"I live in Mesa, and I feel a little better about living in Mesa than I did
on Tuesday and that we weren't singled out," said Amy Shinabarger, 29, who
was ticketed.

Several of the protesters cited Tuesday night are members of Women in Black,
an international pacifist group.

They drew dozens of outlines of adults and children near the downtown
library, the post office and City Hall as part of a national Shadow Project
to focus attention on deaths caused when the United States dropped the atom
bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II.

Shinabarger said groups in Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa drew sketched figures at
locations around the Val- ley so they would be vis- ible Wednesday morning,
the anniversary of Hiroshima.

No others were cited.

Mesa prohibits permanent defacing of property.

Officer Ryan Stokes cited the group after a security guard reported their
ac- tivities, Det. Tim Gaffney said.

Superiors reviewed the case and decided Thursday to ask for dismissal of the
misdemeanor citations.

"The decision was based in the best interest of justice," Gaffney said.

Police will return three buckets of chalk and six cardboard cutouts they
took from the group.