Could you please update us on what happened at Bill's trial and perhaps give us a way (email address?) to contact him, express support and admiration, and perhaps forward a little money?
June 27th, Yesterday, Central New Yorker, 89-year-old Jack Gilroy, member of Veterans for Peace and Pax Christi Upstate NY faced a trespass charge in Endicott Village Court for participating in Civil Resistance, protesting local BAE Systems weapons used in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Judge Alfonso Ortega announced he would send a verdict by mail in 30 days. The tiny court was packed with 25 people supporting the simple nonviolent action of delivering a warning letter to BAE Systems employees. Jack defended himself well including reading the necessity defense during his summation, but the judge kept interrupting, trying to limit Jack to only allowing him to speak to the trespass charge, to prevent him from speaking as to why he went.
Israel uses BAE Systems’ Howitzers that fire 155-millimeter shells to commit genocide in Gaza. Jack was arrested after ringing the BAE Systems doorbell trying to deliver a 5 Broken Laws letter which included the Leahy Law saying the employees & managers are in danger of being complicit in violating US laws that say we can’t send weapons to countries committing genocide.
Jack called three witnesses, all members of Pax Christi Upstate NY, Ben Salmon Chapter, Mark Scabilia-Carver of Trumansburg, NY, Jim Clune of Binghamton, NY, both present at the BAE April 15th tax day protest, and John Amidon of Albany, NY. Mark highlighted that there was no delineation as to where the sidewalk private property line began and there weren’t “No-Trespass” signs.
The prosecution brought a security guard and the arresting officer as their witnesses. Under cross-examination by Jack, the security officer admitted he did not show ID as a security person. When asked if it was true that there weren’t any “No-Trespass” signs on the property, the security person agreed. The policeman had no recollection of any “No-Trespass” signs.
The action, including 16 people, at BAE Systems was one of three actions held on this year's Tax Day, April 15th by VFP and Upstate Pax Christi in solidarity to deliver the VFP Five Broken Laws Letter. The morning of Tax Day, the VFP letter was left at the iron bar gate of the General Dynamics 155mm shell factory in Scranton, Pa. Afterwards, the team drove to Archbald, PA, where they left the letter with a security guard, unable to enter the Lockheed-Martin Paveway I & Paveway II bomb factory. The third stop was at BAE Systems, Endicott NY where Jack Gilroy was arrested for attempting to deliver the 5 Broken Laws Letter.
Sent in February to the U.S. State Department Inspector-General, the 11-page letter, written by human rights attorney Terry Lodge, details five federal statutes, including the Leahy Law, an administrative rule violated by the weapons transfers that involve U.S. companies. Gilroy will also submit an exhaustively documented paper, Genocide in Gaza: Analysis of International Law and Its Application to Israel's Military Actions Since October 7, 2023, from some of the most prestigious law schools in the U.S., alleging war crimes committed by Israel.
The Pax Christi USA member stressed “This trial is not about me. It’s about a war industry that has become as acceptable to the American people as the building and use of crematoria in Germany. It’s a chance to educate the public that factories like BAE Systems, which people think make consumer goods like electric buses rely on military contracts for 96 percent of its revenue.”
Following the trial, the community of 25, including university students, octogenarians, and other seasoned activists, circled outside the courthouse/ police station for introductions, naming numerous upstate cities people came from and sharing comments on the trial. Jack announced “We’ve won even before the verdict comes back because we have exposed BAE Systems, the 6th largest Merchant of Death weapons manufacturer in the US and its number one in all of Europe! They’re making huge profits off of killing. We’ve got to stop this! People are encouraged to come back to Endicott Village Court in one month if Jack has to appear for sentencing, facing 15 days in jail and a possible $250 fine.
Thank you for sharing Jack's story, Bill. The video of +/- six Endicott police arresting a lone, 89-year old Jack at the behest of corporate America is disgusting. Our government is corrupt when its priorities are prosecuting peace-loving citizens for the sake of the profit-driven war machine. Jack has my wholehearted support and love!✊
Hmmm....a man is upholding the values this country claims to espouse, and he's been jailed elsewhere and is now on trial for....delivering a letter. Inmates/asylum.
