Democratic candidate arrested for trespassing at public meeting for nuclear power plant

[bananas]

This happened last week in Idaho.
There are several embedded links to news articles etc in the original.
I included a comment by Dan Yurman, who writes for Fuel Cycle Week.

http://www.43rdstateblues.com/?q=node/5217

Citizen Hands Out Fliers, Bumps Bellies, Arrested
Submitted by Sisyphus on Wed, 06/18/2008 - 1:48pm.

Dr. Peter Rickards is a Democratic candidate for District 23 State Representative. On Monday he attended a self described public hearing for the nuclear power plant being proposed in Elmore County. Dr. Rickards is a well known and well informed watchdog of all things nuclear. He doesn't much care for the proposed merchant power plant and doesn't think Idaho should be saddled with the waste it will produce in order to heat California hot tubs. So he figured he'd show up to the public hearing to share his point of view.

Apparently the proponents of the plant only wanted to share just their position and took strong efforts to quash the written info Rickards was sharing with the audience. One of the nuclear goons attempted to physically block Rickard's access to the public hearing and they thrice asked him to leave the public hearing. Rickards, endeavoring to slip past, bumped bellies with the goon and refused to leave the public hearing. Rickards was arrested because the locale of the public hearing was a private hall whose owner, presumably paid by the nuke merchants, charged him with trespass. The nuke merchant goon charged him with battery for the belly incident. Instead of just handing Rickard the tickets charging him with these misdemeanors the sherrif figured justice would also be served by arresting and hauling him to the clink.

As you might imagine, Dr. Rickards remembered reading something about the freedom of speech being guaranteed in the Constitution and laments the use of the government to shut him down. The nuclear goons explain it this way: "It is a well-established principle that disruptive activity, including leafletting, may be prohibited at a public meeting." Oooooooooh! Leafletting. Damn, that is scary. Makes you wonder about an out of state company so skittish about itself that its worried about words on a printed page. Here's the Snake River Alliance take on the hearing.

<snip some comments>

Dust up in Elmore
Submitted by djysrv on Wed, 06/18/2008 - 7:35pm.

The arrest is a first, of sorts, for Rickards who has pursued his anti-nuclear mission with noisy zeal for at least the past 20 years. While I disagree with most of what he says, and often how he says it, it is ridiculous to consider that he would physically assault someone. Further, the "meeting" was not a NRC licensing hearing. AEHI opened its doors to the public and should have expected people with opposing views would show up.

Frankly, from a pro-nuclear perspective, the AEHI reactor proposal fails the famous "baloney test" for new nuclear builds which I published in Fuel Cycle Week last year.

The "test" is here.
http://djysrv.blogspot.com/2007/10/baloney-detection-for-nuclear-new.html

My blog coverage of the dust up in Elmore is here.
http://djysrv.blogspot.com/2008/06/idaho-anti-nuclear-activist-arrested.html

[JohnWxy]

1. recommended!

[jpak]

2. Ignorance kills! Ignorance Kills!!!

It kills it kills itkillss!!!!111

:rofl:

[Zachstar]

3. What does the 1st amendment have to do with this?

Private building