Biography
Rae Kramer crossed the line at Fort Benning, Georgia during the September 2002 SOA Watch vigil to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas / WHINSEC. Sentenced to 6 months in federal custody.
Each year on the November anniversary of the assassination of six Jesuits, their housekeeper, and her daughter at the University of Central America in San Salvador in 1989, peace activists gather at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, site of the U.S. Army School of the Americas / Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), to commemorate the dead and to call for the school's closure. Hundreds have crossed the line onto the base over four decades of vigils; many have served federal sentences ranging from 30 days to a year for trespass.
Initial Hancock custody, October 25, 2012
The Upstate Coalition statement dated October 25, 2012 named Rae Kramer among thirteen people still held in jail late that afternoon after a blockade of Hancock Field near Syracuse. The statement reported trespass and disorderly-conduct charges and bail between $250 and $1,000. Four other named participants had already been released on their own recognizance. It does not establish the physical release day for the thirteen still held. This initial October 2012 custody must not be extended through later 2014 sentencing or conflated with other protest cases. No new release date or measured days imprisoned are inferred from this report.
Upstate Drone Action’s same-day report names Rae Kramer among six people arrested and taken to jail on September 24, 2019 while standing at Hancock Field’s main gate in Syracuse. Their protest followed a U.S. drone strike that killed Afghan pine-nut workers. The report does not establish the individual charge, jail location, court outcome or release date.
Upstate Drone Action statement reproduced by The Nuclear Resister, September 24, 2019.
Upstate Drone Action names Rae Kramer among eight people arrested at Hancock Airbase on June 20, 2019. Ed Kinane’s participant account says the group was handcuffed, held at the sheriff’s north station, then taken to the downtown Syracuse Justice Center, booked and placed in jail clothing. In the early evening, public defenders entered not-guilty pleas before a judge identified only as Murphy. All eight faced trespass and disorderly-conduct violations and misdemeanor obstruction of government administration. After returning to the holding cell they were physically released on their own recognizance sometime after 10:30 p.m. that same day. No conviction, sentence or numerical time-served total is established here; the scheduled June 25–26 hearings were prospective.
Upstate Drone Action and Ed Kinane, reproduced by The Nuclear Resister, June 20, 2019.
The October 25, 2012 Hancock report individually names Rae Kramer among thirteen protesters still being held in jail late that afternoon after arrests at the air base gates and hearings in DeWitt Town Court. All seventeen arrestees were charged with trespass and disorderly conduct and served with protection orders concerning Earl A. Evans; four others were released on their own recognizance. The report does not give this person’s exact release day or a completed custody duration. Bail amounts are not treated as proof of release.
The December 14, 2012 report identifies Rae Kramer among eleven defendants convicted of trespass by Judge Jokl in DeWitt Town Court on December 13 over the June 28 Hancock gate action. A fifteen-day jail sentence was imposed, but the later surrender was prospective. The printed January 11, 2012 surrender date conflicts with the December 2012 report chronology and is not silently corrected or recorded as actual admission. The June 28 date describes the underlying action; this report does not independently fix this person’s arrest date. The four original protesters not among these eleven defendants are not identified.
The September 25, 2017 Upstate Drone Action account individually names Rae Kramer among seven people arrested at Hancock Air Force Base while delivering an indictment and blocking the entrance with a large dollar-sign prop. The report states that all seven were released within an hour and charged with trespass and disorderly conduct. It announces future October arraignments, without establishing any jail admission, conviction or sentence. No complete day of imprisonment is inferred.
The June 28, 2012 contemporary press release individually names Rae Kramer among the fifteen people arrested at Hancock Air Base at 1:41 p.m. It reports release without bail for the participants other than the three explicitly held for prior community-service noncompliance. This identifies the initial arrest underlying the separately reported December 13 verdict and sentence; it does not establish an additional prison admission or completed custody duration.
The contemporary report individually names this participant among those arrested at Hancock Air Base on April 28, 2013 after the anti-drone funeral procession. Its follow-up specifically includes this person in the twenty-one-person arraignment list. The report names Benack, Gideon and Jokl collectively as the judges and gives a range of bail amounts; it does not assign one judge or bail amount to each listed individual. Contemporary source.
The sheriff’s roster reproduced with the April 22, 2011 Hancock Field protest report individually named Rae Kramer among the people arrested outside the base in the anti-drone demonstration. The article reports trespassing and obstruction-of-justice charges. It describes handcuffs, a wait, and boarding a bus intended for Justice Center processing; it does not establish an individual jail-admission or release time.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister, report 893.
