Plowshares Kitsap Break-in (2007)

Fri Nov 02, 2007

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On this day in 2009, five anti-nuclear weapons peace activists who were part of the Plowshares movement broke into the Naval Base Kitsap, a nuclear-submarine base on Hood Canal northwest of Bremerton, Washington.

This “Disarm Now Plowshares” protest was a symbolic disarming of one of the largest nuclear-weapons stockpiles in the United States.

The five activists cut a hole through the perimeter fence surrounding the Bangor submarine base and began walking toward the storage area for nuclear weapons, carrying hammers and vials of their own blood. After making it within 10 yards of where the nukes were stored, they were arrested by Marines at gunpoint.

After being charged with conspiracy, trespass, destruction of property on a naval installation, and depredation of government property, the group was found guilty on December 13th, 2010.

At sentencing, Judge Benjamin Settle considering releasing the defendants while they waited for their prison terms to begin, however all individuals refused and, while singing songs of peace, federal marshals escorted them out of the courtroom and into federal detention.

  • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍
    2•2 hours ago

    Oof. Not me, man. They may have survived it, but that was stuuuupid. Or, maybe not “stupid”; I’ll give them “foolish”. They obviously knew what they were getting into; one woman quit her job, expecting to go directly to prison and not come back home. They’re lucky no-one was shot, though.

    “They all came with their assault rifles and everything trained on us. And then they had us all face down. They cuffed us, and had us face down on the ground for about three hours. They put hoods over our heads, sort of like Guantanamo” (Dambergs interview).

    The military is _really_protective of their subs, especially the nuclear ones.

    I give them props for putting their lives on the line for their beliefs. But that was a dumb protest which accomplished nothing. I mean, lots of protests don’t effect immediate change, but this one didn’t move any needle, and had no lasting impact except to fuck up those people’s lives.