4.28.2006
'Grannies' Charged in Peace Protest Are Acquitted (NYTimes.com)
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: April 27, 2006
They came, they hobbled, they conquered.
Eighteen "grannies" who were swept up by New York City police, handcuffed, loaded into paddywagons and jailed for four and a half hours were acquitted today of charges that they blocked the entrance to the military recruitment center in Times Square when they tried to enlist.
After six days of a non-jury trial, the grannies — who said they wanted to offer their lives for those of younger soldiers in Iraq — and dozens of supporters filled a cramped courtroom today in Manhattan Criminal Court to hear whether they would be found guilty of two counts of disorderly conduct for refusing to move, which could have put them in jail for 15 days.
The 18 women — gray haired, some carrying canes, one legally blind, one with a walker — listened gravely and in obvious suspense as Judge Neil Ross delivered a carefully worded 15-minute speech in which he said that his verdict was not a referendum on the Police Department, the anti-war message of the grannies, or, indeed, their very grandmotherhood.
But, he said, there was credible evidence that the grandmothers had left room for people to enter the recruitment center, had they wanted to, and that therefore, they had been wrongly arrested. He then pronounced them not guilty, concluding: "The defendants are discharged."
The women, sitting in the jury box at the invitation of the judge, to make it easier for them to see and hear, let out a collective "Oh!" and burst into applause, rushing forward, as quickly as elderly women could rush, to hug and kiss their lawyers, Norman Siegel, the former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and Earl Ward.
(More ... 'Grannies' Charged in Peace Protest Are Acquitted - New York Times) ¶ 08:03
Published: April 27, 2006
They came, they hobbled, they conquered.
Eighteen "grannies" who were swept up by New York City police, handcuffed, loaded into paddywagons and jailed for four and a half hours were acquitted today of charges that they blocked the entrance to the military recruitment center in Times Square when they tried to enlist.
After six days of a non-jury trial, the grannies — who said they wanted to offer their lives for those of younger soldiers in Iraq — and dozens of supporters filled a cramped courtroom today in Manhattan Criminal Court to hear whether they would be found guilty of two counts of disorderly conduct for refusing to move, which could have put them in jail for 15 days.
The 18 women — gray haired, some carrying canes, one legally blind, one with a walker — listened gravely and in obvious suspense as Judge Neil Ross delivered a carefully worded 15-minute speech in which he said that his verdict was not a referendum on the Police Department, the anti-war message of the grannies, or, indeed, their very grandmotherhood.
But, he said, there was credible evidence that the grandmothers had left room for people to enter the recruitment center, had they wanted to, and that therefore, they had been wrongly arrested. He then pronounced them not guilty, concluding: "The defendants are discharged."
The women, sitting in the jury box at the invitation of the judge, to make it easier for them to see and hear, let out a collective "Oh!" and burst into applause, rushing forward, as quickly as elderly women could rush, to hug and kiss their lawyers, Norman Siegel, the former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and Earl Ward.
(More ... 'Grannies' Charged in Peace Protest Are Acquitted - New York Times) ¶ 08:03
