Mary Anne Grady Flores, a grandmother from New York State, was sentenced to a year in prison for nonviolently recording a likewise nonviolent protest over the training of drone pilots at Hancock Air Base near Syracuse.
She had previously been the subject of a protective order — normally issued to violent stalkers — relating to protests at that targeted Colonel Earl Evans, the mission support commander for the drone program. The incident that resulted in her imprisonment involved her making a video-recording of the arrest of protesters at the base (the protesters were later acquitted).
The judge in the case overruled the sentencing recommendation — which was for no jail time — and sentenced Ms Flores to a year in prison, the maximum sentence allowable. In sentencing her, he described his motives as intending to stop the protests.
The verdict is being appealed.
Grandmother of Three was Convicted of Violating Strange ‘Order of Protection’ for Colonel of the Drone Base [Popular Resistance]
(Thanks, Arlo!)
