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.”

Mary Anne began her sentencing statement with, “Your honor, a series of judicial perversions brings me here before you tonight.” She concluded that the “final perversion is the reversal of who is the real victim here: the commander of a military base whose drones kill innocent people halfway around the world, or those innocent people themselves who are the real ones in need of protection from the terror of US drone attacks?” 

The orders of protection are being challenged on many legal grounds.

Mary Anne had been issued a temporary order in 2012. The next year, she photographed a nonviolent witness at the base, not participating herself because she did not want to violate the order. The irony is that those who actually participated in the action were acquitted, while Mary Anne was charged with violating the order.

Even though the pre-sentencing report recommended no jail time, Judge Gideon sentenced Mary Anne to the maximum of a year in prison. As he imposed his sentence, the judge referred to his previous Hancock decision. He had stated then and insinuated now, “This has got to stop.”

In addition, Mary Anne was fined $1000 plus a $205 court surcharge and a $50 fee to have her DNA collected.

Her verdict is being appealed.

Contacts:
All are members of Upstate NY Drone Action
Carol Baum, Syracuse Peace Council (Syracuse), 315.472.5478 (SPC), 315.383.5738 (cell)
Ellen Grady, Ithaca Catholic Worker (Ithaca), 607.279.8303
Jim Clune, Broome County Peace Action (Binghamton), 607.773.0246
Judy Bello, Upstate Drone Action (Rochester), 585.733.4058
Vicki Ross, Western New York Peace Center (Buffalo), 716.884.0582
John Amidon, Veterans for Peace (Albany), 518.312.6442
Mark Colville, Amistad Catholic Worker (New Haven, CT), 203.415.5896



To write Mary Anne, please use this address:

Mary Anne Grady Flores
#12001966
Jamesville Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 143
Jamesville, NY 13708



To make a donation to her case, please make checks out to:

Ithaca Catholic Worker (with Mary Anne’s name in the memo)

And send to:

133 Sheffield Road
Ithaca, New York 14850

Dr. Cornel West presents a lecture entitled "Connecting The Dots: Poverty, Drones & Racism," held at the Tucker Missionary Baptist Church on April 27, 2014. The event was organized by The Upstate Coalition To Ground The Drones and The Syracuse Peace Council.

Clare Grady wrote this letter while imprisoned in the Justice Center in Syracuse for an action she took part in at the Hancock drone base on June 28th, 2012.

Dear Judge Giddeon,

Warm greetings from a very cold cell.  As I prepare to go before you today, I write a few words about why we go to Hancock Air Base.  We come saying clearly with our words and deeds, that we will not be complicit with our government's War Crimes.  We come to Resist the use of Killer Drones.  Killer Drones kill the innocent, violate National Sovereignty, terrorize and bully smaller and weaker nations and people, almost always people of color.  Their use is illegal, violating the Supreme Laws of our Land.  We are all responsible for the crimes of our government.  To the extent that we allow our government to kill whoever it wants, when ever it wants, however it wants with not accountability, we send the message here and around the world that if you are the biggest bully, you can act above the law.

My observation here at the Justice Center, where I am jailed, is that women are doing time for open container, dirty urines, and theft to support their drug addiction.  Our jails and prisons are filled with men and women, 2.3 Million of them, mostly poor, disproportionately people of color.  Their offenses cannot be compared to those of the leaders and commanders of this country and military, the largest most powerful in the world.  Our military kills the innocent with impunity as a matter of policy, and spends Trillions of dollars, stolen from our children and future generations, to maintain it's superpower status.

The corollary I see is that to the extent that we fail to hold ourselves and our government accountable for the Big crimes of Mass Murder and Grand Theft, we will continue to scapegoat others here and around the world, those most marginalized already, people of color and poor people.  We will continue to profile, target, criminalize, imprison, torture and kill them as a matter of policy.

Let us undergo a revolution of values that seeks Peace with Justice not War, that puts humanity first, not the gods of militarism, racism, and greed.  I hope we help each other in such a revolution, because we are all in this together.

Thank you, and Blessings upon you.

Clare Grady

By David Swanson
Friday, May 23, 2014
Reprinted from http://warisacrime.org/

Judging from my email box in recent years -- which often differs on this question with such sources of knowledge as my television or the New York Times -- the conscience of our country lies somewhere near Syracuse, New York.  Here's an email from an activist named Judy Bello, for example:

"Breaking news: 
"MaryAnne Grady-Flores was convicted in DeWitt Town Court last night on 2nd Degree Contempt of an Order Of Protection.  Grady-Flores, who did not intend to violate the Order despite its immorality and invalidity, was taking pictures of others at the base - the Ash Wednesday Witnesses -  who engaged in nonviolent civil resistance blocking the front Gate to Hancock base for which they were subsequently acquitted.

