Stryker Brigade
protesters
let off the hookThe activists claim victory but
say the battle is far from over
City prosecutor Peter Carlisle dropped all charges yesterday against seven protesters who were arrested for trying to take signs into public meetings on the Army's proposed Stryker Brigade.
The first group of four protesters were arrested for trespassing at the Honolulu Country Club on Oct. 28, and another three protesters were arrested the following night at Helemano Plantation. All seven had been arraigned on the charges and were set for trial over the next two months.
Carlisle said the military asked him not to pursue the cases.
"At the request of military authorities ... I have decided to decline to prosecute trespassing charges arising from the public meetings," he said in a written statement.
Carlisle said the Army was concerned that "lingering controversy may focus comments away from substantive issues" about the brigade.
Those arrested claimed a victory, at least for now.
"I consider this a win for the people and for the land," said Kyle Kajihiro, one of the defendants and program director for the American Friends Service Committee in Hawaii. "But this whole incident invalidates the entire process. They need to scrap it and go back to the drawing board and start again."
The Army held the series of hearings statewide to obtain public comment on the environmental impact of basing a Stryker brigade in Hawaii. The Army plans to acquire more land on the Big Island and occupy more land at Schofield Barracks to accommodate 310 eight-wheeled, 19-ton Stryker combat vehicles.
At the time of the arrests, Army officials said they banned the signs because they did not want an intimidating atmosphere at the public meetings. After the ensuing controversy, however, they allowed signs at subsequent public hearings.
Kajihiro and others said they oppose the project because they believe it would have an adverse impact on the environment, disturb cultural sites and affect people's health.
"They also want to grab some 25,000 acres on the Big Island for this project," he said. "They give back Kahoolawe and now want to take a land mass of almost equivalent size in return."
Carlisle said he was unsure if he would have dropped the cases if the Army had not asked.
"I don't know that for a fact," he said, "but we certainly factored their request into our own evaluation of the facts and circumstances of the case."
Protester and defendant Dr. Kekuni Blaisdell said he was "relieved" that the military "respected the fundamental human right to freedom of speech, assembly and protest."
"We continue to protest the Army's Stryker Brigade and the militarization of our homeland," he said in a press release.