[Peace] Fwd: Peace Women, Convicted of Trespassing, Teach the US Government a Lesson in Diplomacy

[Belden Fields]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG
> Date: December 13, 2006 8:54:31 PM CST
> To: PORTSIDE at LISTS.PORTSIDE.ORG
> Subject: Peace Women, Convicted of Trespassing, Teach the US  
> Government a Lesson in Diplomacy
> Reply-To: moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG
>
> Peace Women, Convicted of Trespassing, Teach the US
> Government a Lesson in Diplomacy
> by Medea Benjamin
>
> Published on Tuesday, December 12, 2006 by
> CommonDreams.org
>
> It must sound absurd, perhaps even unbelievable, that
> four peace women were arrested and put on trial for
> attempting to deliver a peace petition to the US
> Mission to the United Nations. But while our arrests
> reflect the "shoot first, ask questions later" style of
> George Bush and outgoing UN Ambassador John Bolton, we
> ended up teaching the government a lesson in diplomacy.
>
> On March 6, 2006 CODEPINK organized a group of about 40
> women, including a delegation from Iraq, and held a
> press conference in front of the United Nations in New
> York City to call for an end to the war in Iraq and
> commemorate International Women's Day. The group then
> marched a few blocks to the US Mission to deliver a
> petition signed by 72,000 women from around the world.
>
> The previous year on International Women's Day,
> CODEPINK had delivered a similar petition without
> incident, with government representatives from the
> diplomatic office coming outside to greet us in a freak
> blizzard. This year, to our surprise and horror, we
> found the building had been locked up to keep us out
> and we were surrounded by armed police and security
> guards. After an hour of urging them to either let a
> small group inside or have someone come down to "just
> accept the damn piece of paper," the four women
> representativesâ€'myself, peace mom Cindy Sheehan, Gold
> Star Family member Missy Beattie, and Reverend Patti
> Ackermanâ€'were handcuffed and dragged to a police
> wagon. We were booked and kept overnight in the over-
> crowded, roach-infested jail called "The Tombs." We
> were charged with trespassing, two counts of disorderly
> conduct, resisting arrest, and obstructing government
> administration.
>
> Nine months later, the trial of the "CODEPINK Four"
> started in the Manhattan Criminal Court and dragged on
> for over a week. Day after day, the prosecution trotted
> out police officers, security guards and US Mission
> staff to testify that we never intended to deliver the
> petition but instead had planned to get arrested as a
> publicity stunt. They insisted that we were trespassing
> on private property (the US Mission is a government
> office but is currently housed in a commercial
> building), that we blocked the entrance to the
> building, and that we resisted when the police swarmed
> in to arrest us.
>
> The head of communications for the US Mission, Richard
> Grenell, was the most absurd of the witnesses. While a
> videotape we introduced as evidence showed a group of
> about 40 mostly middle-aged women strolling toward the
> Mission singing Give Peace a Chance, Mr. Grenell
> testified that he found the group threatening because
> "they were wearing pink, they were laughing and they
> were clearly happy." When one of our stellar lawyers,
> Robert Gottlieb, asked incredulously how a happy group
> of women dressed in pink could possibly be threatening,
> Grenell gravely replied, "You had to be there to
> understand."
>
> In a way, he's right. You had to be there and then in
> the courtroom to understand how ridiculous it was for
> the US diplomatic office to refuse our petition, how
> absurd it was for the private security to lock down the
> building, for the NY City police to haul us off to
> jail, for the DA's office to pile on extra charges, and
> for the jury, the prosecutors, eleven witnesses, our
> wonderful lawyers and ourselves to have to waste tens
> of thousands of dollars on such a frivolous case. It
> should have been George Bush, not us, being prosecuted
> for truly criminal actions that are maiming and killing
> people every day.
>
> If the government intended to use this high- profile
> case with well-known "peace mom" Cindy Sheehan as a way
> to intimidate anti-war activists, the tactic backfired.
> The jury acquitted us of the more serious misdemeanor
> charges and found us guilty of trespassing, a violation
> akin to a parking ticket. After paying a $95 court fee,
> we were free. The prosecutor wanted us sentenced to
> some days of community serviceâ€'an irony for a group
> of women who have more or less devoted our lives to
> community service, but the judge required us only to
> pay a $95 court fee and set us free.
>
> The arrest also backfired because we left the courtroom
> outraged that we had ever been arrested in the first
> place, and that we had been convicted of trespassing
> for being outside a government office that should be
> open to the public.
>
> So as soon as the court adjourned, we immediately
> returned to the same US Mission to deliver the same
> petition.
>
> This time, when we read our petition outside the
> building, no one threatened to arrest us. This time,
> when the same four women tried to get in the building,
> we were ushered in. This time, the two members of the
> US Mission staff, who only days before had testified
> against us, were now waiting cordially in the lobby to
> greet us. This time, they smiled and accepted our
> petition. No arrests. No hassle. No bad press for the
> Mission.
>
> Perhaps this new lesson in diplomacy, coupled with the
> departure of Ambassador Bolton, can help nudge the US
> Mission onto a more diplomatic path. For CODEPINK, it
> only strengthens our resolve to promote non-violent
> conflict resolution, not war.
>
> Medea Benjamin (medea at globalexchange.org) is cofounder
> of CODEPINK: Women for Peace and Global Exchange. She
> was one of the "CODEPINK 4" convicted of trespassing.
>
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