A rare principled American. His fight reminds me of all those who have gone before him and were persecuted and prosecuted over the last 110 years. In HUMAN SMOKE - The beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization (2008) by Nicholas Baker I read a quote that I have found a comfort as a pacifist. The author’s last paragraph reads: “I dedicate this book to the memory of Clarence Pickett and other American and British pacifists. They’ve never really gotten their due. They tried to save Jewish refugees, feed Europe, reconcile the United States and Japan, and stop the war from happening. THEY FAILED, BUT THEY WERE RIGHT.” (My emphasis). Jack is a real hero.
Looking forward to Your thoughts on the plea deal and release of Julian Assange, Bill. Here’s how Caitlin Johnstone concludes her 25 Jun 24 piece ASSANGE IS FREE, BUT JUSTICE HAS NOT BEEN DONE... :
None of this undoes the unforgivable evils the empire inflicted in its persecution of Julian Assange however, or reverses the worldwide damage that has been done by making a public example of him to show what happens to a journalist who tells inconvenient truths about the world’s most powerful government.
So while Assange may be free, WE CANNOT RIGHTLY SAY THAT JUSTICE HAS BEEN DONE.
Justice would look like Assange being granted a FULL AND UNCONDITIONAL PARDON AND RECEIVING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN COMPENSATION FROM THE US GOVERNMENT for the torment they put him through by his imprisonment in Belmarsh beginning in 2019, his de facto imprisonment in the Ecuadorian embassy beginning in 2012, and his jailing and house arrest beginning in 2010.
Justice would look like THE US MAKING CONCRETE LEGAL AND POLICY CHANGES guaranteeing that Washington could never again use its globe-spanning power and influence to destroy the life of a foreign journalist for reporting inconvenient facts about it, and ISSUING A FORMAL APOLOGY TO JULIAN ASSANGE AND HIS FAMILY.
Justice would look like THE ARREST AND PROSECUTION OF THE PEOPLE WHOSE WAR CRIMES ASSANGE EXPOSED, AND THE ARREST AND PROSECUTION OF EVERYONE WHO HELPED RUIN HIS LIFE FOR EXPOSING THOSE CRIMES. This would include a whole host of government operatives and officials across numerous countries, and multiple US presidents.
Justice would look like A HERO’S WELCOME AND A HERO’S HONORS FROM AUSTRALIA UPON HIS ARRIVAL, AND A SERIOUS REVISION OF CANBERRA’S OBSEQUIOUS RELATIONSHIP WITH WASHINGTON.
Justice would look like formal apologies to Assange and his family from the editorial boards of all the mainstream press outlets which manufactured consent for his vicious persecution — including and especially The Guardian — and the complete destruction of the reputations of every unscrupulous presstitute who helped smear him over the years.
To go along with the Al Jazeera documentary THE NIGHT WON’T END, cited in yesterday’s BV, is this from Chris Hedges: DEAR CHILD II.
Written as a letter to a child in Gaza, this film takes the audience on a haunting & realistic journey through Gaza today from a child’s perspective imbued with guilt of a foreign journalist. Stylish, artistic, horrifying, yet hopeful that we can do better.
This past Sunday, a "semi intercepted" US supplied, maintained, readied and targeted heavy rocket with inhuman "cluster munitions" somehow dispensed its cargo of hundreds of 30 mm bomblets within the specified conditions (location, altitude velocity, attitude; very tight) to detonate the mini bombs over a beach in Crimea!
Three cheers for him and for you for publishing the information he gives. I wonder if there might be a way to help him with his legal expenses.
It's interesting that he mentions not plea bargaining. That is now THE method of our justice system because it saves time and money and avoids having a jury trial. Of course it has the down side that innocent parties will agree to plead guilty. But that's of small importance as the top priority it to keep the factory running.
It's easy to understand that for the poor and even many in the middle class it is impossible to fund one's own defense. Having a poorly paid public defender appointed is not much better. The wealthy and corporations own our legal system and can, like Trump, afford to use the law as a weapon knowing that threats of a lawsuit by someone with deep pockets almost always succeeds. On rare occasions, a wealthy person will be destroyed by legal expenses, like Rudy Giuliani.
Lt. Gen Chesty Puller: memorable quotes " Take me to the Brig I want to see the Real Marines" "Chesty Puller never quit" "Tell Chesty Puller I did my best!"
