SPILLED BLOOD, COLD BLOOD

SPILLED BLOOD, COLD BLOOD
What Blood Has Been on Us, Let It Not Be on Our Children.  Echoes Viet Nam  and hubris bounce through the corridors of power. Now echoes of protests past echo through the courthouses.  The State of New York was not able to convict some parents for a civil disobedience protest of the coming Iraqi invasion. Now the Federal Government wants to bounce these same parents into jail.

On March 17, 2003, in protest of the impending U.S. invasion of Iraq, Danny Burns, Peter DeMott, and sisters Clare and Teresa Grady poured small bottles of their own blood on the walls, floor and an American Flag in the foyer of a military recruiting center in Lansing, N.Y.

Charged with criminal mischief, the activists, who have been dubbed the St. Patrick’s Four, spent four days in jail and in April 2004 were tried at the Tompkins County Courthouse. During their weeklong trial, the defendants, all of whom have children, said they carried out their protest as Catholics and parents who wanted to warn members of the military and potential recruits about the illegality and immorality of the war in Iraq.
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NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

Spilled blood upon an American flag is a powerful, divisive form of political speech. The risks are great that such civil disobedience will not be viewed kindly by the government, nor by a jury of one’s peers.  A state jury would not convict.

The jury voted 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal, leading some to conclude the case of the St. Patrick’s Four was closed. But in February, a federal grand jury charged the four activists, all of whom were arrested during a previous demonstration at the Lansing recruiting station, with two counts of criminal trespass, destruction of government property and conspiring to induce “by force, intimidation and threat, officers of the United States to leave the place where their duties as officers of the United States are required to be performed.”

Last month, Thomas J. McAvoy, senior U.S. district judge for northern New York, rejected the defendants’ motion for dismissal and set a trial for Sept. 19 in Binghamton, N.Y. In his May 8 decision, McAvoy also ruled the defendants would not be allowed to cite international law as a justification for their actions at the recruiting station.

“This court offers no opinion on the war in Iraq as it is entirely irrelevant to this matter. Assuming an illegal war, it does not provide a justification for violating the criminal laws of the United States,” he wrote.
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NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

New York State Law.  United States Law.  International law.  A higher law.  The call  of protest. The whisper of conscience.  The longer we are in Iraq, the longer there are parents who have children, the more all these elements will loudly collide.

We ask for justice. We ask for justice for the people of Iraq  and our troops.  We ask for justice for world peace. We ask for justice to say no to pre-emptive illegal war.
Danny Burns

We stand by our actions, believing that they are just, moral, legal, and required as the great crimes of mass murder, grand theft, and torture are perpetrated in our names.
Clare O'Grady

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SAINT PATRICK'S FOUR HOMEPAGE

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Comments

[Idyllopus]

"A higher law. The call of protest. The whisper of conscience."

Good. Good post.