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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Charges dropped against Bloomington , IN Tree-sitters |
Current rating: 0 |
by Pauline Bartolone
(No verified email address) |
25 Oct 2001
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This headline was produced for Free Speech Radio News for Thursday. |
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Charges were dropped Tuesday against 12 Bloomington Indiana activists arrested last July for delaying the construction of a 218 unit housing complex. The activists had been charged for criminal trespass and resisting arrest for occupying trees on the site as far as 80 feet above ground. The tree sitters initiated the protection of the 50 acre wooded area last March, and decorated trees with webs of woven yarn , wildflowers, and roses. Among those arrested were 52 year old Marc Haggerty, who refused to give his video camera to the police or move out of the woods, and 65 year old Lucille Bertuccio, who crossed the police line and dodged the officers. Another activist involved had been arrested in Bloomington last march for blocking traffic during a critical mass bike ride. Monroe County Prosecutor Carl Salzmann decided to drop the charges when the activists demanded jury trials and filed lists of supporting witnesses. Salzmann says, "In my humble opinion, all these people have more pressing matters than to go to 14 different jury trials." Although the mobilization did not prevent the development of the natural area, one activist says, "it did cause everybody to look at it a lot more carefully" |