*** In his 27 Jun 24 piece LISTEN TO THE TRUE ‘VOICE OF AMERICA,’ DeMOCKracy.ink’s Mark Taylor declares “Presidential debate? Here are the only voices Americans need to hear tonight.”
He then provides images that graphically depict that “True Voice” that America needs to hear as currently manifest in the dead or, at best, starved, torn, and shredded bodies and lives of Palestinian Infants and Children. [WARNING: This post contains graphic images that may be disturbing to viewers. Viewer discretion is advised .] ***
LISTEN TO THE TRUE ‘VOICE OF AMERICA’
On this night of a “debate” between two of the most vacuous, vapid, morally devoid and intellectually empty sock puppets in the country, the only voices Americans need to hear tonight are of the screams and sobs of the children we and our NeoNazi Israeli owners are systematically shredding, dismembering and killing in Gaza.
We need to contemplate the shrieks of their grieving parents and devastated grandparents and the stunned silence of their traumatized siblings.
We need to hear the horror of our murderous foreign and military policy and endless echo of our 2,000-pound and illegal fragmentation bombs ripping through tent camps of innocent homeless, starving refugee families … our 21st Century National Anthem.
There’s nothing the miniature corporate ghouls on the CNN stage tonight will say of any consequence. Our morality has drained away to an endless pool of blood and our throats cut by our arrogant national cruelty.
Could you please update us on what happened at Bill's trial and perhaps give us a way (email address?) to contact him, express support and admiration, and perhaps forward a little money?
Thanks!!
Beth: You can contact Jack directly at jgilroy1955@gmail.com
Here's the press release after his hearing:
For Immediate Release June 27, 2024
Contact: Jack Gilroy 607-239-9605
(interviews available)
June 27th, Yesterday, Central New Yorker, 89-year-old Jack Gilroy, member of Veterans for Peace and Pax Christi Upstate NY faced a trespass charge in Endicott Village Court for participating in Civil Resistance, protesting local BAE Systems weapons used in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Judge Alfonso Ortega announced he would send a verdict by mail in 30 days. The tiny court was packed with 25 people supporting the simple nonviolent action of delivering a warning letter to BAE Systems employees. Jack defended himself well including reading the necessity defense during his summation, but the judge kept interrupting, trying to limit Jack to only allowing him to speak to the trespass charge, to prevent him from speaking as to why he went.
Israel uses BAE Systems’ Howitzers that fire 155-millimeter shells to commit genocide in Gaza. Jack was arrested after ringing the BAE Systems doorbell trying to deliver a 5 Broken Laws letter which included the Leahy Law saying the employees & managers are in danger of being complicit in violating US laws that say we can’t send weapons to countries committing genocide.
Jack called three witnesses, all members of Pax Christi Upstate NY, Ben Salmon Chapter, Mark Scabilia-Carver of Trumansburg, NY, Jim Clune of Binghamton, NY, both present at the BAE April 15th tax day protest, and John Amidon of Albany, NY. Mark highlighted that there was no delineation as to where the sidewalk private property line began and there weren’t “No-Trespass” signs.
The prosecution brought a security guard and the arresting officer as their witnesses. Under cross-examination by Jack, the security officer admitted he did not show ID as a security person. When asked if it was true that there weren’t any “No-Trespass” signs on the property, the security person agreed. The policeman had no recollection of any “No-Trespass” signs.
The action, including 16 people, at BAE Systems was one of three actions held on this year's Tax Day, April 15th by VFP and Upstate Pax Christi in solidarity to deliver the VFP Five Broken Laws Letter. The morning of Tax Day, the VFP letter was left at the iron bar gate of the General Dynamics 155mm shell factory in Scranton, Pa. Afterwards, the team drove to Archbald, PA, where they left the letter with a security guard, unable to enter the Lockheed-Martin Paveway I & Paveway II bomb factory. The third stop was at BAE Systems, Endicott NY where Jack Gilroy was arrested for attempting to deliver the 5 Broken Laws Letter.
