where is this located?

26th and california

hope they rot!!

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-easter-protest-24-webmar25,1,3001091.story

Up to $35,000 bail set for 6 Holy Name protesters who hurled fake blood

By Azam Ahmed

Tribune reporter

2:51 PM CDT, March 24, 2008
Click here to find out more!

The six Iraq war protesters charged with defacing church property as they disrupted Cardinal Francis George's Easter homily were held Monday in lieu of up to $35,000.

The demonstrators, who called themselves Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War, despite having both male and female protesters, squirted fake blood on themselves and nearby worshipers as security guards tried to usher them from the parish's auditorium, where mass is being said during repairs on the downtown Chicago cathedral.

Each protester faces felony charges because the damaged property belonged to a religious entity and the church will have to spend $3,000 to replace chairs and carpeting, prosecutors said. A $400 cleaning failed to remove stains left by the fake blood.

The syrupy red substance, which one protester later described as "stage blood," initially drew horrified gasps and a few shrieks from the 600 worshipers at the mass. The shock, however, quickly gave way to anger as people booed the demonstrators while they were being removed from the hall.

Several churchgoers then rushed to the bathroom to wash off the sticky liquid. Others cried openly. A few livid parents followed the protesters into the lobby and berated them for scaring children at mass.

"Are you happy with yourselves?" Mike Wainscott of Chicago shouted at the demonstrators as they were being handcuffed by police. "There were kids in there. You scared little kids with your selfish act. Are you happy now?"

The protesters were all charged with felony criminal defacement of property and two counts of simple battery for defacing church property and the worshipers' clothes with the fake blood. Chicago police identified the six arrested as: Donte D. Smith, 18, of Chicago; Ephran Ramirez Jr., 22, of Chicago; Ryne Ziemba, 25, of Chicago; Mercedes Phinaih, 18, of Bloomington; Regan Maher, 25, of Chicago; and Angela Haban, 20, of Prospect Heights.

All except Smith received $25,000 bail. Smith, who spent time in prison for illegally entering a U.S. military installation, had his bond set at $35,000, prosectors said.

Mike Harding, a friend of the protesters, described them as a group of students and local activists who do good deeds for their community, such as teaching classes, planting gardens and distributing food to the poor. If the demonstrators' actions ruined some people's Easter, then perhaps they'll have more empathy for Iraqi citizens who have seen their holiest days marred by violence, said Harding, 21.

"The idea is to bring that back here, not necessarily in a brutal way, but in a peaceful way," said Harding, who went to a police station after the arrest for information about his friends.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Harding said officers were being verbally abusive toward the protesters and were denying one of them medical treatment for his asthma. He said the accusations against them were "trumped-up" charges.

Protests aren't uncommon at Holy Name, the home parish to George and the epicenter of Chicago's large Catholic community. Some parishioners, however, said the faux bloodshed protest ventured into frighteningly unacceptable territory.

"The fact that people have to come to Easter mass and do something like that is disturbing," said Carroll Baker, whose face was splattered with the fake blood during the fracas. "It's very sad, and it's very irritating."

Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War, however, may have been preaching to the choir, literally. Both Pope Benedict XVI and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have opposed the war since its inception, with the pope using his own Easter homily Sunday to renew calls for an Iraq resolution that would "safeguard peace and the common good."

After the service, the cardinal reiterated the Catholic Church's opposition to the war, but he said mass is not the place to protest the U.S.-led invasion.

"We should all work for peace," George said, "but not by interrupting the worship of God. It's an act of violence to come among a group of believers and try to manipulate worship to your own purposes, no matter how noble and good they are."

In a statement issued by Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War, the group said it protested at the cathedral "to reach both Holy Name's large Easter audience, including Chicago's most prominent Catholic citizens, who commonly attend Easter mass at the church, and the many more viewers and readers of the local press, which usually extensively covers their services."

The statement lauded protesters' efforts to remind the churchgoers that George and Mayor Richard M. Daley met two months ago with President Bush, described as the "principal public figure responsible for initiating the carnage in Iraq."

Losers and poseurs all of them. Another pointless display by pseudo-radical attention whores. American self-declared "radicals" - the most narcissistic, self-absorbed gang of pampered little cretins around. Never taking real risks, always engaged in immature tantrums. Yawn. Fuck em. Let their rich parents bail them out.

these degenerates belong in prison

They can rot in jail for all I care.

