40 Arrested in Protest at Wincon Site

Forty demonstrators protesting the annual Wincon weapons conference were arrested Tuesday morning as they blocked three gates to the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, where the conference was getting under way.

The arrests, which had been coordinated in advance by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and demonstration leaders, were peaceful. At three of the base’s gates, demonstrators stood in the entrance lanes, were arrested and were immediately replaced by other demonstrators.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said deputies arrested 34 people for blocking a public roadway, a misdemeanor. All were cited and released, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Marine base said six more demonstrators were arrested my military police for trespassing on federal property. Two were cited, and all six were released, a spokeswoman for the protest said.

Similar protests have been staged each year since 1983 against Wincon, the Winter Conference on Aerospace and Electronic Systems. The theme of this year’s conference is “Finding the Threat,” an examination of surveillance and targeting methods and equipment. All but one of the sessions are open only to people with government security clearances.

Most of the arrests occurred at the main gate on Trabuco Road where demonstrators began to assemble before sunrise. At its peak just before 7 a.m. the crowd of demonstrators at that gate numbered about 60 and extended in a line down the sidewalk. Holding signs advocating peace and disarmament, they waved to the heavy stream of traffic--Marines and civilians--going to work.

Behind the gate, both military police and sheriff’s deputies had gathered and waited for the scheduled confrontation.

“Everyone’s been heavily briefed,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson. “It’s a low-key situation, and that’s how it should go down.”

Counseled on Behavior

Marion Pack, executive director of the Alliance for Survival, the organizer of the protest, said that about 39 people “willing to risk arrest” had volunteered days earlier and had been counseled on how to behave.

“Be polite,” Pack told the assembled group. “Be respectful. Remember the code of the day: no shouting, no running, no yelling, respectful to all. A peaceful attitude, a peaceful presence is what we want to show these people.”

The goal, Pack said, was to hinder the Wincon delegates’ entry into the base. She said that some delegates were coming by bus, but many were coming in private cars. If the buses did not appear by 7:50 a.m., demonstrators would begin blocking the gates anyway, she said.

At about 7:20 a.m., the first of the demonstrators stood in the entry lanes just before the main gate. Within 20 minutes, 13 had been arrested, and traffic disappeared from the usually busy street. A California Highway Patrol officer said traffic had been diverted from Trabuco Road, preventing further disruption.

One car did appear at 8 a.m. and was stopped by one demonstrator, who was arrested. The driver of the car identified himself as John Guarrera, board chairman of Wincon and an electronics engineering professor at California State University, Northridge.

Brief News Conference

Guarrera, his car surrounded by photographers and reporters, held a brief news conference through the car window.

“Whether we like it or not . . . most advances in science and technology that are useful to the public are funded with defense dollars,” he said. “All of those developments, all of those scientific things that come out of this research, although they develop state-of-the-art weaponry, they also develop state-of-the-art medicines, state-of-the-art communications. . . .”

Arrests were also reported at gates on Sand Canyon Avenue and Marine Way, but there were no reports of violence or resisting arrests, Olson said.

By 9 a.m., all demonstrators had left the gates, the Sheriff’s Department reported.

Protest organizers said they will hold vigils outside the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel in Costa Mesa, Wincon headquarters, today and Thursday from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

A Costa Mesa police spokesman said the alliance’s demonstrations in past years have been “all very congenial” and that no trouble was expected.