Justice misdirected in U.S. Capital

Constitution Incommoded: Peace activists convicted; War criminals remain at large.

 (This post and the two following relate to a nonviolent protest at the White House and its outcome.)

Sober, conscientious, orderly citizens at the White House on the afternoon of March 19 nonviolently and peaceably assemble to protest the violation of international humanitarian law and the U. S. Constitution. Police arrested 113 people, including World War II veteran Jay Wenk.

If you want peace, work for justice.

                                           —Pope Paul VI

by Kim Carlyle

 

But if you work for justice, where do you find it? Not in the District of Columbia Superior Court—at least not the kind of justice that will bring peace.

On March 19, 2011, the eighth anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq, hundreds of justice-seekers converged on the front gate of the White House fence. Many of these activists have been working for years to put a stop to our country’s immoral foreign military adventures. They had exhausted the conventional means of persuasion—letters, phone calls, petitions, visits to elected officials; now they came in person to exercise their First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble and petition the chief executive of their government for redress of grievances and to act in accordance with the Nuremberg Principles—namely, to make the moral choice to refuse to be complicit in the ongoing war crimes committed by the United States.

More than a hundred persons were arrested that day for unlawful assembly-disorderly conduct (specifically, obstructing or incommoding the sidewalk) and failing to obey the order to leave the area. Eighteen of those arrested chose to contest the charges in court. The trial was held in late October with most of the defendants representing themselves (pro se), a tactic that provides more latitude in defense arguments. All faced up to 90 days in jail and up to $1500 in fines.

The nonviolent action in March had been organized and led by Veterans For Peace. The veterans present had, upon their induction to the military, taken an oath to “defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Since this oath has no expiration date, veterans remain obliged to honor this commitment.

That the Constitution has been violated is fact. Article VI states: “all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby…” Such treaties include the UN Charter which limits war-making to two conditions: UN Security Council approval and self-defense against an attack. The U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq satisfied neither condition.

Additionally, in conducting its illegal wars of aggression, the U.S. has violated international humanitarian law—rules established to limit the effects of armed conflict on people and property and to protect particularly vulnerable persons—by targeting civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure, torturing prisoners, and  extrajudicial killings.

Defendant Richard Duffee submitted a pre-trial motion to admit factual evidence that the U.S. persistently commits crimes against peace. Such evidence was intended to show that the defendants’ belief that they should attempt to prevent war crimes is a reasonable belief; that they acted on the privilege the Nuremberg treaty gives all citizens of nations engaged in war crimes, to act in “a measured but effective way” to prevent the continuing commissions of those crimes; and that they acted to prevent the “greater harm” of the government’s commission of war crimes (see post below of Nuremberg Principles).

Judge Russell Canan denied the motion.

Instead, the trial centered on whether or not the sidewalk was incommoded. According to the police testimony, a person trying to cross the sidewalk in front of the White House might have needed to spend several seconds walking around the peaceably assembled demonstrators—not unlike the detour that pedestrians routinely take to avoid being in the line of sight as a tourist takes a photograph in this “picture postcard area.”

Despite the fact the prosecution provided no specific instance of a real pedestrian being obstructed or incommoded, but relied on the testimony of the police (who were on the periphery of the peaceable assembly, not within it); and despite the defendants’ direct testimony that there was plenty of room for passage through the demonstrators—they even provided a three-dimensional model to demonstrate that the police perspective gave a false impression,  Judge Canan found the defendants guilty on both charges.

Curiously, in cross-examination, the police commander at the scene, Lt. LaChance, said he did not know of any instance where someone was arrested in front of the White House who was not protesting some government policy. This suggests that if you demonstrate in support of government policy, anything goes (see photos below).

So here is “justice” in the U.S. capital: For seven months, the government expended much energy and expense to attempt to prove that a hypothetical person—not a real person; not a named person, but a hypothetical person—might possibly have been inconvenienced (incommoded) as he walked in front of the White House on a Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the government has made no effort to even bring charges against the criminals in the government who lied and led our country into illegal and immoral wars that have:

• ·         killed thousands of real—not hypothetical—Americans;
• ·         injured, physically and psychologically, hundreds of thousands of real—not hypothetical—Americans;
• ·         caused suffering for the families and friends of the dead and injured—more real people!;
• ·         killed hundreds of thousands of real—not hypothetical—children, women, and men in the countries we’ve illegally bombed, invaded, and occupied;
• ·         displaced millions more real—not hypothetical—people from their homes; caused untold suffering to millions of innocent civilians—real, not hypothetical people!;
• ·         and wasted trillions of real—not hypothetical—dollars in the process.

There is the letter of the law. There is the spirit of the law. And there is justice. The court followed the letter of a minor law in finding eighteen conscientious people guilty of a minor crime. Perhaps the day will come when the letter of the law and the spirit of the law and the elusive justice we seek will all come together to hold accountable the perpetrators of the much larger crimes—the grievances that people sought to redress on March 19 at the White House. Then we’ll take a step towards peace.

Until then, how do we keep seeking justice, if not through the judicial system? Is it surprising that some are choosing to take to the streets? Let’s remember to be nonviolent out there!

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Thousands of raucous demonstrators amass at the White House on the evening of May 1 (the day of Osama bin Laden‘s summary execution) and on into the early morning of May 2 to celebrate the violation of numerous international laws as well as President Ronald Reagan’s Executive Order 12333 in 1981: “No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.” Although demonstrators climbed trees and lampposts, and some were even drinking, no one was arrested.