Even in the land of the free, civil disobedience can carry a
heavy price.
Seth Cohen, a fourth-year political science student, knows this
all too well after trespassing on a military base during a protest.
Convicted of a federal misdemeanor, Cohen received 12 months
probation, plus a $500 fine and community service.
Last November, Cohen along with 6,500 others, converged on Fort
Benning, Ga to participate in an annual protest against the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, successor to the
controversial School of the Americas.
Included among the 85 arrested were eight Catholic nuns, a
priest and several veterans.
Many people were given tougher sentences than Cohen, including
house arrest and jail sentences as long as six months.
“To be giving people six months in jail for civil
disobedience in the United States is almost unheard of,”
Cohen said.
Some legal minds feel the same way. Katya Komisaruk, a lawyer
with the Bay Area-based Just Cause Law Collective said it was
“inhumane” and “unprincipled” to hand out
jail time for trespassing, even on a military base.
“Elsewhere in the country people would probably receive
informal probation,” she said.
It is also common for people convicted of civil disobedience
crimes to be released after being detained for one day. The time
spent awaiting trial usually comprises the entire sentence.
UCLA Law Professor Frances Olsen agreed that jail time was a
harsh penalty.
“It is a characteristic of oppressive government to treat
disagreement with the official policy as a serious crime,”
she said.
People convicted on charges connected to SOA protests often
receive tougher sentences because “a particular judge is
making a political statement,” Komisaruk said.
In a Columbus, Ga newspaper, U.S. Magistrate G. Mellon Faircloth
said the protesters’ free speech rights ended at the
fort’s line, and that after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks,
trespassing onto military property should be strictly enforced.
The SOA, a U.S. military school that trained Latin American
soldiers, gained notoriety after several of its graduates were
implicated in human rights abuses. The most well-known case being
the assassination of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador on Nov. 19,
1989.
The U.S. military strongly denies that the SOA bears
responsibility for any crimes.
Along with a change in the name, the school now includes human
rights courses. Administration was also transferred from the U.S.
Army to the Department of Defense.
Cohen attributes his zeal against the SOA to a trip he took to
El Salvador while still in high school.
He met people with family members killed by SOA graduates, he
said.
A member of several activist groups at UCLA, Cohen said his
interest in social activism comes from a higher source.
“Some of it comes from being raised from a strong Catholic
faith,” he said.
Cohen could have ended up behind bars, but signed an agreement
with prosecutors to stay out of jail.
“I wasn’t ready to go to jail. I have to work up to
it, I guess,” he said.