[Peace-discuss] Fw: Enviro Arrested for Hanging Banners During Senate Hearing

[John W.]

Boy, does this ever put things into perspective!



On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 7:43 PM, unionyes <unionyes at ameritech.net> wrote:



>  ----- Original Message -----
>  *From:* David Sladky <tanstl at aol.com>
> *To:* undisclosed-recipients:
> *Sent:* Thursday, July 01, 2010 6:52 PM
> *Subject:* Enviro Arrested for Hanging Banners During Senate Hearing
>
>
>
>  July 1, 2010
> *Enviro Arrested for Hanging Banners During Senate Hearing * Banner Drop
> Crime
> By JAYNE LYN STAHL
> When Tony Hayward, BP president, recently met with Congress, he obdurately
> refused to accept blame for the mess in the gulf of Mexico. The head of the
> largest contractor in the area, and his colleagues, will likely face civil
> penalties for the April 20 catastrophe, but no criminal prosecution.
> By way of contrast, Ted Glick, policy director for Chesapeake Climate
> Action Network, will be sentenced in a D.C. district court on Tuesday for
> having hung two banners "Green Jobs Now" and "Get to Work," inside the
> Senate Hart Office Building in September, 2009. What is it CCAN wants
> Congress to get to work on? Climate change, something presumed to be top
> priority for this administration.
> Still, law enforcement cuffed Glick, took him into custody, and he was
> convicted in May of "unlawful conduct," and "disorderly conduct." This is
> his third conviction for acts of civil disobedience. Penalties increase for
> repeat misdemeanors, but it is the U.S. Attorney, in D.C., who is reported
> to be working sedulously to make an "example" of the green activist who will
> likely face months, and as much as three years behind bars for nothing more
> than hanging two banners urging environmental action from inside a Senate
> building.
> The larger question, of course, is what is it the U.S. Attorney's office
> wants to make an example of? Everything is upside down when, as Mother Jones
> reports, a human rights group keeping track of CIA excesses like torture is
> now themselves the subject of an investigation by Attorney-General Holder's
> appointee, Patrick Fitzgerald.
> The U.S. Attorney's office might want to make an "example" of BP, and their
> fraudulent claims that they are environmentally-friendly.
> Okay, so, Tony Hayward wasn't caught holding a sign saying "Get to work" in
> the Senate, but if he had it would have been considered laudable not
> actionable.
> More to the point, isn't Mr. Glick's behavior covered by free speech, or is
> the First Amendment rights only applied to protect corporations?
> Few will dispute that the prohibition of unlawful conduct is a good thing,
> but the ones who should face prosecution aren't, and instead those who have
> abdicated responsiblity for their actions are. From the outset, Mr. Glick
> has embraced accountability. His actions are based on his principles not on
> his profit margins. The same is not the case with BP, and others who
> circumvent the law with impunity. No executive, or policy director from BP
> will face jail time.
> On Tuesday, July 6, District Judge Frederick Weisberg will be sentencing
> Ted Glick in a Washington, D.C. courtroom. Surely Judge Weisberg may be
> prevailed upon to acknowledge that without civil disobedience he would have
> no job, and indeed we would have no country. Surely Judge Weisberg may be
> entreated to apply common sense, and support the framers respect for
> dissent.
> Ted Glick hung two banners, last year, from inside a Senate building on the
> day senators returned to work after summer recess. What an egregious
> statement about our criminal justice system, and our legal process, if he
> were to find himself behind bars when Congress returns from summer recess
> this year.
> *Jayne Lyn Stahl *is a widely published poet, essayist, playwright, and
> screenwriter, member of PEN American Center, and PEN USA.
>
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