Last weekend, May 17th, protestors infiltrated Volk Field in Highland, WI. Volk Field is well known as a training site for drone pilots, working to instill them with skills likely to later be applied to the infliction of death and terror on innocent people in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere in the world. The demonstrators managed to gain entry to the base during an open house and were arrested for seeking to spread awareness of the consequences of drone warfare to other visitors.
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| "DRONE WARFARE STARTS HERE". Spreading awareness of the drone pilot training happening at Volk. |
From Bonnie Block of Madison, who along with Father Jim Murphy was one of those arrested:
"We boarded the bus for Volk Field. (no ID checks there or at the gate house). National Guardsmen drove the bus and narrated the tour all over the base...We drove by the TUAS facility where the drones are apparently housed but there was no word about what they did there other than "they can use remotely controlled cameras to triangulate where ordnance has landed" or words to that effect. Not a word about their being used in drone warfare."
"The final stop was at the National Guard Museum where we could get off the bus. Jim and I were in the front seat so we got off first and I opened my jacket so the t-shirt was visible and we offered our handout to people getting off the bus...One of the Guardsmen quickly said we couldn't do that on the base and that we had to stop handing out "propaganda." They hadn't read the handout so I gave two of them to one of the men and said it was just a series of questions they should read."
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| "Let us NOT become the evil that we deplore." |
"One of them then called base security--five arrived within minutes (the guys in the dark blue uniforms) so we had nine people in uniforms surrounding us. They said we couldn't leaflet and had to leave. Jim said we wanted to see the museum and would continue to leaflet so they called the Sheriff. Two squad cars arrived within minutes and we were handcuffed and taken to Mauston in separate vehicles..."
"We were processed fairly promptly at the Jail and released on a signature bond. The charges are criminal misdeamenors-- trespassing and disorderly conduct again and we have the initial hearing on June 18 at 9 am. "
"Special thanks to Mary Beth, Kathy, and Cassandra for support and for picking us up from the Jail and getting Jim's car from Volk Field to Mauston. We then went to the park along the river behind the Mauston library and had lunch and some of Kathy's delicious birthday cake."
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| Standing strongly together against drone terrorism in Wisconsin. |
There is a long, proud history of Wisconsinites standing up to the criminal activities at Volk. Many came out last April, and many, including Bonnie Block, have engaged in civil disobedience there before, as reported by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.
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| The Spring Days of Drone Action continue nationwide. CLICK HERE for more information! |
