COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: War Protests: General
Activists use locks for bicycles to chain themselves to doors
Ron Knox, Lawrence Journal-World Corporate News
December 18, 2005
Lawrence Police arrested seven protesters Saturday morning after theyspent hours chained by their necks to the doors of a military
recruiting office.
Protest organizers said members of the group locked themselves to the
doors of the Army-Navy recruiting office, 2223 La., in honor of
others who have faced more serious consequences for opposing the war
in Iraq.
“A lot of people have gone to prison for protesting the war,”
protest
organizer Dave Strano said while watching the scene. “We wanted to do
something to honor them.”
Police spokesman Sgt. Mark Warren said the six protesters who chained
themselves to the doors were arrested for criminal trespassing after
police asked them to remove themselves from the recruiting office.
Other charges, including interference with the duties of a law
enforcement officer, could be filed later, Warren said.
The protesters used U-shaped bicycle locks to hook themselves by the
neck to the front and back doors of the recruitment office about 6:30
a.m. Saturday, protester Sara Caniscioni said.
Caniscioni spent the morning checking on the condition of the
protesters, who were exposed to the cold weather, and photographing
the scene.
After police had arrived, Caniscioni and others stood away from the
scene, holding anti-war signs and talking with police.
At the front of the building, three protesters sat on white buckets
so the locks around their necks reached the recruitment office’s door
handles. It was a precarious position on snowy sidewalks, Warren said.
“If they slipped, they could have been hurt pretty seriously,”
Warren
said.
An ambulance sat ready in case of any injuries, along with eight
police cars and a van to transport the protesters away from the scene.
As the protesters remained locked to the doors, police repeatedly
cleared others from the recruiting office parking lot, threatening
arrest if people continued to walk onto what police had deemed a
crime scene.
One protester was eventually arrested for repeatedly walking on the
parking lot.
On the sidewalk next to the protesters, a group of military
recruiters waited to get into the office, where they said they had
planned a Christmas party. They said they could not comment beyond
that, and recruiters did not return a message left for them later in
the day.
About 10 a.m., the protesters eventually told other members of their
group that they were ready to be unchained, and Strano and others
gave police the key to unlock them.(posters note: after physical and
mental intimidation one protestor felt they needed to be unlocked, so
supporters produced a key. after a short period time the police
discovered where other keys had been hidden in case of emergency)
The recruitment center which was scheduled to open at 8am was not
able to resume operations until shortly before 11am.
Patrick Tyrrell, a spokesman for the protest group, said that he had
spoken with one of those arrested from the Douglas County Jail
Saturday afternoon. The protester told him they had been charged with
trespassing and were waiting for bail to be set.
Later in the day, however, jail records indicated that all were
released and not yet charged with any crimes.
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