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Stati Uniti: tre anni di prigione a tre suore per una manifestazione pacifista
di red.

Tre suore domenicane americane sono state condannate da un giudice federale di Demver, in Colorado, a pene durissime di prigione, comprese tra i 30 e i 41 mesi di carcere, per aver organizzato una manifestazione pacifista in una base missilistica del Colorado. L'accusa aveva chiesto condanne tra i sei e gli otto anni di carcere. Ardeth Platte, 66 anni, dal 1954 suora domenicana, ha avuto la condanna più pesante, tre anni e cinque mesi di prigione; Carol Gilbert, 54 anni, suora dal 1965, è stata condannata a due anni e nove mesi di prigione. Alla più anziana del terzetto, Jackie Hudson di 67 anni, nell'ordine delle Domenicane dal 1952, sono stati inflitti due anni e sei mesi di reclusione. Le tre suore hanno già scontato sette mesi di prigione in attesa del processo. Tutte hanno anche avuto tre anni di libertà vigilata dopo che avranno scontato le rispettive pene.

Le durissime condanne si riferiscono ad un atto di disobbedienza civile (o meglio di “resistenza civile” come lo hanno definito le tre suore durante il dibattito in tribunale ritenendolo legittimo in base al diritto internazionale) compiuto dalle tre religiose l'8 ottobre 2002 quando penetrarono nell'area del silo N-8 della base missilistica di Weld County nei pressi di Greely, in Colorado, dove sono tenuti in stato di massima allerta missili Minuteman con testata nucleare. Le tre, vestite con tute bianche delle squadre di derattizzazione, avevano tagliato la rete di recinzione della base, e avevano segnato con il loro sangue delle croci sul silos in cemento armato e poi recitato delle preghiere. Furono arrestate dopo circa un'ora dalla polizia militare.

Le condanne, pesantissime, ma relativamente miti rispetto alle richieste dell'accusa, sono state decise dal giudice federale Bob Blackburn, che ha sostenuto di non essere d'accordo con chi definisce le religiose degli eroi, ma che ciò nonostante il loro atto non meriti una sanzione così grave. In ogni caso, trattandosi di una condanna per un reato federale per il quale non è prevista la libertà condizionata, le suore dovranno scontare in carcere almeno l'85 per cento della pena.

Le tre suore domenicane fanno parte di un'organizzazione pacifista denominata Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares ed hanno al loro attivo numerose azioni di protesta pacifista e antimilitarista. Attorno a loro si è creato un vasto movimento di opinione e di sostegno.


ovviamente non fidandomi sono andato su qualche giornale online di denver...
ecco qua

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,141 ... 59,00.html


Article Published: Saturday, July 26, 2003 - 12:00:00 AM MST
Judge orders nuns to prison
41 months is top term in 2002 missile protest

AP / David Zalubowski
Dominican nuns, from left, Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson listen to speakers before addressing a crowd outside the federal courthouse in downtown Denver on Friday as the three head in for sentencing. The women were convicted in April of obstructing the national defense and damaging government property for swinging a hammer at the silo and smearing their blood on it in the form of a cross.




By Jim Hughes, Denver Post Staff Writer
A federal judge on Friday sent three nuns to prison for an October 2002 act of civil disobedience at a Weld County missile silo - but for lesser sentences than government prosecutors had requested.
Though Judge Bob Blackburn disagreed with those who call the nuns heroes for breaking into the missile site to protest the U.S. nuclear arsenal, the sisters did not deserve sentences of six to eight years, Blackburn ruled.

Blackburn exercised his option to depart from federal sentencing guidelines and give the nuns shorter prison terms.

Blackburn sentenced Ardeth Platte, 67, to 41 months in prison; Carol Gilbert, 55, to 33 months; and Jackie Marie Hudson, 68, to 30 months.

He waived all fines but ordered that the nuns reimburse the government what it reportedly spent to fix a fence they damaged - $3,080.04.

"I was surprised," Walter Gerash, Hudson's attorney, said after Blackburn announced the sentences. "I was expecting a lot worse."


Gerash, who in court had described the sisters as "human angels," stopped short of calling the decision a victory for the three Dominican nuns.

"Well, they shouldn't even have been charged," he said.

A jury in April convicted the nuns of two felonies - obstructing national defense and damaging government property.

Blackburn gave the nuns shorter sentences than required by federal sentencing rules because they were not the types of criminals - saboteurs - for whom those laws are intended, he said.

The sentences were different for each nun because each has a different criminal history of similar acts of civil disobedience across the country dating to the 1980s.

