This afternoon, December 16, town of DeWitt (NY) judge Robert Jokl dismissed the charges against the five anti-Reaper drone protesters arrested on September 21, 2015. The protesters had blocked the main entrance of Hancock Air Force Base near Syracuse with three long one-word banners reading DRONES KILL CHILDREN. Hancock is the home of the 174th Attack Wing of the New York State National Guard.
The five Central New Yorkers are from Syracuse and Ithaca, and are each active in the Upstate Drone Action Coalition.
That Coalition alleges that the 174th Attack Wing commits ongoing war crime for its weaponized Reaper drone missions over Afghanistan. The robotic unmanned Reapers operated by remote control notoriously kill many civilians both within and beyond war zones through the Middle East and West Asia.
Pro bono attorney Jonathan Wallace argued before Judge Jokl that the prosecution’s paperwork was woefully inadequate. That the prosecutor failed to even appear in court probably did not help his case.
The five – along with many others — have each been arrested and incarcerated for previous nonviolent anti-drone protests at Hancock:
Dan Burgevin
Ed Kinane
Bonny Mahoney
Julienne Oldfield
James Ricks.
Since 2010 scores of Upstate Drone Action members have been arrested for their nonviolent protests at Hancock.###
