Institute for Public Accuracy Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence,
was just sentenced to three months in prison for protesting
against drone killings. She has been told to
“self-report” by the court on Jan. 23.
She recently wrote the piece “Drones and Discrimination: Kick the Habit,”
which states: “On December 10, International Human Rights Day, federal
Magistrate Matt Whitworth sentenced me to three months in prison for
having crossed the line at a military base that wages drone warfare. The
punishment for our attempt to speak on behalf of trapped and desperate
people, abroad, will be an opportunity to speak with people trapped by
prisons and impoverishment here in the U.S.
“Our trial was based on a trespass charge incurred on June 1,
2014. Georgia Walker and I were immediately arrested when we stepped
onto Missouri’s Whiteman Air Force where pilots fly weaponized drones
over Afghanistan and other countries. We carried a loaf of bread and a
letter for Brig Gen. Glen D. Van Herck. In court, we testified that we
hadn’t acted with criminal intent but had, rather, exercised our First
Amendment right (and responsibility) to assemble peaceably for redress
of grievance.
“A group of Afghan friends had entrusted me with a simple
message, their grievance, which they couldn’t personally deliver: please
stop killing us.
“I knew that people I’ve lived with, striving to end wars even as
their communities were bombed by drone aircraft, would understand the
symbolism of asking to break bread with the base commander. Judge
Whitworth said he understood that we oppose war, but he could recommend
over 100 better ways to make our point that wouldn’t be breaking the
law.
“The prosecution recommended the maximum six month sentence. ‘Ms.
Kelly needs to be rehabilitated,’ said an earnest young military
lawyer. The judge paged through a four page summary of past convictions
and agreed that I hadn’t yet learned not to break the law.”
Unmentioned was the fact that neither have Barack Obama, the CIA, Dick Cheney, George Bush and the NSA learned not to break the law either - TPR
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