Idiots.

They look rotten already.

i hope those guys become someone's bitch. in the most pc way of course. fucking douchebags.

They committed a hate crime under the face act of 1994. They are also wasting my tax money. I want my money back. Damn ANARCHISTS!!!. If your gonna do something do it right !!! PHUKNG AMATUERS!!!!

They don't need our support, they need a good kick in the ass. I'm an anti-war Catholic who's godson is serving in Iraq right now and this offended me to the core. I recognize this farce in Iraq for what it is but what these punks did was unconscionable. They disrupted a church service, not just any service either but an Easter Service - the holiest of days for Catholics - and for what? To show disrespect to those in attendance? To disrespect Cardinal George? To ruin the clothes of the congregation and terrify their children? How did this help anyone's cause - it didn't and if you think it did you're as immature and blind as these punks are. Most Catholics are, like me, against the war because the teachings of Christ promote love and forgiveness, so they chose to intrude on an Easter mass not to send a message, but to offend as many people as possible and to get publicity. Well they got it, and they can have the bill that goes with it. I and others I have talked to who are Catholic like me and who oppose the war are saddened by this and we deplore the banal and childish antics these punks stooped to so they could get on TV. Let them rot in jail and good luck getting a decent job with those felony convictions - dumb asses like you make me think I may be on the wrong side.

Wait a minute. Catholics are always offended when confronted with the distance between the religious message, the parousia, and their sweating selves.

How dare in other words Jehan de la Pucelle (Joan of Arc) get rowdy and make all that trouble for the good burghers of cities taken by the English?

And where did the Berrigans get off, spattering blood on draft records?

And hey how about that Sinead O'Connor?

I don't see how you can be an "antiwar Catholic" and not support this non-violent and peaceful protest, which used non-toxic and washable fake blood ... in a city in which the river is not only died green on St Patrick's day, but also in which the law isn't enforced when Cubs fans piss on people's lawns on Waveland Avenue.

4000 Americans have died in the longest war in our history. This war is the most expensive war since WWII, and it is being conducted simultaneously with another, smaller war in Afghanistan.

Sure, if these kids had done what they did as a prank, with no protest-content, something like pissing on Waveland, it would have been wrong (but given the selective enforcement of the laws in Chicago, which targets black people in preference to whites, they would not have been nailed). What I am saying is that given Cardinal George's own opposition to the war, which he shares with the Pope and the Mayor, then these kids should have gotten a medal.

To revert to tavern ravings may make you feel all masculine, but in it, you neatly undo your anti-war stance, because emotionally you're taking sides with the sort of people who think it was perfectly fine to invade Iraq.

The speech to which even progressives regress when "offended" reveals alot about actual psychological and social mechanisms which create wars and keep them going.

I'm having in other words a deja vu, like Cheech Marin. When I read the foul and homophobic comments on this site, many from people who say they "hate" Bush, I'm having a flash back to 1972, when Nixon was deliberately engaging in his "mad bomber" campaign, killing thousands of Vietnamese to "bring them back to the conference table", and, as it happened, with no effect at all on the final North Vietnamese victory in 1975.

By that time, just about everybody "hated Nixon" and disapproved of the war: but everybody was also bored by the war, and had moved on. But like a land mine discovered by a child in a field, the war kept on keeping on, kind of like a mean and nasty drunk keeps keeping on.

Those kids deserve a medal.

hmmmm, it seems to me that going up against hate crimes for actions taken to shake people up and remember that people are still dieing in iraq is a pretty big risk.

i also think it's funny that "me" told people that if they are to do something they have to do it right and then used an intentional mispelling of a word and silly capitalizing.

So if I were to take action to shake things up, like maybe I see you and your family eating out one night and I decide to dump you table and throw fake blood on eveyrone while screaming "No Blood for Oil!" that would be cool with you right? Somehow I'm guessing not.

See what you're missing here, either intentionall or because you're just too stupid to realize, is that this attack on the Church and it's congregation (and it was a planned, orchestrated attack - nothing less) wasn't targeting rich white republicans at a fundraiser, it wasnt' targeting Haliburton employees at a company picnic, it was targeting Christians at a Church during the holiest of days for their faith - so yes, hate crime. Or look at it this way - if they'd done this in a mosque do you think you'd object to the use of hate crime laws being used against them? No, then revel in your ypochypocrisy douchebag.

