About three dozen protestors converged on the Raytheon property on Bryan Dairy Rd. Thursday afternoon.
Within 30 minutes, Pinellas County sheriff's deputies arrived on scene and told the protestors to leave the property and move to the sidewalk. There were no physical confrontations as everyone followed the deputies' commands.
It was the first event that kicked off the 'St. Pete for Peace", a series of events featuring CodePink co-founder and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Medea Benjamin who led the protests.
Bay News 9 spoke with Benjamin who talked about how drones are being used to assassinate people around the world, including, she says, innocent civilians.
Benjamin also told Bay News 9 that the protest is timed with the RNC because it is the perfect opportunity to let lawmakers and people all around the world know how drones are killing people and how the United States, she says, has to stop building and using them.
Waltham, Mass. based Raytheon provides the US military with drone software enabling it to attain “real- time access to actionable intelligence” gathered by drones.