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Eagan Family Stands Up Peacefully to Police and Secures Right to Vigil
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Sharon Grimes, W A M M
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The Skog family of Eagan demonstrated that peace works. In November they began a peace vigil at an intersection near Lockheed Martin, a large weapons manufacturer. They decided that they would be more visible if they stood on the crosswalk islands, and they also noticed that they were getting negative reactions. They changed the messages on their signs to positive ones. With several easy to read Honk 4 Peace signs, the positive reactions increased and people began to interact with them.
On March 3 and for several subsequent weeks, the police told them they could not stand on the crosswalk island and cited several different statutes, none of which applied to the actions of the peace marchers. On March 28 they went to the police station to try to peacefully resolve the disagreement, but again, statutes that didn’t apply were cited. On March 31, the family went to the intersection for their weekly vigil. One of them (Ross) stood on the island crosswalk, prepared to be arrested. Several squad cars showed up, and one police officer “began a dialogue with an angry frustrated tone.” He wrote Ross a citation and threatened him with jail when Ross still refused to move.
Then another peace marcher, Greg, walked onto the island to try to defuse the situation. They remained calm and explained why they were there. Eventually, all but two of the officers left. Both sides listened to each other and the discussion continued for about an hour. The officer took back the citation and didn’t arrest Ross. The other officer said that “because none of us are going away anytime soon” he hoped they could all peacefully coexist. The next day, one of the officers called Ross to say that they had checked with the city and the attorneys and decided to let the group continue to stand on the crosswalk island—no citations and no arrests.
Says the Skog family, “We believe that the courage to stand up but not fight back is the reason why this situation resolved peacefully. This is the Department of Peace in action. Peace works because of people's willingness to take part in peaceful visibility and dialogue.” |
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© 2005 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete May 2005 Index - click here
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