If You Want to Support Our Ongoing Trials and Appeals

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Upstate Drone Action

This is an urgent request for financial support needed to challenge the growing misuse of orders of protection to stifle dissent, and to fund the mounting legal costs of the many drone resisters at Hancock Air Base who have been served with these orders of protection. Legal proceedings are expensive, and like other public services, they are most burdensome for those with small incomes from Social Security, pensions and low paying or part time employment.

Orders of protection, typically used to protect victims of domestic violence, have been issued to over 50 people participating since 2012 in nonviolent resistance actions at Hancock Air Base, where weaponized drones are remotely piloted. The stated purpose of all these orders is, astonishingly, to “protect” a Hancock base commander from these nonviolent protesters. Their real intent is to keep resisters away from the base. Continue reading →

Show Trials

Posted on July 20, 2014 by Upstate Drone Action

In a post called “The Hancock Show Trials: Quashing Dissent Against America’s Criminal Drone Killing Program” on the blog of No Drones New York State, anti-drone activist Joe Scary says:

What is particularly significant about the upcoming trials is that they are part of a government plan to put a chill, once and for all, on citizens’ exercise of Constitutional rights. The citizens rely on Bill of Rights protections, Constitutional provisions about civilian control over the military, and the international treaties covering conduct of war and human rights, to which the United States is a party. The position of the government is that no dissent will be tolerated, and that the severity of the penalties for expression will be rapidly escalated, until the point where dissent is cut off entirely.

Continue reading →

Press Release: Drone Activist Released on Appeal

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Upstate Drone Action

Drone Activist Mary Anne Grady Flores
Released on Appeal of Violation of Order of Protection

July 18, 2014, Syracuse, NY Last night Mary Anne Grady Flores was released on $5,000 bail from the Syracuse Justice Center after appearing before County Court Judge Thomas J. Miller who granted a stay of execution of her one year sentence, pending appeal of the Order of Protection granted to Col. Earl A. Evans by the DeWitt Town Court judges requiring drone protesters to stay away from the Hancock Airbase. Continue reading →

The Four Perversions

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Upstate Drone Action

This is an excerpt from Mary Anne Grady Flores Sentencing Statement that was written with the assistance of Doug Noble:

“Your honor, a series of judicial perversions brings me here before you tonight.”

First, I was convicted of violating an order of protection that represents a perversion of its intended use to protect victims of domestic violence. This order allegedly protects the commander of a military base who said himself under oath that he neither knows me nor needs protection from me. The real purpose of this order is to stifle dissent at the base. Continue reading →

Hancock Air Base and Orders of Protection

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Carol Baum

Reprinted from the Syracuse Peace Council Newsletter.

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the above defendant, [name] observe the following conditions of behavior:

Stay away from Earl A. Evans; the home of Earl A. Evans; the school of Earl A. Evans; the business of Earl A. Evans; the place of employment of Earl A. Evans;
Refrain from communication or any other contact by mail, telephone, e-mail, voice-mail, or other electronic or any other means with Earl A. Evans;
Refrain from assault, stalking, harassment, aggravated harassment, menacing, reckless endangerment, strangulation, criminal obstruction of breathing or circulation, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, forcible touching, intimidation, threats or any criminal offense or interference with the victim…

From the order of protection issued by Town of DeWitt Justices to all nonviolent civil resisters arrested at Hancock Air Base since October, 2012. Beginning in May, 2014, new language was added to allow those with orders to participate in legally permitted activities at the base. About 50 activists are currently subject to orders of protection. Col. Evans was Hancock’s mission support group commander. Continue reading →

Drone Resister Sentenced to One Year

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Upstate Drone Action

Video provided by Cris McConkey Productions

Mary Anne Grady Flores Sentencing Hearing following her conviction on the charge of ‘Contempt’ by a 6 person jury in DeWitt Town Court before Judge David S. Gideon. Mary Anne was charged for walking in the highway in front of the access road leading to the guard shack, taking pictures of protesters who were protesting the piloting of MQ-9 Reaper drones from Hancock Air National Guard Base. These drones fly over Afghanistan where they target and execute people on the ground. Targets often include civilians in their homes and cars going about the business of daily life.

Click the times below to see specific segments of the video. Continue reading →

Press Conference Before Sentencing of Drone Resister

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Upstate Drone Action

Video by: Cris McConkey Productions of Ithaca, New York

We had a Press Conference outside the DeWitt Court House preceding Mary Anne Grady Flores’ sentencing after her conviction on the charge of ‘Contempt’ for violating the Order of Protection served to her on behalf of Col. Earl A. Evans.

Mary Anne’s ‘crime’ consisted of walking on a public highway taking pictures during a protest at Hancock Base. She did not participate in the protest, which she thought was the intent of the Order of Protection. Continue reading →

Press Release: Drone Resister Sentenced to One Year in Jail

Posted on July 12, 2014 by Upstate Drone Action

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Drone Resister Sentenced to One Year in Prison
Base’s Order of Protection Begs Judgement

On July 10, grandmother of three, Mary Anne Grady Flores was sentenced to one year in prison for being found guilty of violating an order of protection. A packed courtroom of over 100 supporters was stunned as she was led away, and vowed to continue the resistance.

These orders of protection, typically used in domestic violence situations or to protect a victim or witness to a crime, have been issued to people participating in nonviolent resistance actions at Hancock Air Base since late 2012. The base, near Syracuse NY, pilots unmanned Reaper drones over Afghanistan, and trains drone pilots, sensor operators and maintenance technicians. The orders had been issued to “protect” Colonel Earl Evans, Hancock’s Mission Support Commander, who wanted to keep protesters “out of his driveway.” Continue reading →

Press Release: Mary Anne Grady Flores Sentence

Posted on July 12, 2014 by Upstate Drone Action

Mary Anne Grady Flores with grandchildren,
Madailein, Clare, and Ariel.

PRESS RELEASE
July 8, 2014

For Immediate Release:

First Hancock Base “Order of Protection Violator” to Be Sentenced July 10

Peaceful Protester: “Drone attack victims, not base commanders, need orders of protection.”

Syracuse, NY — Drone activist Mary Anne Grady Flores will be sentenced by Town of DeWitt Judge David S. Gideon on Thursday, July 10, at 6pm, DeWitt Town Court, 5400 Butternut Dr., East Syracuse.

The sentence, which could involve as much as a year’s jail time, is being handed down for violating an order that the defendant, a grandmother of three, believes to be grossly unjust. Continue reading →

The People’s Order of Protection

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Upstate Drone Action

Our April Action this year was the delivery of a People’s Order of Protection to Hancock Base. Cris Conkey of Ithaca created this great video of the event:

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Resistance to Automated Warfare, beginning in Our Own Back Yard!