One can protest and win public support; or one can be an asshole, harm innocents, and alienate the public. These six morons fall into the latter category. I hope the see jail time.

This is pathetic. These criminals assualt people in the name of their beliefs while at the same time have zero respect for anyone else's beliefs. Time to wake up, intolerance like this is why Americans don't support their so-called causes... Has is it ever occurred to people to try to talk (not scream, not rant... just talk... and LISTEN) to other and convince them? After reading this, I am sure the answer is "No".

These self-absorbed, spoiled little brats have accomplished nothing more than exposing themselves for what they are.

Other than impressing the other over-indulged brats they plot with, as if they have the capacity to effectively communicate even the simplest notions, they've achieved nothing they intended to and accomplished a lot toward labeling themselves and their associates as idiots who were unable to keep themselves and their pomposity in perspective long enough to make it to adulthood without a felony conviction.

There are an endless amount of sanctimonious hypocrites in this city, the Cardinal tops them all. He said these six were 'violent'. Not a single statement against the government and the million killed by bombs, bullets and DU. A little theater makes them uncomfortable? Any compassion for the seriously, real dead, wounded or worse? Don't expect it, they are busy praying, being good obedient sheep. One reason this crime against humanity continues.

The article called them "brave"!!!

who the hell ever said they--or their supporters--were pacifists? who ever said we think revolution will be achieved through peaceful means?

frankly, this action was *not* violent. noone was hurt, and nothing would've been damaged had the ushered not *shoved* *a* *young* *woman* to the floor. (think i'm talking out of my ass? watch the uncut video available on several fine mainstream media outlets.)

say what you want, disagree with the tactical efficacy of the action, but unless you're doing something better... something that--unlike permitted marches, candlelight vigils, letters to the editor, or even political regime change--will *actually* get heads turning and fire some people up, then you need to shut the hell up and sit down.

and to all you right wing trolls who dropped in here directly from michelle malkin's dirty shit-rag of blog--fuck off and die.

to those out there who are still interested in hearing how things are going, we should have the first of our comrades out this evening. the trolls can come protest if they feel like it; then we'll see who ends up underneath whom.

We just donated $100. via the PayPal account. Screw the bills we have to get our friends out of jail.

how about raising some money to pay for the damages instead of bail money for those worthless twats?

whoever moderates the comments is a fascist pussy! What a useless website this is. I know you'll pull this but I want the moderator to see it.

"I don't like this comment, I don't want anyone to see it" Feel good about yourself? Fighting the good fight are we?

This is one reason why nobody takes people like you seriously!

You pathetic bunch of pussies..........

You pathetic bunch of pussies..........

You pathetic bunch of pussies..........

Since when is mayor rich daley against the war? He's never taken that position as far as I've heard. He praises george bush whenever he gets a chance. george even spent his birthday here in chicago with rich. And daley did next to nothing to help gore or kerry displace bush.

Fuck 'em. Let them rot in jail. Had they done this at a mosque you'd be screaming racism.

These 6 people are dedicated anti-war activists who are passionate about stopping the war. They don't belong in jail and they certainly don't deserve a felony charge. Their protest was non-violent and I support them 100%.

The hateful rhetoric of some of these comments is shameful. If you have an argument to make, make it like an adult.

Shit man. 30,000+ for bail? Think of what REAL anti-war organizing could be done with that budget...

As someone who is anti-war, pro- nonviolent direct action, I really hope that we can use this as an example of what sort of tactics work and what dont work. I hope they get out of jail soon, but seriously, this action was a COMPLETE FAILURE.

what does spraying blood in a church on easter have to do with the war?

sounds like a dumb stunt to me.

By Matthew Walberg
Chicago Tribune reporter
July 22, 2008

Six anti-war protesters who threw fake blood on worshipers during Easter service in Holy Name parish in March pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor charges.

Angela Haban, 21; Regan Maher, 25; Mercedes Phinaih, 19; Ephran Ramirez, 22; Donte Smith, 22; and Ryne Ziemba, 25, entered pleas of guilty to one count each of misdemeanor attempted criminal defacement of property, according to Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office. Haban also pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor battery for coming into contact with a parishioner, he said.

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Full article at:
Holy Name protesters plead guilty