Fang-Face writes “This one so unbeliveable you’ve just got to see it for yourself.
There’s
a report at Truthout.org, which was reprinted from the L.A. Times, that Ashcroft invoked a 125 year old law in an effort to treat Greenpeace as a terrorist organization. The crime in question? Sailor-mongering.
A New York court in 1872 described the law as both “inartistic and obscure.” An Oregon court in 1890 described the purpose of the law as preventing “the evil” of “sailor-mongers [who] get on board vessels and by the help of intoxicants, and the use of other means, often savoring of violence, get the crews ashore and leave the vessel without help to manage or care for her.” “
Partially agree
If you read the whole article and see the mention of the nuns, I think they should go to jail. They cut through a fence at a nuclear missle silo and entered. I like free speech. Stand outside the fence with a sign. But if you cut through the fence you should go to jail.
Re:Partially agree
For eight years?
My personal favorite part the little blurb about being hogtied for 20 hours. That sounds really reasonable. I bet those dirty reports/terrorists deserved it.
This just in, Ashcroft dredges up old laws against spitting on the sidewalk in front if ladies on Sundays and files charges against everyone he doesn’t like.
Re:Partially agree
Well, why not? We could send them up for thirty years if we could find a real judge to try them instead of some bleeding heart liberal, panty-waist little puke. It would be just good enough for them for attacking a one hundred ten ton mass of reinforced, nuclear blast proof concrete with hammers. They should take their eight years and count themselves lucky we don’t send them off to join the Rosenbergs.
(Note to reactionaries: S-A-T-I-R-E)
Re:Partially agree
The nuns did $3000 dollars in damage according to the article. When you damage $3000 of government property while breaking into a facility storing nuclear weapons you should expect a somewhat lengthy sentence. If you want to do civil disobedience sometimes you will have to expect that you won’t just get a slap on the wrist. I don’t want the precedent set that when you break into a facility containing nuclear weapons all you will get is a slap on the wrist.
Re:Partially agree 🙂
I’d like to see an itemized bill for that $3k. Given the old jokes about Pentagon spending, that might just be the replacement cost for the wire-cutters they used.
Re:Partially agree
While I agree that they should pay for any damages, and a fine for trespassing, I find the claim that they were trying to break into the facility rather ludicrous. Attacking a 110 tons of reinforced concrete silo lid with hammers? Come on! The article specifically said that they’re pounding on the silo lid was a symbolic attack on the silo. Not to mention that this action was a protest, not an attempt by terrorists to steal nuclear weaponry.
Re:Partially agree
They didn’t “try” to break in. They broke in. Going through the fence was the breaking in.
As far as the cost of damages the $3000 probably was all from the fence not the concrete cap. I grew up in the Air Force and was up in South Dakota near some of the silos. We were always told to stay away from the fences because there were motion sensors built into the fence and if you touched it, security police would show up. The nuns happened to damage a more expensive fence because of the security features built into it.
If someone is caught cutting through a security fence that is surrounding a nuclear missle silo there needs to be a punishment that is more than a fine.
Analogy: I break through the glass doors at the bank and am caught and the door to the vault that weighs 20 tons. I should go free because I only broke through the glass doors and was not into the vault yet? You may respond that the nuns were only symbolically trying to break into the silo as compared to my bank robber. But the crime was to break through the first perimeter.
Re:Partially agree
The two situations are not analogous. In your example you are clearly attempting to rob the bank. If, on the other hand, you smash through the glass door dressed up as Captain Antiglobalization and stand in the middle of the lobby ranting about the evils of capitalism while waiting to be arrested, then it is hardly appropriate for you to be sent away for twenty years. The crime the nuns committed was damage to public property in cutting the fence, and then trespass by entering onto the grounds. They made no effort to break into the silo that any reasonable person would take seriously.