The first of the protesters who shut down Elbit Systems in New Hampshire on March 22 was arraigned yesterday in Merrimack District Court. Bruce Gagnon, who noted that the NH protest of Israel's genocide in Gaza was "a trickle in a global flood of activity" entered a plea of not guilty. This came after officers of the court reduced his scheduled misdemeanor charges -- criminal trespass and resisting arrest -- from A (worse) to B (better, and aligned with the rest of those arrested).
Ray Brewer of WBUR was on hand for Bruce's court appearance and you can see his reporting here. A cameraman told Bruce that in 34 years of covering Elbit's Merrimack facility he had never seen anything like the lockdown that shut the factory down for the day. Bruce asked him if he perceived the action as non-violent and he said definitely, yes.
But the part of yesterday's reporting that interested me the most was this exchange (you can see and hear part of it in WBUR's video linked above):
In court, prosecutor Jason Moore asked that an additional condition be added to Gagnon's bail order.
"The state is asking that there be no entry within 300 feet of any Elbit property," Moore said. "There's also an Elbit property in Cambridge that's been the site of some protests, as well."
At this point the judge asked, "Cambridge, New Hampshire or Cambridge, Massachusetts?" And then reminded the prosecutor that his jurisdiction does not extend to other states.
I love that this happened on camera because it raises the fascism-defining question: Does the state of New Hampshire work for Elbit Systems? And if so, why?
Several years ago Bruce and I, along with my husband and six others, were arrested outside General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works warship factory and charged with being on the wrong side of a white line in the snow. At trial we were acquitted of the charge of criminal trespass when the state prosecutor failed to make his case, and one of Justice Dan Billings' observations was that the Bath Police seemed to be taking orders from BIW security, "and that is not how it is supposed to work."
Why not? Because courts, prosecutors, district attorneys, and attorney generals of states are supposed to work for the people. So are police.
A man with a badge wearing plain clothes that appears to work for Elbit was present with the 70 police who responded on May 22, and was also present, masked, in court yesterday. We're guessing his goal is to keep tabs on the prosecutor and the judge. Will the governor respond to Elbit pressure to turn prosecution over the the NH Attorney General as has been done in the case of protesters arrested in November at Elbit?
Why do our taxes fund a justice system that works on behalf of wealthy genocide profiteers instead of us?
Mussolini would be proud.
Bruce's next court date is May 7 for a "Trial Management Conference" while the remaining seven defendants will be arraigned April 18. He will continue asking for his case to be consolidated with the others; yesterday the judge said it was not up to him but depended on "the docket." Stay tuned...
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