Father Louis Vitale, OFM and Marcus Patrick Blaise Page were arrested for being a "public nuisance" and for “trespassing” at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) on April 19th 2005. They held a thin sheet of a banner calling for nuclear disarmament on the road to Mercury, Nevada—which is in the NTS. Both men are members of the Board of Directors for
Nevada Desert Experience.
Father Vitale (age 72; a founder of Nevada Desert Experience in 1982) usually lives in San Francisco, CA, and Mr. Page (age 39; producer of "A Peace of the Anarchy") usually lives in Albuquerque, NM. The two were part of a spontaneous vigil for peace and the end of US devotions to weapons of mass destruction, in honor of the Christian season of Easter, and Mr. No-More-Nucs Norb who died this month after an injury on Good Friday. Two others were NOT stopped from their vigil on the other side of the line. Their cardboard banner read, “Rise Up Like Jesus” on one side and “overcome death” on the other side. They did not know their friends were going to be arrested. Page said, “While out there we realized we could safely block traffic for a few minutes with our simple banner as soon as the first security people would arrive behind us.” One security vehicle was far ahead of three others, “but the first Wackenhut officer refused to join our blockade with his body. Only his parked truck’s flashing light assisted our safe stoppage of traffic,” Page commented. The Wackenhut security man forced the priest and the Page out of the road, allowing traffic to continue.
Nye County Sheriffs then sent the two to Beatty, NV to be booked and locked up for a day. Usually, the ritual, simple line-crossings three miles from the real (guarded) entrance to the NTS end in a pseudo-arrest, short confinement in on-site holding pens, and impotent citations that the DA of Nye County ritually refuses to prosecute. Fortunately for Page and Vitale, Justice of the Peace Bill Sullivan was in his office and released the two on their own recognizance. Their court date is set for May 31st 2005 in Beatty, NV, pictured here.
The pacifists hope the DA will make the right decision (to drop the charges and not waste taxpayer money on erroneous prosectutions).
