Lockheed Martin Protester Sentenced to Weekend Work, Ordered to Pay Restitution

A Palo Alto man will have to put in 360 community-service hours and pay a $8,900 cleanup bill for spray-painting Lockheed Martin’s local office to protest its weapons being used in the US-backed, Saudi-led war on Yemen.

Thirty-five-year-old Bryce Druzin, who pleaded no contest to a felony vandalism charge, also got his driver’s license restricted for a year and will have to cough up hundreds more dollars in various court fees.

Druzin—a standup comedian and former reporter for the Silicon Valley Business Journal—made headlines for his April 27 political protest. He says he’d been plotting the act of civil disobedience for months after reading about the defense contractor’s ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and how the oil kingdom killed 44 school kids with a Lockheed-made bomb last year.

Druzin said he has no regrets.

“It was worth it,” he said. “My action didn’t really spark or inspire other protests, to the best of my knowledge, but people in Yemen heard about it and brought some attention to Lockheed’s disgusting business.”

The Bay Area comedy community was also supportive, Druzin added. Because of Druzin’s April 27 protest, a fellow comedian hosted a show that raised money for the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation. And several military veterans reached out to on social media to express solidarity with the cause.

“That meant a lot to me,” Druzin said.

Jennifer Wadsworth is the former news editor for San Jose Inside and Metro Silicon Valley. Follow her on Twitter at @jennwadsworth.

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