Thursday, April 27, 2006

18 members of the Granny Peace Brigade (an anti-war activist group) were acquitted on charges of disorderly conduct during a protest outside a Times Square military recruiting center in New York City last fall.

The defendants in the case – some were in their 80s and 90s – were charged with two counts of disorderly conduct during their October 17, 2005 protest of the Iraq war.

The Judge Neil Ross says that his verdict is not a critique of any particular police agency but that evidence showed there was no blockage of pedestrian traffic and anyone who wanted to enter the recruiting center could do so. The Manhattan courtroom erupted into applause after Judge Ross said that the prosecution “failed to prove each defendant guilty of each charge.”

The defense lawyer Norman Siegel said that the women were pleased by the verdict and was quoted saying that, “They are great Americans, and they walk the shoes of great Americans who have made America the place that it is,”

If any of the defendants were convicted, they each could have faced up to 15 days in prison.