On Tuesday, May 6, 2025 at 2 p.m., Quaker activists Bill Holcombe and Lewis Randa will be arraigned at Natick Framingham District Court for “disturbing the peace” after participating in peaceful, nonviolent civil disobedience on Inauguration Day, which coincided with the Martin Luther King Day of Service.
The protest took place at 12 noon while the presidential oath of office was being administered at the US Capitol in the very room that was ransacked by the January 6 insurrectionists. On that same day they performed civil disobedience, President Trump issued a sweeping proclamation granting clemency to almost 1,600 people convicted of offenses at the Capitol.
Holcomb and Randa were among 13 people who held the Peace Chain to close off Main Street in front of the Gandhi statue in Sherborn, MA. The action, like all Peace Abbey protests, was conducted with advance notice to the police. Despite freezing, snowy weather on January 20, over 40 people attended and 13 received citations to appear in court.
Eleven accepted dismissal of charges in March, but Holcomb and Randa chose to bring their cases to court. Here they will submit a necessity defense. Their actions are aimed to prevent greater harm to democracy and the Constitution, as President Trump has validated their concerns, not only on his first day in office, but throughout his first 100 days.
After the arraignment, Holcomb, Randa and other defendants will read prepared statements from the courthouse steps, which affirm their protest was a warning about the dangers of authoritarianism and threats to constitutional checks and balances, and their actions were taken out of a sense of duty to sound the alarm (necessity defense) while the judiciary remains independent.
Actions of civil disobedience undertaken through the Peace Abbey are taken on behalf of everyone who values democracy. Those who believe Trump’s second term threatens the foundation of our government understand unchecked power could end democracy as we know it. While recognizing the significant risks involved in speaking out, those who remain steadfast in their commitment to oppose authoritarianism and fascism know some risks are worth taking.
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