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BY HANNA KOZLOWSKA and JACQUELINE SMALL

In print | Published February 18, 2010

Lang Visiting Professor of Issues for Social Change George Lakey and 13 other members of the Casino-Free Philadelphia group were acquitted on Tuesday for charges that resulted from a protest against predatory gambling in Philadelphia last September.

They were charged with failure to disperse, disorderly conduct and criminal conspiracy after they protested in front of the Sugarhouse Casino construction site in residential Fishtown by the Delaware River in Philadelphia on Sept. 29. The trial was held at the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia.

“The trial was a wonderful success because of the skill of our lawyer and the wonderfulness of the judge … who realized the prosecution hadn’t made their case,” said Lakey, who is also a research associate at the Lang Center and teaches a class in peace and conflict studies.

Lakey said that after he and the other members of Casino-Free Philadelphia refused to relocate from the entrance of the casino construction site they were arrested and held in custody for 12 hours. “It was a symbolic blockade,” Lakey said. “We wanted to appeal to the citizenry to rise up and say, ‘No, no, no. Not in our city.’” Lakey said that the prosecution showed video footage of their protest to the judge, who saw nothing illegal.

“People who know George wouldn’t find [this incident] very surprising,” said Zein Nakhoda ’12, the only student who attended the trial in order to show support for Lakey. “It is a part of his identity on campus as a person who engages in struggle for social justice.”

“He is known worldwide for both his actions and training,” Executive Director of the Lang Center Joy Charlton said of Lakey. “He is a master of strategies of social actions.”

Casino-Free Philadelphia was started in 2006, and has since then organized grassroots campaigns against the casino industry and corruption in politics, advocating transparency and civic engagement. Their aim is to stop casinos from being built in and bringing their predatory practices to Philadelphia.

According to the organization’s website, “the casino industry thrives by increasing gambling addiction, targeting the poor, and avoiding paying the costs associated with crime, bankruptcy and the losses from other local businesses.”

Lakey said that, in addition to the economic strain put on the city by the increases in crime, homelessness and job losses that are common when casinos are built, he considers them morally unconscionable.

“What does it mean for a government to try to raise money by cultivating and pandering to addiction? Is that a society I want to be a part of?” he said.

In its fight for transparency in politics, Casino-Free Philadelphia is protesting the manner in which the gambling legislation was passed. In an e-mail that invited the student body to attend the trial earlier this week, Lakey said that the legislation was passed “in the dead of night years ago.”

The group turned the trial into a political demonstration, calling it “Your Neighbors on Trial,” and organizing a street rally in support of the 14 arrestees, who call themselves “Philadelphia’s most honorable citizens” in their open letter to Philadelphia politicians. The group includes clergymen, teachers and entrepreneurs.

“They wanted to make it a really public trial which is very strategic because … the more people that show up the more news hype it will get,” Hannah Jones ’12 said.

Multiple members of the group and the Philadelphia community attended the rally and the open trial. “The courtroom was packed,” Nakhoda said. “Casino-Free is well-organized.” Nakhoda, a student activist, said he went to the trial to show support for Lakey and to witness a case study of one of the strategies of non-violent direct action. “Student [activists] could learn a lot from them,” he said.

Nakhoda emphasized, however, that the activist community at Swarthmore will be more interested in the strategy aspect of the trial than the mere fact of Lakey being arrested. “It’s pretty separate from the Swat community, but it’s an opportunity to learn about that vein of activism,” Jones said.

“George sets an example for students of how to enact civil disobedience responsibly,” Charlton said.

“Civil disobedience is not just going to a sit-in once; it requires planning, preparing, being clear about your purpose, having support in each other and outside,” she said.

Charlton said that Lakey, a committed Quaker, was a “strong fit for the college as a Quaker institution.”

Lakey teaches a research seminar in peace and conflict studies called Strategy and Nonviolent Struggle, during which students create a global Internet database of nonviolent social actions. According to the course description, the database will serve activists and scholars around the world.

He described Casino Free Philadelphia as “a grand group — a great group of people to get arrested with,” but said he had no further plans to work with the organization.

Lakey is currently training a Philadelphia based group, Quakers Against Mountaintop Removal. He hopes to involve Swarthmore students in the group’s protest of the removal of mountaintops to gather coal.

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