March 6 2007
Updated 5:00 PM CST
Three arrested in Grassley office occupation
From the Des Moines Register:
Three Iowa peace activists participating in a national campaign of sustained civil disobedience Monday were arrested when they refused to leave the office of Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, Des Moines police said.
Lindsay Ayling, 19, and Brian Perbix, 20, Grinnell College students, and Chris Gaunt of Grinnell had delivered a 350-signature petition that urged the senator to stop the funding for the war in Iraq. They hoped to elicit a pledge from Grassley that he would vote against President Bush’s $93 billion war appropriation request.
The three members of the Occupation Project, a national civil disobedience campaign, were charged with trespassing. They were held overnight in the Polk County Jail and will be arraigned today.
The following is the press release from March 5th:
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MONDAY, MARCH 5TH, 2007
SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY’S OFFICES
IN DES MOINES OCCUPIED
ACTIVISTS DEMAND SENATOR VOTE TO DEFUND THE WAR IN IRAQ
Peace activists with the Occupation Project, a national campaign of sustained civil disobedience, will enter the offices of Senator Charles Grassley at 1:30 pm today in Des Moines and with the intention of remaining until the senator agrees to vote against President Bush’s request of $93,000,000,000 to fund the war in Iraq. These activists will present Senator Grassley with a petition containing 350 signatures from the Grinnell College community urging the Senator to defund the war. Similar “occupations” have been occurring in congressional offices all over the country since the campaign was announced by Voices for Creative Nonviolence, www.vcnv.org, based in Chicago on February 5 and has resulted in dozens of arrests, including 12 activists in Grassley’s Cedar Rapids office and 7 activists in Grassley’s Des Moines office last Monday.
“We are insisting that if the US people, who themselves have given mandates to elected leaders that they don’t want to see this war continue, that they can see through the ruse of continuing to sustain corporate military growth at the expense of so many people’s lives, including lives in the United States,” said Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence shortly after being released from jail resulting from her occupation of Senator Jack McCain’s office in Washington. “If we continue to express this directly and clearly through nonviolent civil disobedience, we believe that elected leaders with conscience will pay attention.”
While members of the Occupation Project believe their actions to be consistent with constitutionally guaranteed rights to “peacefully to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” they accept the risk that their nonviolent occupations will end in their arrests. “By cutting off debate on the nonbinding resolution against the surge, Grassley has demonstrated that he is not acting in the interest of our soldiers in Iraq. By voting to end funding for the war, the Senator has an opportunity to help our armed forces by bringing them home,” says Brian Perbix, a Grinnell College Student who is occupying the senator’s Des Moines office.
Those risking arrest in Des Moines include:
Lindsay Ayling, Grinnell College Student
Chris Gaunt of Grinnell
Brian Perbix, Grinnell College Student
Contact:
Latona Giwa (641) 269-3694
Karla Hansen (515) 710 - 0123
