Anti-drone protesters made their presence known in one of the
epicenters of the drone technology industry, San Diego, Calif., over the
weekend—
protesting in several locations including the home of Neal Blue, chief executive officer of General Atomics which manufactures the Predator drone.
Medea Benjamin demonstrates with drone outside home of General Atomics CEO Neal Blue. (Photo: UT San Diego / Howard Lipin) Starting on Friday morning, dozens of protesters from the anti-war group
CodePink
took to the neighborhood of La Jolla in San Diego, gathering in front
of Neal's residence—a man who "literally makes a killing out of
killing,"
said CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin.
The group then continued on to protest in front of General Atomics
offices also in San Diego and later at Northrop Grumman, whose products
include the Global Hawk. On Saturday the group rallied in front of the
the USS Midway Museum, a U.S. naval and aviation museum.
The protests, which will continue Sunday, are part of the "
April Days of Action"—a
month long series of anti-drone protests coordinated in dozens of
cities nationwide through a coalition of peace and justice groups called
the Network to Stop Drone Surveillance and Warfare (NSDSW).
Events are planned for Boston, New York City, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Dayton, Ft. Wayne, Chicago,
Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Seattle, Tucson, San Francisco,
Sacramento, San Diego, Honolulu, "as well as in dozens of other
locations, including many of the communities that host the estimated 100
drone basing sites in the U.S.," the group states.
“What I want to see is a transparent, national discussion about our use of drones,” Benjamin said on Friday.
“This is not the kind of world we want to live in,” she said. “We think we are beginning to turn the tide on public opinion.”
While many of the protesters sang, danced, and chanted anti-war
slogans at times, others read the names of children killed by drones in
countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia.
The protesters also attempted to fly their own miniature drone over Blue's residence, but were stopped by local police.
“It’s ironic that we almost lost our drone because the police said it
might hurt somebody,” Benjamin said referencing the thousands of
innocent civilians that have been killed by U.S. drone strikes in recent
years.
San Diego has a large and quickly expanding drone production
industry, which has generated $1.3 billion in economic activity in 2011,
according to a study by the National University System.
Watch footage of the protests here:
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