Demonstrators protest Blackwater/Xe
By Fred Turk,
Rock Falls
A conference regarding Blackwater/Xe and other private armies was held in Stockton (Jo Daviess County), only an hour’s drive from Sterling, Rock Falls and Dixon, on April 25-27. It was sponsored by Clearwater and the Catholic Workers Movement. More than 100 people from many parts of the nation took part.
The chief goal was to deliver an eviction notice for moral bankruptcy to Blackwater/Xe on April 27 at its training site on Skunk Hollow Road in the remote southeastern region of Jo Daviess County.
It reads: “As Catholic workers and other concerned citizens of the United States, we come today to this northwest Illinois Blackwater training site in an action of nonviolent protest. We are here to make a citizens’ foreclosure on this property of a company that is morally bankrupt. We are here to reclaim it for the people of this nation who promote democracy and security by humanitarian efforts.
“We stand here today as citizens who live in solidarity with and in service to fellow citizens who struggle with joblessness, homelessness and inadequate wages. We are here to stop the flow of billions of tax dollars to the privatization of our military and the miniaturization of our police by companies like Blackwater, a company that is responsible for killing innocent Iraqi civilians, smuggling weapons illegally into Iraq, tax evasion, and illegal possession of firearms.
“We are here to hold them accountable for all their illegal and immoral actions. No matter how many times this company changes its name, it can run but it cannot hide from its bloody history or its lawlessness.”
The group of petitioners consisted of about 70 people. When no one came to accept the eviction notice, 23 trained in civil disobedience slipped under the gate to the property, which was posted. They were promptly arrested by Illinois State Police officers, cuffed, processed, taken to the county police headquarters in Galena, booked for criminal trespass to real property, and requested to appear before the circuit court of the 15th Judicial Circuit, Jo Daviess County Courthouse in Galena, at 10 a.m. June 4.
The state police and sheriff’s department had been foretold of an imminent civil disobedience action during the demonstration and were prepared.