"In a heinous abuse of an instrument meant to protect the innocent from violence, Orders of Protection are being used toprotect violent transgressions of international and moral law from citizen oversight. While trying to publicize and support a movement to ground the drones and end the wars which take countless innocent lives, Grady-Flores was arrested for noncompliance with an order that does not specify particulars outside of how you might attack another human, something she would never do. She understood the Order to mean that she was forbidden to join the protest.

"The Guilty verdict was proffered by a jury 5 minutes after they had asked the judge for a legal definition of 'keep away', and he had replied that they 'are the sole triers of fact'.

"The two-day trial included testimony from Colonel Earl A. Evans who is the party protected by the OOP, Catholic Priests Father Bill Pickard and Tim Taugher, Catholic Workers Bill Frankel-Streit and Ellen Grady, sister. Grady-Flores also testified on her own behalf."

So, a woman dedicated to nonviolence was convicted of going near a military base, where a Colonel, not feeling safe enough with, you know, the military base, had a legal order of protection against her.  Of course this is a legalistic gimmick aimed at denying people their rights to speech and assembly, as at least one court has already ruled.  But it isn't working.  These people are continuing to speak and assemble.  And they're refusing to take plea bargains that would keep them out of prison.  Read more.

By Linda LeTendre
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Reprinted from www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/letendre/

Last Friday, May 16, Mary Anne Grady-Flores was found guilty by a six-person jury in DeWitt town court on second degree contempt of an order of protection (OOP). Grady-Flores did not intend to violate the order but was taking photographs of the Ash Wednesday witness against drones that I was a part of on back on February 13, 2013. The jury acquitted her of the disorderly conduct charge.

On October 24, 2013, myself and my fellow witnesses were, in a historic decision that made the national news, acquitted of disorderly conduct charges for that witness.

Grady-Flores, a grandmother and self employed caterer, was clear with all of us as were we planning the witness that she was not going to be part of the action because she did not want to violate the OOP. She was going to stay on the other side of the road. She crossed over briefly to take a photo — still thinking that she was not on base property — and returned to the other side of the street.

After the Ash Wednesday witness calling for our government to stop the bombing and killing of innocent people was over, and we had all been cuffed and hauled off, Grady-Flores was walking down the road, on the other side of the street, when a police officer recognized her as one of the people who had an OOP to stay away from Evans and arrested her.

So let's get the entire picture here.

This “order of protection” is for Col. Earl Evans, the commander of the Hancock Air National Guard Base in East Syracuse — who has never spoken to or met — any of the people against whom he has requested these orders of protections — much less been threatened by them.

At Grady-Flores' trial the good Colonel testified that he was not threatened by any these people, nor was he afraid of them. The orders of protection are to “keep people out of the road,” he told the court. (Never mind that there are victims of domestic violence in the Syracuse area who have been unable to obtain OOPs against people that actually hit them and a state Supreme Court judge's ruling that invalidated an order of protection against an anti-violence protester — the DA is appealing.)

Really? Why curtail people's First Amendment Rights? Why not just put up signs? After all the base owns to the middle of East Malloy Road — should be easy enough to keep people out of the road that you own by putting up signs telling people that they cannot be there. Or might that be too obvious?

Law enforcement personnel and the district attorney were unaware of where the property line for the base was. All assumed that the property line ended at the curbing and the roadway was public property. The correct property line was established at my trial when Evans testified that the base owned to the middle of Malloy Road. The DA could have just gotten a copy of the deed for the base from the tax assessor's office and seen for himself where the property line was — that's what I did. This confusion has since been rectified with signs making clear where private property ends and public property begins.


The guilty verdict was brought in the jury five minutes after they had asked the judge for a legal definition of "keep away,” and he had replied that they "are the sole triers of fact” — not giving them any explanation of something they obviously were not clear on. No one was really and if you asked at your arraignment for clarification on what specifically the order meant on certain points you were derided by the judge.

After the verdict was read the judge told Grady-Flores to “expect some jail time.” She could get up to a year.

So now we have the tax payers of Onondaga County about to pay $200+ per day to incarcerate someone who has never harmed or even threatened any person or property, has not stole or defrauded from anyone and is in no way an danger to the community, and has an invalid OPP against her. Even if he gives her only 30 days, that’s in excess of $6,000.

I don't know about you but I can think of some great ways to spend $6,000 — like rebuilding people's homes we have destroyed with our drones for starters.

The jury was picked yesterday. The prosecution began his case. His first witness was Col. Earl Evans, the one who has taken the order of protection out against many of us. He testified from the stand that he did not know Mary Anne, that he never met her and that he was not afraid of her. He said basically he wants the order of protection to keep us from blocking the Airbase. We will continue the trial again this morning. Come to court if you can. Friday, May 16th in DeWitt Town Court, 5400 Butternut Drive, Syracuse, NY.

