NORTHAMPTON — Eight of about 50 protesters from Demilitarize Western Massachusetts were arrested at the L3Harris Space & Mission Systems (KEO) manufacturing facility Wednesday morning after police said they used PVC piping to lock their arms together on a boat trailer parked in the business’s entrance.
Those arrested were charged with disorderly conduct, with two individuals facing an additional charge of resisting arrest and conspiracy, said Northampton Police Capt. Corey Robinson. The arrested protesters refused to move out of the way and blocked employees from entering the premises, he said.
“[Officers] observed several individuals show up with sleeping dragons, basically a PVC pipe with their arms attached. There were three of these sleeping dragons with six individuals in total, along with a boat trailer that was parked at the secondary entrance with two individuals who had locked themselves into that as well,” Robinson said. “We met with their liaison. I inquired as to what their intentions were. She assured me to be peaceful, but individuals were going to remain in the roadway despite my efforts to have them move to the sidewalk.”
L3Harris, a $1 billion defense contractor that works with both the Israeli military and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), among other clients, has been the subject of more than a dozen protests over the last two years.
“We want to see an end to the war industry that’s dominating the globe. We want to see an end to genocide, the ongoing genocide in Palestine, as well as in the Sudan, which we all understand, is being supported by the UAE, which is supported by us,” activist Dorothea Melnicoff. “We don’t want more people profiting off of war and death.”
Demilitarize Western Massachusetts activists, who sat outside Northampton District Court Wednesday afternoon awaiting the defendants’ arraignment, explained that the protest was a statement against “the war machine,” as well as a tribute to the late anti-war activist Paki Wieland.
“We did this in Paki’s memory, because she dedicated her life to this, and we have a weapons maker part of the war machine right in our own community,” activist Anne-Marie Smith said. “We’re really focusing on the local part of the war machine, trying to shut it down.”
Another activist, Raghu Raghavan, argued that L3Harris’ 50 Prince St. location could be easily used for alternative, more “wholesome” purposes that serve the community.
Capt. Robinson said he repeatedly asked the protesters to vacate the roadway and made them aware that they would be arrested if they refused. He said after physically moving the activists, who were seated in rocking chairs, to the side of the road, they eventually got back up and walked to the middle of the roadway.
After the activists further refused to leave the boat trailer, Northampton Police called the the State Police Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) for assistance.
“After several minutes of trying to negotiate with these two individuals to let go, they refused. I advised them that they if they continued to remain blocking the intersection, they were going to be placed under arrest. They did not comply,” Robinson said. “The State Police Special Response Team ended up cutting both of those individuals out and removed the contraptions; they were taken into custody.”
The arrested individuals were expected to appear for their arraignments in Northampton District Court Wednesday afternoon. Robinson advised the general public that while police respect their right to protest, it is illegal to obstruct roadways.
“We appreciate their right to protest. However, unfortunately, they were blocking people from going to work. We don’t want to disrupt the protest, but we can’t allow that to happen,” he said. “We’re all for people protesting peacefully on a sidewalk. That’s their right, but once you start affecting traffic flow —we don’t want to make arrests, we pleaded with them not to — but they have a business to run, and we absolutely have to remain impartial and do our jobs.”
