NORTHAMPTON — People in orange jumpsuits with black bags over their heads stood Wednesday evening in front of City Hall.
One man, Bruce Miller, a lawyer from Springfield, removed his bag to speak to passers-by and a small crowd about the continuing operation of Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
“The existence of this place and everything it stands for is a stain on my profession and a stain on the Constitution,” he said. “At Guantanamo, for 16 years, we have defiled all of that in our panic and our fear.”
Area residents gathered to protest the U.S. detention camp as a part of a national 41-day campaign to raise awareness of the 41 men still imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, many of whom have never been charged with a crime. Protesters said keeping the prisoners without charges is a violation of their due process rights and the Geneva Conventions.
The campaign was organized on a national level by Witness Against Torture, but the local chapter of No More Guantanamos organized the Northampton event. A dozen members of the Raging Grannies performed protest songs at the event as well.
A similar event was held in Greenfield Wednesday.
“These are human beings we’re treating this way,” said Sherrill Hogen, a Charlemont resident and member of No More Guantanamos. “We can’t forget these men any more than we can forget anyone else suffering injustice.”
The campaign started May 26 during Ramadan because most of the prisoners are Muslim, and it will end July 5.
Each day of the campaign focuses on one prisoner, and Wednesday was dedicated to Hassan Mohammed Ali Bin Attash. He was captured at age 16 in Pakistan in 2002 by the CIA. As the youngest person still at Guantanamo, he has spent about as much time in U.S. custody as he spent free before his capture.
Five of the 41 remaining prisoners at Guantanamo were cleared for release during President Barack Obama’s time in office, but are still incarcerated anyway. Protesters on Thursday expressed frustration these men remain imprisoned and that Obama failed to close the prison as he had vowed.
“There wasn’t the kind of action on Guantanamo that many of us expected of President Obama,” said Martha Spiegelman, coordinator for a local Amnesty International chapter. “It would be nice if we still didn’t have to do this all the time.”
President Donald Trump said on the campaign trail he wanted not only to continue operating the prison at Guantanamo Bay, but to “load it up with some bad dudes.”
“He hasn’t said anything about the issue recently,” said Nancy Talanian, a Whately resident and director of the local No More Guantanamos chapter. “We have to be ready for when he does bring it up again.”