Arrests for War Resistance Rise Again - a must read

http://counterpunch.com/quigley06202008.html


The Big Lock-Up


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The information comes from the NUCLEAR RESISTER, a newsletter that has been reporting detailed arrest information on peace activists and other social justice campaigns since 1980. Felice and Jack Cohen-Joppa, publishers of the NUCLEAR RESISTER, document arrests by name and date based on information collected from newspapers across the country and from defense lawyers and peace activists.

Since 2002, the NUCLEAR RESISTER has documented anti-war arrests for protestors each year:

2002 – 1800 arrests
2003 6072 arrests
2004 2440 arrests
2005 975 arrests
2006 950 arrests
2007 2272 arrests
2008 810 as of May 1

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“In fact,” Cohen-Joppa writes , “in 2007, anti-war arrests were reported during 250 distinct events in 105 cities in 35 states and the District of Columbia. So far in 2008, arrests have been reported at 65 events in 43 different cities in 19 states and D.C.”

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“There are large numbers of new people being arrested,” notes Cohen-Joppa, “most typically saying, ‘I have tried everything else from writing to voting, but I have to do more to stop this war.’ The profile of people arrested includes high school teenagers to senior citizens, mostly people under 30 and over 50.”

Anti-war arrests are significantly under-reported by mainstream media. For example, around the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq in March 2008, most news stories wrote that there were 150 to 200 arrests nationwide. Cohen-Joppa and NUCLEAR RESISTER report there were over double that number, well over 400, many outside the cities where regular media traditionally look.

(well, we sure know that!)

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Though war resistance activities and arrests have not stopped the war in Iraq, those struggling for peace remain committed. “None of us know what will happen if we continue to work for peace and human rights,” says a handmade poster of one involved in the resistance, “But we all know what will happen if we don’t.”
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For example, I was arrested once in 2003, but very nearly arrested twice (I got off the second time with a faceful of tear gas). Had I been arrested the second time, would that have counted as two of the 6,072 arrests in that year? If so, this could be an inflation of the number of people actually arrested, as the same people tend to get arrested several times over.

resist war too openly or loudly - gets you arrested in the neo con world.