 Protesters from Veterans for Peace, including Ann Smith of Arlington, wearing white hat, at Boston City Hall Plaza.
"We were charged with disturbing a public assembly, which we most
definitely were not," he wrote to the Arlington e-mail list Nov. 12. " We plan to fight this in court."
Dick Smith and Goldshlag are members of Veterans for Peace , the group sponsoring the protest. Ann Smith is not a member of that group but took part in the protest.
The Boston Globe reported Nov. 14 that eight of 18 people arrested
were arraigned Nov. 13 in Boston Municipal Court, according to the Suffolk
district attorney's office. Each was charged with disturbing a
public assembly and released on personal recognizance, pending a Dec.
14 court date. The other 10 arrested were arraigned
Nov. 14.
Goldshlag explained the group's intentions in more detail Nov. 15:
"We intended to protest the loss of our rights of free speech to have a speaker (Liam Madden of Iraq Veterans Against The War) at what is a public event on City Hall Plaza. Note that the on the charge sheet the victim is the City of Boston, not the American Legion. But the Legion gets to run the parade.
"I actually thought we would not be arrested. The city was stupid to do so - it is an embarrassment for the city. The story has gone round the world and the city gets a black eye. We obstructed nothing - you could see the podium - and the police charge that we
were 'loudly chanting' will look ridiculous in court when the photos and videos of gagged people hits the courtroom. If it comes to that. We were prepared to be arrested, if it came to that, as it did.
"Had we been given a speaker there would have been no protest."
Veterans seek support after arraignment
Goldshlag updated the case on Nov. 14:
"The Veterans Day 18 have been arraigned on charges in Boston of
disturbing a public assembly, which we did not do. In the description
of the charges it is alleged that we were 'loudly chanting anti-war
slogans,' which is absurd since we had gags in our mouths.
"I
have gotten lots of emails asking how people can help us. At this time
the best support you could give us is to write, call, fax, and email
the Mayor of Boston, Tom Menino. Or do all four.
"The thing that is
best is regular mail, then calls, then fax, then email. Let's inundate
the Mayor's office with outrage at our arrests. Please do this in the
next day or so, while the story is hot. And please forward this email
to friends and political mailing lists, far and wide. If you live
outside Massachusetts please write anyway. This story has gone out
worldwide.
"Mayor Menino's contact information
is given below. And to make it really easy we are including a template
of a letter you could write. Feel free to copy and paste it into a
Word document and modify it as you see fit, or write your own."
Phone 617.635.4500
Fax 617.635.2851
Email
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Address given below in letter
 Protesters from Veterans for Peace. Nate Goldshlag of Arlington is second from left. Dick Smith is third from left. |
Enuma Elish
performs "Metropolis" Thursday, Nov. 20, at 8 p.m. at the Regent
Theater. General admission...
