores_headshot-1024x673_(1).jpg (Video still from Mary Anne Grady Flores’ press conference before reporting to jail. Via YouTube.)

Nonetheless, a town justice, David Gideon, issued the order to “protect” the Colonel from the activists. That’s right — the commander of a major military operation, piloting drones on lethal missions half-way around the world, requested a court order of protection against a group of mostly gray-haired demonstrators ..........

[StandingInLeftField]

1. And yet, at a remote wildlife refuge..

in a State far, far away….

[JEB]

2. That is exactly where my mind went.

What a farce we have for Justice these days.

[L. Coyote]

3. I knew I didn't have to say it in the OP! ---- #BundyTeaParty

[center]



http://www.gohomemalheur.org/

Number of Days the Malheur NWR Occupied: 22
Amount Pledged Per Day: $3022.50
Total Amount Pledged: $68,795.00 Number of pledges: 1455

[L. Coyote]

4. Democracy Now: Amy Goodman interviews Mary Anne

Photographing Drone War Protest Lands Peace Activist, Grandmother 6 Months in Prison
January 19, 2016 WATCH SHOW

An upstate New York peace activist and grandmother is heading to jail today to begin a six-month sentence for photographing a protest at a base where U.S. drones are piloted remotely. Mary Anne Grady Flores had been issued an order of protection aimed at keeping her away from Hancock Field Air National Guard Base after she participated in an act of civil disobedience there in 2012. In 2013, Grady Flores says she attended another peace action but did not participate, instead photographing it from the roadway, beyond what she believed was the base’s boundary. She was later told the base’s property extended into the road. Grady Flores was later sentenced to a year in prison for violating the protection order. Earlier this month, she was told her conviction had been upheld but her sentence reduced to six months, and was ordered to report to prison today ......

[center]

Published on Jan 19, 2016

[L. Coyote]

5. Part Two, extended interview, web exclusive:

Web Exclusive: Drone War Protester Mary Anne Grady Flores Speaks Out Ahead of Six-Month Jail Term

[niyad]

6. sadly, this is not in the least surprising, given that we live in bizarro world.