Three members of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance will not contest the charges filed against them during this April 6 march from the Oak Ridge Civic Center to the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Three members of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance will not contest charges filed against them for impeding the flow of traffic during an April 6 demonstration that ended at the Y-12 National Security Complex, the group said in a press release Monday.
The three OREPA members were arrested as about 70 protesters marched from the Oak Ridge Civic Center to Y-12 during an annual spring demonstration.
Larry Coleman, Gyoshu Utsumi, and Bill Ramsey had been scheduled to appear in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge on Monday to face charges that had been amended to “pedestrian in the roadway,” OREPA said in a press release that was critical of the arrests, describing them as harassment.
“We chose to plead no contest and pay the fine, not because we violated the law, but to maintain our focus on the real criminal activity at Y12—the building of nuclear weapons and the creation of the new $6.5 billion Uranium Processing Facility,” said Coleman, a Knoxville resident. “The Oak Ridge police may continue to arrest us with bogus charges, but we intend to exercise our free speech rights.”
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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