Sent in February to the U.S. State Department Inspector-General, the 11-page letter, written by human rights attorney Terry Lodge, details five federal statutes, including the Leahy Law, an administrative rule violated by the weapons transfers that involve U.S. companies. Gilroy will also submit an exhaustively documented paper, Genocide in Gaza: Analysis of International Law and Its Application to Israel's Military Actions Since October 7, 2023, from some of the most prestigious law schools in the U.S., alleging war crimes committed by Israel.
The Pax Christi USA member stressed “This trial is not about me. It’s about a war industry that has become as acceptable to the American people as the building and use of crematoria in Germany. It’s a chance to educate the public that factories like BAE Systems, which people think make consumer goods like electric buses rely on military contracts for 96 percent of its revenue.”
Following the trial, the community of 25, including university students, octogenarians, and other seasoned activists, circled outside the courthouse/ police station for introductions, naming numerous upstate cities people came from and sharing comments on the trial. Jack announced “We’ve won even before the verdict comes back because we have exposed BAE Systems, the 6th largest Merchant of Death weapons manufacturer in the US and its number one in all of Europe! They’re making huge profits off of killing. We’ve got to stop this! People are encouraged to come back to Endicott Village Court in one month if Jack has to appear for sentencing, facing 15 days in jail and a possible $250 fine.
Thank you for sharing Jack's story, Bill. The video of +/- six Endicott police arresting a lone, 89-year old Jack at the behest of corporate America is disgusting. Our government is corrupt when its priorities are prosecuting peace-loving citizens for the sake of the profit-driven war machine. Jack has my wholehearted support and love!✊
Yes, I don't get the ritual of handcuffing a senior citizen as if he's a hardened criminal and a threat to those young burly cops.
If it's procedure, it's just plain dumb and cruel.
Hmmm....a man is upholding the values this country claims to espouse, and he's been jailed elsewhere and is now on trial for....delivering a letter. Inmates/asylum.
Reckon dem freedoms don't apply to the 99%ers.
You reckon right, missie!
AT 89, Jack is in better shape than Biden and Trump! A reflection of having a Righteous Value System.
Thanks for highlighting this brave man. Humbling to say the least.
A rare principled American. His fight reminds me of all those who have gone before him and were persecuted and prosecuted over the last 110 years. In HUMAN SMOKE - The beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization (2008) by Nicholas Baker I read a quote that I have found a comfort as a pacifist. The author’s last paragraph reads: “I dedicate this book to the memory of Clarence Pickett and other American and British pacifists. They’ve never really gotten their due. They tried to save Jewish refugees, feed Europe, reconcile the United States and Japan, and stop the war from happening. THEY FAILED, BUT THEY WERE RIGHT.” (My emphasis). Jack is a real hero.
Thank you, Jack. You are truly a beacon of sanity in this crazy world.
Jack, you deserve a Medal of Honor.
Looking forward to Your thoughts on the plea deal and release of Julian Assange, Bill. Here’s how Caitlin Johnstone concludes her 25 Jun 24 piece ASSANGE IS FREE, BUT JUSTICE HAS NOT BEEN DONE... :
None of this undoes the unforgivable evils the empire inflicted in its persecution of Julian Assange however, or reverses the worldwide damage that has been done by making a public example of him to show what happens to a journalist who tells inconvenient truths about the world’s most powerful government.
So while Assange may be free, WE CANNOT RIGHTLY SAY THAT JUSTICE HAS BEEN DONE.
Justice would look like Assange being granted a FULL AND UNCONDITIONAL PARDON AND RECEIVING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN COMPENSATION FROM THE US GOVERNMENT for the torment they put him through by his imprisonment in Belmarsh beginning in 2019, his de facto imprisonment in the Ecuadorian embassy beginning in 2012, and his jailing and house arrest beginning in 2010.
Justice would look like THE US MAKING CONCRETE LEGAL AND POLICY CHANGES guaranteeing that Washington could never again use its globe-spanning power and influence to destroy the life of a foreign journalist for reporting inconvenient facts about it, and ISSUING A FORMAL APOLOGY TO JULIAN ASSANGE AND HIS FAMILY.
Justice would look like THE ARREST AND PROSECUTION OF THE PEOPLE WHOSE WAR CRIMES ASSANGE EXPOSED, AND THE ARREST AND PROSECUTION OF EVERYONE WHO HELPED RUIN HIS LIFE FOR EXPOSING THOSE CRIMES. This would include a whole host of government operatives and officials across numerous countries, and multiple US presidents.
