Arrestees need your help!

Seven people were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct on Sunday May 24th by the Ann Arbor Police Department. They are accused of attending a protest outside the home of University of Michigan Vice President for Government Relations, Chris Kolb. Kolb is a major proponent of the Los Alamos data center. 

Cops on the scene reported that people have been protesting for months at the residences of those involved in the nuclear data center project. Protesters have been doing non-violent noise demonstrations outside the homes of decision makers associated with the data center, including local electeds, the water authority, Los Alamos National Labs, and University of Michigan officials since last summer. 

Vidhya Aravind, a local homeowner in Ypsilanti township, said on Sunday, "It makes sense that people are upset and would make it personal for the officials who can't be held to account any other way. These officials are interested in nothing but their own wallets, and are planning on poisoning our water and air from the safety of their suburban mansions, and lining their pockets with nuclear weapons research done in our backyards. Folks are trying all sorts of avenues to effect change, and all the approved channels of feedback get ignored or lead to arrest anyway. Of course activists are not going to just give up and will continue to escalate!"

Local residents have vocally opposed the $1.2 billion AI data center planned for Ypsilanti since last summer. They have attended meetings of the township board, county commissioners, and U of M Regents, in addition to lobbying state officials and sending letters, emails, and phone calls. At a University of Michigan "town hall" about the project -- where unidentified employees who were unfamiliar with the details of the project presented error-ridden poster boards about the data center -- protesters were arrested and charged with breaking and entering and felony larceny for simply attending. The charges were later dropped, with Washtenaw DA Eli Savit publicly stating that they should never have been brought in the first place. Washtenaw County residents are asking Eli Savit to drop these new charges against local activists as well.

Please call so-called progressive prosecutor Eli Savit and ask him to drop the charges. Call 734-222-6620. Script: "hi I'm a Washtenaw county voter, calling because I heard that 7 people were charged with disorderly conduct for first amendment protected activities. Savit ran a campaign of not excessively charging protestors. He said he would give first amendment activities "a wide berth". Why is he going back on his word?"