Now This Ought To Be Fun....

18 members of Granny Brigade in court for start of trial

By SAMUEL MAULL
Associated Press Writer

April 20, 2006, 5:51 PM EDT


NEW YORK -- Eighteen anti-war protesters who call themselves the Granny Peace Brigade went on trial Thursday for staging a rally in Times Square last year, with the prosecution saying the case was about disorderly conduct _ not war.

The defendants, some supporting themselves on canes and walkers, entered the small courtroom packed with about 75 supporters. They are each charged with two counts of disorderly conduct stemming from an Oct. 17, 2005, protest against the war in Iraq outside the military recruiting station in Times Square.

They are being tried as a group in a nonjury trial before Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Neil Ross.

The women _ several in their 80s and 90s and most of them grandmothers, with three boasting to be great grandmothers _ wore buttons that read: "Granny Peace Brigade" and "Love the Troops, Hate the War."

Some wore T-shirts emblazoned with the words: "We will not be silent."

"This case is simple and straightforward," Assistant District Attorney Amy Miller said in her opening statement. "It's not about the war; it's about disorderly conduct."

She said the defendants sat in front of the recruiting station, obstructed pedestrian traffic and refused to disperse as ordered. Miller said this prevented others from going in or out of the center.

Defense attorney Norman Siegel countered that "this trial is about the actions of 18 defendants, many of whom are grandmothers. Their intent was to alert an apathetic public about the war in Iraq."

So Bush is persecuting grandmothers now...interesting. You know, my mom is in her 80s now, and I've always told her that she should behave precisely as she likes, because what's a cop going to do, arrest her?

Apparently. Still, you have to love the moxie of these women:

Prior to their court appearance, the women, some decked out in colorful straw hats chock full of slogan buttons and many bearing photos of their grandchildren, held an early morning rally where they sang to the melody of "Camptown Races."

"Bush's policies are wrong.

They're doo doo

Going to rage and roar

Going to stop the war

We're raging grannies

Singing our song

It's all a Doo-da Day."

God bless their fuzzy slippers!

snarkasm, snarcasm, snarky

Bush
TAG
Iraq