When people discover I used to work for Greenpeace, they often ask how many times I’ve been arrested. I never tell them. I point out Greenpeace’s direct actions are designed to go to those places where environmental crimes are being committed and bear witness to them, using cameras and the media to draw the attention of the general public. The idea was never to “go out and get arrested.” People become confused on that point, because Greenpeace does not let the possibility of arrest prevent its activists from going to the scene of environmental crimes. A federal prosecutor in Florida is adding to the confusion by telling a judge that “the heart of Greenpeace’s mission is violation of the law.”
Eighteen months ago, two Greenpeace activists boarded a cargo ship off the Florida coast. The activists were trying to call attention to the fact that the ship was carrying illegally logged Brazilian mahogany. The protesters were arrested, convicted of boarding a ship without permission and spent two days in jail. Now John Ashcroft’s misnamed Justice Department has brought a criminal charge against the entire Greenpeace organization. Greenpeace is being charged under an 1872 law that forbids people from boarding shore-bound ships. The purpose of the 19th-century law was to prevent unscrupulous boarding-house operators from coming aboard ships and getting sailors drunk as a means of drumming up business. The most recent decision involving the statute dates from 1890.
The Greenpeace activists were not selling beds in a Florida flophouse. What we’re seeing here is the result of a year and a half of digging through the stacks of a law library by John Ashcroft’s henchmen looking for something, anything that can be used to take away Greenpeace’s First Amendment rights.
This should be anything but surprising. As Americans soldiers are killed on a daily basis trying to bring “democracy” to Iraq, as the domestic economy circles the drain, as the public mood sours on cronyism and political assassination, the Bush administration responds by cranking it up a notch and becoming even more venal and vicious than it was before.
The kind of misapplication of law now on display in Florida is not without precedent. Legal experts quoted by the New York Times say this kind of unreasonable prosecution – “persecution” may be a better word – was commonly used against civil rights activists in the Jim Crow south of the 1950s and 60s. Greenpeace is in good company, if that’s any consolation.
If Greenpeace is convicted, the organization faces a $10,000 fine. As a corporation, Greenpeace cannot go to jail. (It’s odd to think of Greenpeace as a corporation, but it is.) The organization may be put on probation, requiring it to report its activities to the government; Greenpeace may lose its status as a tax-exempt charitable organization. Those latter two penalties are the real motive behind the Florida charge; John Ashcroft thinks this is his chance to be rid of bothersome environmentalists who speak truth to power.
While the DoJ works overtime to trump up charges against Greenpeace, there’s a whole lot of nothing happening with real corporate crime. The Enron and WorldCom scandals were not uncovered by due diligence from federal attorneys; they came to light when the companies went belly-up on their own, taking down billions defrauded from investors. Even now, there doesn’t seem to be much going on with those cases. Guess all the resources were diverted to the big Greenpeace caper.
I’m not too worried about Greenpeace. High-powered legal talent has a way of falling from the sky for a case of obvious injustice with a brand-name defendant. Greenpeace is well acquainted with the uses of adversity and fundraising is foremost among them.
Although the federal government is very, very wrong in its vindictive persecution of this case, don’t lie awake at night worrying about Greenpeace. Lie awake at night worrying what happens – or has already happened – when John Ashcroft decides to take constitutionally-guaranteed rights away from a group of people you’ve never heard of.
Misapplication of Law
When people discover I used to work for Greenpeace, they often ask how many times I’ve been arrested. I never tell them. I point out Greenpeace’s direct actions are designed to go to those places where environmental crimes are being committed and bear witness to them, using cameras and the media to draw the attention of the general public. The idea was never to “go out and get arrested.” People become confused on that point, because Greenpeace does not let the possibility of arrest prevent its activists from going to the scene of environmental crimes. A federal prosecutor in Florida is adding to the confusion by telling a judge that “the heart of Greenpeace’s mission is violation of the law.”
Eighteen months ago, two Greenpeace activists boarded a cargo ship off the Florida coast. The activists were trying to call attention to the fact that the ship was carrying illegally logged Brazilian mahogany. The protesters were arrested, convicted of boarding a ship without permission and spent two days in jail. Now John Ashcroft’s misnamed Justice Department has brought a criminal charge against the entire Greenpeace organization. Greenpeace is being charged under an 1872 law that forbids people from boarding shore-bound ships. The purpose of the 19th-century law was to prevent unscrupulous boarding-house operators from coming aboard ships and getting sailors drunk as a means of drumming up business. The most recent decision involving the statute dates from 1890.
The Greenpeace activists were not selling beds in a Florida flophouse. What we’re seeing here is the result of a year and a half of digging through the stacks of a law library by John Ashcroft’s henchmen looking for something, anything that can be used to take away Greenpeace’s First Amendment rights.
This should be anything but surprising. As Americans soldiers are killed on a daily basis trying to bring “democracy” to Iraq, as the domestic economy circles the drain, as the public mood sours on cronyism and political assassination, the Bush administration responds by cranking it up a notch and becoming even more venal and vicious than it was before.
The kind of misapplication of law now on display in Florida is not without precedent. Legal experts quoted by the New York Times say this kind of unreasonable prosecution – “persecution” may be a better word – was commonly used against civil rights activists in the Jim Crow south of the 1950s and 60s. Greenpeace is in good company, if that’s any consolation.
If Greenpeace is convicted, the organization faces a $10,000 fine. As a corporation, Greenpeace cannot go to jail. (It’s odd to think of Greenpeace as a corporation, but it is.) The organization may be put on probation, requiring it to report its activities to the government; Greenpeace may lose its status as a tax-exempt charitable organization. Those latter two penalties are the real motive behind the Florida charge; John Ashcroft thinks this is his chance to be rid of bothersome environmentalists who speak truth to power.
While the DoJ works overtime to trump up charges against Greenpeace, there’s a whole lot of nothing happening with real corporate crime. The Enron and WorldCom scandals were not uncovered by due diligence from federal attorneys; they came to light when the companies went belly-up on their own, taking down billions defrauded from investors. Even now, there doesn’t seem to be much going on with those cases. Guess all the resources were diverted to the big Greenpeace caper.
I’m not too worried about Greenpeace. High-powered legal talent has a way of falling from the sky for a case of obvious injustice with a brand-name defendant. Greenpeace is well acquainted with the uses of adversity and fundraising is foremost among them.
Although the federal government is very, very wrong in its vindictive persecution of this case, don’t lie awake at night worrying about Greenpeace. Lie awake at night worrying what happens – or has already happened – when John Ashcroft decides to take constitutionally-guaranteed rights away from a group of people you’ve never heard of.