Protests are intensifying over the arrival of heavily armed soldiers at Kmarts, Walmarts, and Rite Aids around the country.

The soldiers are not guarding the retail giants from attack.

They are toy soldiers armed with assault rifles and machine guns, and they have replaced the traditional front-and-center chocolate bunny in children’s Easter baskets.

Christians celebrate Easter as the day the peace-loving Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

In Nevada City, some 30 people converged on Kmart on Wednesday and demanded the removal of the militarized Easter Baskets. Kmart said it would not restock its shelves with the baskets. The day before, Joanna Robinson, was arrested after refusing to stop pointing out the war toys to customers inside the store. She is the wife of famed folk singer Utah Phillips.

In New York on Sunday, a 28-year-old mother was arrested at the Astor Place Kmart in downtown Manhattan. She was wearing a sweater fringed with cellophane grass, white pants, plush slippers, fuzzy white rabbit ears.

• Amy Hamilton-Thibert, arrested for dressing as Easter Bunny at a K-Mart in New York to protest the sale of Easter baskets that included army action figures.
• Joanna Robinson, anti-war organizer who was arrested at K-Mart protest.

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