Report: Initial civil resistance trial hearing in Merrimack, N.H.

 

Defendants, supporters and lawyer after prelim court hearing

 

Mary Beth outside the courthouse before hearing

 

More of the early birds on the street before the court hearing

 

On Thursday (June 6) 17 people came to the preliminary 'Trial Management Conference' at the 9th Circuit Courthouse in Merrimack, New Hampshire. Eight of the people were defendants and the others were supporters and our pro-bono lawyer.

The case is from the March 22 non-violent civil resistance action at the Israeli owned Elbit Systems weapons production plant in Merrimack. Eight activists were arrested that day after successfully blocking early morning worker traffic from entering the facility where weapons technology is produced for the Israeli military. 

More than 70 cops from various jurisdictions came and took hours to figure out how to unhook seven activists locked down preventing workers from entering the facility.

I was serving as the police liaison that day and was arrested soon after the action began for trying to explain to the first police officer who arrived that the action was non-violent and urging him not to overreact.

During the preliminary hearing the state prosecutor had to acknowledge that they had not yet honored our lawyer's request for all the state's 'Discovery' materials which they are mandated to share with the defendants. The judge told the state they had until August 1 to turn over all Discovery materials.

The trial date was set for October 1 at the Merrimack courthouse. We urge supporters to come to the trial that day.

The eight of us were compelled to act on March 22 because of the genocide that Israel is now committing in Gaza and the West Bank of Palestine. Even the ICC and ICJ have preliminarily found the zionist government guilty of crimes against humanity.

 

 

International law (Nuremberg) compels citizens to act to halt these illegal actions in the face of such genocidal crimes.

While standing on the street by the courthouse with signs before the hearing we got a surprisingly positive response from cars going by. I only saw one middle finger. Two big yellow school buses loaded with middle school age kids were wildly enthusiastic while they were stopped at a traffic sign - giving us cheers, waves and thumbs up. They are likely TikTok fans.

Bruce