Arrestees were held at the police station for a couple of hours and told that they would be be taken to the Otero County Detention Center to be processed and held over night. A couple of hours later, much to their surprise, the arrestees were escorted to the nearby courthouse to be arraigned, and were released at about 1pm. No transfer to the detention center!
New local allies have joined our Holloman campaign!! Thank you Scott Thompson, Veterans For Peace Alamogordo resident who joined every vigil-see Scott’s quote in the Press Release attached. Thank you Lee Burnett, Alamogordo Episcopalian minister in training, who saw us on Highway 70 and joined us! Thank you Betts, Kathy, Bear, and Tim from Tucson and Las Cruces-we hope you join us next year. And huge thanks to the teachers and young students from NMSU who drove from Las Cruces to lead a Friday noon rally on Alamogordo’s "main drag,” White Sands Blvd., then joined us for the last afternoon commute vigil at Holloman AFB.
April 24, 2024
SIX ARRESTED WEDNESDAY FOR BLOCKING MAIN GATE AT HOLLOMAN AFB; Shut Down Drone Warfare Coalition Continues Protests
HOLLOMAN AFB – Six peace activists were arrested here at the main gate to Holloman AFB Wednesday (April 24, 2024) morning for blocking the entrance in a protest against the use of killer military drones.
All have been released as of early afternoon Wednesday after being arraigned. Future court dates to be determined.
The “Day of Nonviolent Resistance and Peaceful Civil Disobedience” may be followed by “other” spontaneous acts of resistance this week.
Those arrested released a statement:
“This morning the West then Main Gate to Holloman AFB were blocked during the morning commute. Initially 5 peace activists blocked entry for 20 minutes to the West Gate of Holloman AFB using banners/signs stating: U.S. Drone Warfare is Terrorism; Holloman: Stop Training Drone Assassins!!!; No Tax $$ for Genocide. Some of the blocked cars crossed the highway to go back to the main gate. Otero County Sheriff officers arrived. The activists went to the Main Gate.
“At the Main Gate, 6 activists blocked the roadway just feet away from the entrance into Holloman AFB using signage stating: Drone Pilots Refuse to Fly; Free Palestine; Honor our Vets, End War; No More War. The activists chanted: “We will not be complicit; Stop the drone killing; Stop the Genocide.” Within 10 minutes, Otero County Sheriff officers arrived and arrested the six that were blocking the roadway.”
From Monday, April 22, 2024 through Friday, April 26, peace groups in the coalition, Shut Down Drone Warfare.org (SDDW), have converged for a week of focused nonviolent actions outside Holloman Air Force Base, a U.S. military drone base near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Why?
Holloman AFB, on Hwy 70 in southern NM, has become the largest drone training program in the U.S., graduating over 700 pilots and operators annually. Activists from 4 different states in the region will be participating in the week’s protest.
SDDW will hold varied themed vigils daily during commute hours, M-F, (6:30-8:30am and 3:30-5:30pm). The week culminates in a day of nonviolent civil disobedience on Wed, April 24, during which they hope to peacefully interrupt “business as usual” for as long as possible by blocking the early am commute.
Via thoughtful messaging participants hope to educate Air Force personnel about the full effects of U.S. globalized militarization, and in particular the failings of the U.S.drone program and to urge those training to reconsider their participation, which often leads to significant psychic trauma.
In addition to a focus on Air Force personnel at Holloman, members will do educational outreach in the local community of Alamogordo.
Scott Thompson, Alamogordo resident and SDDW participant says,
Organizer, Toby Blomé, says: “In spite of 14 years of persistent opposition to the U.S. drone program and the terror it brings to vulnerable communities, the Pentagon and the drone industry profiteers are plowing forward, creating an ever more destabilized world of weaponized drones. We will not be silent while young recruits continue to be trained in these heinous acts of remotely controlled killing, ultimately becoming victims themselves due to the consequences of severe moral injury. This is not the world we want for our grandchildren, nor for the generations that follow them.”
The late Martin Luther King Jr., said that acts of nonviolent direct action serve to “create and foster such a tension” as to demand a response. He wrote "nonviolent resistance was one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people in their quest for social justice.”
FMI: www.ShutDownDroneWarfare.org
Co-sponsored by CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace and Ban Killer Drones
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