Justice would look like A HERO’S WELCOME AND A HERO’S HONORS FROM AUSTRALIA UPON HIS ARRIVAL, AND A SERIOUS REVISION OF CANBERRA’S OBSEQUIOUS RELATIONSHIP WITH WASHINGTON.
Justice would look like formal apologies to Assange and his family from the editorial boards of all the mainstream press outlets which manufactured consent for his vicious persecution — including and especially The Guardian — and the complete destruction of the reputations of every unscrupulous presstitute who helped smear him over the years.
Full article at https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/assange-is-free-but-justice-has-not ; EMPHASES added.
To go along with the Al Jazeera documentary THE NIGHT WON’T END, cited in yesterday’s BV, is this from Chris Hedges: DEAR CHILD II.
Written as a letter to a child in Gaza, this film takes the audience on a haunting & realistic journey through Gaza today from a child’s perspective imbued with guilt of a foreign journalist. Stylish, artistic, horrifying, yet hopeful that we can do better.
After all — we must.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_SJ550QTgg .
This past Sunday, a "semi intercepted" US supplied, maintained, readied and targeted heavy rocket with inhuman "cluster munitions" somehow dispensed its cargo of hundreds of 30 mm bomblets within the specified conditions (location, altitude velocity, attitude; very tight) to detonate the mini bombs over a beach in Crimea!
The supposed SAM intercept excuses the crime!
Three cheers for him and for you for publishing the information he gives. I wonder if there might be a way to help him with his legal expenses.
It's interesting that he mentions not plea bargaining. That is now THE method of our justice system because it saves time and money and avoids having a jury trial. Of course it has the down side that innocent parties will agree to plead guilty. But that's of small importance as the top priority it to keep the factory running.
It's easy to understand that for the poor and even many in the middle class it is impossible to fund one's own defense. Having a poorly paid public defender appointed is not much better. The wealthy and corporations own our legal system and can, like Trump, afford to use the law as a weapon knowing that threats of a lawsuit by someone with deep pockets almost always succeeds. On rare occasions, a wealthy person will be destroyed by legal expenses, like Rudy Giuliani.
Lt. Gen Chesty Puller: memorable quotes " Take me to the Brig I want to see the Real Marines" "Chesty Puller never quit" "Tell Chesty Puller I did my best!"
From the swamp of hubris and hypocrisy, we lecture the world on human rights. It gets creepier by the minute.
Dear Bill;
Thank you for the valuable update and for the contact information. I will try to follow through as best I can.
Warm Regards,
beth
*** In his 27 Jun 24 piece LISTEN TO THE TRUE ‘VOICE OF AMERICA,’ DeMOCKracy.ink’s Mark Taylor declares “Presidential debate? Here are the only voices Americans need to hear tonight.”
He then provides images that graphically depict that “True Voice” that America needs to hear as currently manifest in the dead or, at best, starved, torn, and shredded bodies and lives of Palestinian Infants and Children. [WARNING: This post contains graphic images that may be disturbing to viewers. Viewer discretion is advised .] ***
LISTEN TO THE TRUE ‘VOICE OF AMERICA’
On this night of a “debate” between two of the most vacuous, vapid, morally devoid and intellectually empty sock puppets in the country, the only voices Americans need to hear tonight are of the screams and sobs of the children we and our NeoNazi Israeli owners are systematically shredding, dismembering and killing in Gaza.
We need to contemplate the shrieks of their grieving parents and devastated grandparents and the stunned silence of their traumatized siblings.
We need to hear the horror of our murderous foreign and military policy and endless echo of our 2,000-pound and illegal fragmentation bombs ripping through tent camps of innocent homeless, starving refugee families … our 21st Century National Anthem.
There’s nothing the miniature corporate ghouls on the CNN stage tonight will say of any consequence. Our morality has drained away to an endless pool of blood and our throats cut by our arrogant national cruelty.
Listen to the children.
Rise up against the murderous bastards.
Resist.
Or be next on their list.
Source: https://mark192.substack.com/p/presidential-debate-here-are-the .