SugarHouse

Fourteen Philadelphia residents were acquitted today of charges against them for protesting the construction of the sugar house casino on Delaware River.

 
On Feb. 16, fourteen of your neighbors go on trial for a casino-free Philly. 
 
These fourteen individuals -- ranging in age from 24 to 72 and including several grandparents and two members of the clergy, public school teachers, and life-long Philadelphians -- lined the entrance to the SugarHouse casino site on the Delaware river and refused to move. They were promptly arrested and held for more than 12 hours. 
 
Now, they need your help.
 

Last Tuesday 14 Philadelphia community members were arrested in a blockade of the Sugar House site in the early morning. Watch here for video from the protest.

Read below for a full statement from the organizers. Read here for a report back from one of the arrested community members.

Hey guys. A number of folks have asked me to write about my experiences in jail yesterday with the other activists from Casino Free Philadelphia. Most questions have been focused on the "what was it like" track – how did they treat us, where were we locked up. That stuff was interesting and hard and frustrating, but let’s get through it quickly. A short while after 6am Tuesday morning, fourteen protesters, including me, blocked the entrance to the Sugarhouse Casino construction site (or, as Casino Free Philadelphia likes to call it, the site of Neil Bluhm, the casino’s financier’s, future bankruptcy).

Casino Free Philadelphia takes action this Tuesday at Sugar House as it launches the "In The Red" campaign to get casino investors to drop plans for Philadelphia slots.

As Harrisburg considers expanding gambling, we want you to contact your representative -- today - to remind them that our communities are more important than the tons of cash contributed by the casino industry.

Updates from the fight to stop slots.

Last week our City Council gave a unanimous vote to relocate the purposed Foxwoods Casino to the former Strawbridge & Clothier site at 8th and Market.

Last night at Philly For Change, Jethro Heiko from Casino Free Philadelphia and I made a pitch to Philly progressives about the importance of weighing in on the casino debate.