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Jim Dowling is a self-declared human rights, free speech and anti-war activist from Brisbane, Australia. Together with fellow Catholic Worker activists, Ciaron O'Reilly and Angela Jones, he founded the West End Catholic Worker community in Brisbane during the 1980s. He currently resides at Peter Maurin Farm with his wife, Anne Rampa, and seven children. ==Iraq War Resistance== Dowling is the first Australian civilian to attempt a citizen's arrest on a Federal MP. Dowling walked onto the stage of a "Meet The Candidates" meeting in the Dickson electorate and placed Federal member Peter Dutton under "citizen's arrest" for war crimes. Dutton, an ex-Queensland policeman, voted for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Dowling made the arrest and called upon the police officer present in the hall to take Dutton into custody until such time as the charges could be heard. In his written statement, Dowling claimed that the invasion of Iraq was a contravention of the United Nations charter. He also charged Dutton with planning, preparation, initiation, or waging a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances. Dowling who was arrested following this incident and he was later found guilty of a public nuisance offence. His appeal against this conviction was thrown out of court and he was ordered to pay a $200 fine or face eight days in prison.〔("Public nuisance told to pay fine or do time" )〕 On 1 September 2005, members of the Queensland police force arrested Dowling, alleging that he physically assaulted them while attending a public debate between Federal Liberal Member for Dickson Peter Dutton and civil liberties lawyer Terry O'Gorman on a national security identity card. Dowling claimed six policemen dragged him from the meeting, applied painful arm restraining techniques on him and inflicted grievous injuries to him while forcing his face into the concrete floor with their knees on the back of his head. The police then charged him with disturbing the peace and resisting arrest. In May 2006, Magistrate Kerry McGuiness handed down her decision regarding the charges of obstructing police after two months deliberation. McGuiness ruled that there was no evidence Dowling had committed any breach of the peace or was about to do so on the night of 1 September 2005 when the police arrested him. McGuiness then ruled there was no need to address the issue of whether Dowling had obstructed police, as one could not be convicted of obstructing police if the police had no lawful reason to detain you in the first place.〔("Liberating Pine Gap" ) 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jim Dowling」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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