How the Obama Administration Charged 3 Pacifists with Violent Acts of Sabotage

[Ms. Toad]

3. The acts they committed were trespass and graffiti

How many crimes of trespass and graffiti are charged as felonies with potentially 35 year sentences? The article is worth reading.

People who commit actions of conscientious objection do expect to live with the consequences. But they also expect the consequences to correspond to the actions they took. The posted signs warned that trespass was a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine or up to a year in jail.

What happened here was that they trespassed, two sets of alarms (at least one of which the government had known was not functioning for months) failed to go off. So the three wound up sitting for hours singing peaceful songs and praying, waiting to be arrested. Had they been intent on sabotage (the crime of which they were convicted) they could have carried it out multiple times over. This reality embarrassed the government - which responded by ramping up the crimes with which they were charged repeatedly - Like a parent who beats a child because the child exposes the dirty little (true) family secrets.

There is a vast difference between believing strongly enough that something is morally wrong - and willingly accepting the consequences commensurate with the acts taken - and being turned into an example which is intended to chill the exercise of further free speech because your speech (inadvertently) embarrassed the government. This isn't about whether the trio remains willing to accept the consequences which stem from their actions. I have seen nothing indicating they are not. It is about how we expect our government to respond to the peaceful exercise of conscientious objection.