2 activists arrested after locking selves to each other in L3Harris lobby
NORTHAMPTON — Police arrested a pair of protesters and cited a third after they locked themselves to one another inside the lobby of a city defense manufacturer Wednesday, police said.
The three members of Demilitarize Western Mass, an anti-war advocacy group, earlier that day announced their intention to lock themselves inside L3Harris to decry the company's involvement in global military actions and the resultant deaths of innocent people.
Thursday is the fifth anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the protesters said in a statement, and activists found the date opportune to send a message.
"As a resident of Northampton who knows with absolute certainty that the L3Harris factory in my town makes deadly weapons and surveillance equipment that is used to violate human rights, international law and constitutional law, it is my legal and moral obligation to use all possible nonviolent means to stop them," Phil Wilson said in the statement. "L3Harris commits mass murder every day of the year, and to passively allow them to continue is a crime of neglect."
The trio had intended to lock themselves to a periscope in the company's lobby. They didn't, or couldn't, so they improvised.
"(They) entered the lobby and two of them used a device to chain themselves together, and refused to leave and caused a disturbance in the lobby," said Sgt. Joe Golec of the Northampton Police Department.
He said officers responded to the scene at about 10:05 a.m. They were assisted by the Massachusetts State Police Special Emergency Response Team, which helped extract the protesters, bringing them — still locked to one another — to the Northampton Police Department at about 11:20 a.m.
There, the SERT members unlocked the protesters from each other.
Two were arrested, charged with trespassing and resisting arrest, the latter because of the use of the locking device, Golec said. The third was summonsed for trespassing.
Their names were not released by the department, but Golec said they'd face arraignment in Northampton District Court on Thursday morning.
The activist group Demilitarize Western Mass shares its protest efforts on Instagram. (Screenshot from @demilitarizewesternmass)Screenshot from @demilitarizewesternmass
Creative flair
Demilitarize Western Mass. has been protesting L3Harris on a number of local fronts for several years. Protest pressure ramped up against L3 Harris after October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, with activists saying the company was directly responsible for weaponry of death, such as componentry for nuclear-armed submarines and Trident missiles.
The protesters have been insistent — and creative.
They've come armed with signs, of course, but also blocked the L3Harris entrance at 50 Prince St. with white body bag facsimiles, small enough to fit children, all overseen by a demonstrator in the garb of the Grim Reaper.
Later came another blockade, this time with a spray-painted Toyota pickup truck. After that, the L3Harris entrance and business sign was drenched in red paint , eventually washed away by the Fire Department.
They occupied the lobby before, too, throwing $100 bills to and fro as "blood money," wearing T-shirts that said "L3 Kills." Four were arrested , including longtime activist Patricia "Paki" Wieland.
While L3Harris might not be diverting course with its military products and services, public and official sentiment seems to be leaning toward the protesters. In December, a Hampshire District Court judge dismissed all charges against four activists from Demilitarize Western Mass, after they proved their protest was a necessity to stop "a clear and imminent danger," namely the sale of arms with L3Harris tech to the Israeli Defense Forces.
More than 70,369 Palestinians have been killed since the outset of the war, according to the U.N. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants took hostage 251 people and killed about 1,200, mostly civilians, in the attack that started the war.
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