Background info below:
1st Trial of Alleged Violation of Order of Protection at the Drone Base at Hancock Air National Guard Base, Syracuse, NY.

On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013, 8 Catholic Peace demonstrators were arrested at Hancock Airbase, holding signs that read:

"For Killing the Children, God Forgive Us!"

"For Maiming the Children, God Forgive Us!",

"We will not be in complicit with our governments War Crimes".

On that day, Grady Flores, an observer and support person, was arrested across the street and down the road as she walked to the diner, far from where the 8 others were arrested. (Those eight, by the way, were acquitted by Judge Jokl last October.)

Mary Anne Grady Flores is facing 1 year in jail, charged with allegedly violating an order of protection given on behalf of Colonel Earl A. Evans, who doesn't want any protesters at the base.

Grady Flores received the order of protection on Oct. 25th, 2012, when she and 16 others were arrested near Hancock. The order states that they must stay away from Colonel Evens' "place of employment".   Grady Flores, who had never heard of the Colonel, and didn't know what he looked like, is charged with: "Criminal Contempt 2", because she took photos of the demonstrators from the roadway on Feb 13, 2013.

Mary Anne is charged with criminal intent for wanting to stop the killing by drones from the Syracuse based 174th Attack Wing.  This killer drone Attack Wing kills ‘suspects’ without charges or arrest or trial.  Our values , our morality, our sense of justice, our law, is being destroyed.

We are off to court this morning in Syracuse for Mary Anne Grady Flores's trial. She was arrested 2/13/13 as she walked away from Hancock Airfield after taking pictures of the Ash Wednesday action at the main gate of the base were 8 of us stood with signs calling a halt to the war crimes being perpetrated from the base. She is having a jury trial. Her charge is contempt of court for violating the order of protection. If found guilty she is facing a year in jail.

Please join us at court today and tomorrow (5/15-16), 9am-4:30pm, DeWitt Town Court, 5400 Butternut Drive, East Syracuse, NY.

To learn more about the order of protection, read this article below by Karen McVeigh and published in The Guardian on November 28, 2012.

Anti-drone protesters knocked off course by broad restraining order: Demonstrators who have gathered at New York air base for years say their constitutional right to protest has been compromised after colonel granted strict order of protection.

Ever since the F16 fighters were replaced by Reaper drones at Hancock Air National Guard base in upstate New York three years ago, peace activists have engaged in regular anti-drone protests outside the facility. In that time they have learned what to expect: holding banners at a site across the road is tolerated; close proximity or blocking gates risks arrest for trespass or disorderly conduct, a fine, or at the most, a few uncomfortable nights in a cell.

But now, in what appears to be a significant escalation by base authorities, the activists have been subjected to what they describe as an "absurd" restraining order which they say breaches their constitutional right to protest.

The order was issued by a judge [PDF] following the arrest of 17 protesters accused of blocking all three base entrances to traffic last month. It bans them specifically from approaching the home, school or workplace of Colonel Earl A Evans, a commander at the base. Failure to comply is a felony, punishable by up to seven years in jail.  Read more.

--An article by Douglass Dowty, published March 5, 2014 on www.syracuse.com.  Update: Judge Brunetti lifted the order of protection but the prosecutor is appealing his decision.--

Syracuse, NY -- A state Supreme Court justice dug deep into the history books in overturning a DeWitt Town Court's order preventing an anti-violence protester from demonstrating at Hancock Air Base.

Daniel Finlay, 73, a pacifist from Ithaca, was effectively barred from protesting at the air base by an order of protection keeping him away from the base commander, Greg Semmel. DeWitt Town Justice David Gideon issued the temporary order while Finlay awaited trial for what Finlay called an act of "civil resistance." Read more.

--An article by Catie O'Toole, published April 27, 2014 on www.syracuse.com about an event co-organized by the Ithaca Catholic Worker.--

Salina, NY -- Talina Jones, a 34-year-old mother from Syracuse, had no plans to march with a group of protesters Sunday outside Hancock Field.

But after hearing civil rights activist Cornel West talk about the connections between racism, poverty and drones at Tucker Missionary Baptist Church, Jones said it "riled" her up and she decided to join hundreds of others protesting the United States' use of drones in military actions.

"I'm a mother and knowing other mothers and babies are dying, how could I not speak up?" asked Jones, who said her 9-year-old son has Down syndrome. She also is raising her 10-year-old niece.

"Instead of going home to my babies," she said, "I came to stand in the gap for others who have lost their children or children who have lost their mothers and fathers."  Read more.