Raging Grannies Given Court Date

The Tucson Citizen covered this morning's arraignment of the Raging Grannies for criminal trespass who attempted to enlist in the Army on July 13th. If found guilty the Grannies could face 39 days in jail and a $500.

July 25, 2005

`Raging Grannies' given court date for contesting trespass charges

The Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. - Five older women known as the "Tucson Raging Grannies" pleaded innocent Monday to misdemeanor trespassing charges lodged when they tried to enlist at a military recruitment center.

A City Court judge set an Aug. 19 pretrial hearing for the women, who range from 55 to 81 years old - decades older than the maximum age for recruits.

The women are "pretty thoroughly antiwar; we're concerned about the environment and what's happening to civil liberties," said Patricia Birnie, a spokeswoman who was with the women who entered a recruiting center on July 13. She was not cited.

Birnie said two recruiters told the group not to enter, but the women said they had come to enlist, read a statement and sang two protest songs. By the time they returned to the sidewalk outside, police had arrived, she said, and one of the men inside "pointed to those of us who should be cited."

The Tucson Raging Grannies have protested outside the recruitment center on Wednesdays for the past three years, and contend that recruits have been lied to, Birnie said.

The women were serious about enlisting, she added. "We feel that our lives are pretty well used up and that the young people so many times are killed in battle or come home traumatized," she said.