Thread: AZ:2 men praying at virtual-fence site are arrested

Published: 08.07.2009

2 men praying at virtual-fence site are arrested
By Brady McCombs
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
A 72-year-old Franciscan priest and a 54-year-old Quaker have been arrested near the Mexican border after they refused to stop praying at a construction site of one of the Department of Homeland Security's virtual-fence towers.
A private security guard called the Pima County Sheriff's Department at about 11 a.m. Thursday to report that John Heid, 54, and Jerome Zawada, 72, both of Tucson, were unwilling to leave the site after being asked, said Dawn Barkman, a sheriff's spokeswoman.
Deputies went to the site — about 12 miles north of the border town of Sasabe, where Arivaca Road meets Arizona 286 — and arrested the men on suspicion of trespassing on government property, she said. The men did not resist arrest, she said.
The peaceful protest came as part of a day spent in prayer and reflection of the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, said the Rev. Bob Carney, a Catholic priest in Tucson.
Carney; Zawada, a Franciscan priest; and Heid, a Quaker; went to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in the morning for a vigil at the gates and then traveled southwest to the tower site, Carney said.
They chose the virtual-fence site because it is symbolic of the federal government's militarization of the border, which they believe has led to the deaths of thousands of illegal immigrants in Arizona.
"We cannot allow that to go on without doing something," Carney said. "The virtual wall is part of that, pushing people even farther out into more dangerous areas."
At least 40 bodies of illegal immigrants were recovered in July across Arizona's stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border from New Mexico to Yuma County, and at least 135 bodies have been found along that stretch since Jan. 1, up from 120 at the same time last year, county medical examiners' records show.
A grid of 17 towers with cameras, radar and sensors is going up this year along 23 miles of the border flanking Sasabe.
When they arrived at the site, Heid and Zawada walked through an open gate and toward the tower, said Carney, who stayed outside to witness the event.
The security guard approached them, and after a conversation, the duo kneeled down and began praying.
The guard made calls on his cell phone, and other security guards arrived in trucks, he said. Eventually, a Pima County sheriff's deputy came.
The deputy offered the men the opportunity to accept tickets and leave on their own, but they declined, Carney said.
At that point, the deputy arrested them.
Carney said the deputy and security guards were nice, and the incident was peaceful.
Heid and Zawada were taken to the Pima County adult detention center and were scheduled to go before a judge Thursday afternoon, he said.
Zawada has a decades-long record of public resistance to nuclear weapons and war. On Nov. 18, 2005, Zawada and two others were arrested while protesting military-intelligence interrogation training at Fort Huachuca, about 75 miles southeast of Tucson. He was found guilty on those charges and spent two months in a federal detention center beginning in December 2007.
He was given two years of supervised probation upon his release.
Outside of the courthouse that day, Feb. 4, 2008, he said he expected to continue his activity.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/303975

Priest, Quaker arrested at Ariz.-Mexico border
2 commentsAug. 7, 2009 07:02 AM
Associated Press
TUCSON - Arizona authorities say they've arrested a Franciscan priest and a Quaker near the U.S.-Mexico border after they refused to stop praying at a construction site for a virtual border fence.

Pima County Sheriff's spokeswoman Dawn Barkman says a private security guard called authorities Thursday morning after 54-year-old John Heid and the 72-year-old priest, Jerome Zawada, wouldn't leave the site after being asked to.

She says the two Tucson men were arrested on suspicion of trespassing on government property. The site about 12 miles north of Sasabe will house a grid of towers monitoring the border electronically.

The Rev. Bob Carney of Tucson says it was part of a peaceful protest on the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... 07-ON.html