The nuns, who spent approximately six months as inmates at the Clear Creek County Jail while awaiting trial, will receive credit for time served.

"Let me state the obvious," Blackburn told a courtroom packed with the nuns' supporters before delivering the sentences. "This is not a win-win, politically correct situation where everyone will leave this court feeling warm and fuzzy. Some will criticize (the sentences) for being too harsh, perhaps, and others, for being too lenient."

On Oct. 6, 2002, the three sisters cut a chain-link fence and sneaked onto a Minuteman III missile silo in northeastern Colorado, where they drew crosses with their blood on the silo lid and whacked railroad tracks with hammers.

Military riflemen arrived an hour after an alarm went off, training automatic weapons on the nuns, who were singing and praying. A military Humvee crashed through the fence when the nuns didn't obey an officer's orders, which they said they couldn't hear.

In court Friday, supporters of the nuns spilled over into an adjacent courtroom to listen to an audio feed of the proceedings. Even that courtroom was filled to overflowing, with some people sitting on the floor and others standing.

Blackburn ordered the nuns to turn themselves in to serve their sentences Aug. 25. But rather than sign a form indicating they would come back - an act of complicity with the system they did not want to make, lawyers said - they surrendered immediately.

"If we go now, we're gone," Hudson said jokingly to friends in the courtroom, saying she has had offers from people in Argentina willing to put her up.

"They were ready to go," said Scott Poland, Platte's lawyer, after marshals took the nuns into custody.

Though there was some grumbling - and isolated shouts of "Close the silos! Free the nuns!" - afterward, there were many more activists smiling than frowning at U.S. District Court on Friday afternoon.

Terry Greenberg of Nederland said she came to Denver on Friday prepared to form a new protest group - Jews to Free Nuns. But she left praising Blackburn's ruling.

"It made me feel hope," she said. "It gave me hope in the very hopeless world we live in these days."

In a telephone interview later in the day, U.S. Attorney John Suthers called Blackburn's sentences appropriate.

"I think the sentence that Judge Blackburn has imposed is eminently fair and reasonable," he said.

Not that everybody agreed. At one point, Blackburn chided the nuns for placing soldiers in a situation that, as far as they knew, could have been dangerous.

"The idea that (the soldiers) were out there putting themselves in harm's way with three nuns is just ludicrous," said Sue Carr-Novotny, who traveled from Breckenridge to show her support for the sisters.

The strongest criticism came in a news release issued late Friday afternoon by Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput.

"The three religious women sentenced today acted symbolically in their missile-silo protest and did no serious damage," the release read. "I'm disappointed that the sentences handed down this afternoon were not equally restrained and symbolic."

In the months since their arrest, the nuns have attained a status among activists approaching celebrity.

Since their conviction, they have spoken in various American cities, arguing for nuclear disarmament.

Meanwhile, protesters' criticisms of Blackburn and Suthers grew personal.

Blackburn in particular has been criticized for not allowing defense attorneys to argue in court that the nuns' actions were legal under international law.

Defense lawyers still complain about the judge's pretrial ruling on that defense.

"He can say it's not political, but it is," said Annabel Dwyer, a Michigan lawyer who served Platte in an advisory capacity. "He's saying nuclear weapons keep us safe. We're saying our nuclear weapons are as illegal as anyone else's."

Though Blackburn tried to keep politics out of his courtroom Friday, it was all over the courthouse steps throughout the day. More than 100 activists began the day by attending an 8 a.m. news conference and rally called by the nuns.

"I don't fear going to prison," Gilbert told them and a large number of reporters that included a crew from a German television network. "I don't fear loss of freedom to move about. I don't even fear death. The fear that fills me is not having lived hard enough, deep enough, and sweet enough with whatever gifts God has given me."

The nuns wore all black Friday. They told their supporters that they would not speak in court, as is the right of every criminal defendant sentenced at federal court.

In court, they spoke only when giving one-word answers to direct questions from Blackburn.

They had chosen their garb and their silence to convey their continued protest of war-making, they said Friday morning.



ma la si può trovare la news anche qua http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/s ... 82,00.html

Mi dispiace oper loro ma la disobbedienza civile, non erano in Italia, è un reato in molte parti del mondo e, probabilmente, sapevano bene che cosa poteva succedere loro.

Ciao

io vedo sempre meno differenza tra usa e cina ...

Gli USA stanno diventando peggio dei paesi con i regimi che pretendono di scardinare a suon di bombe e marines.
Schifo totale.
E faccio mie tutte le considerazioni di Ale, Prio e Cerbert di la.

LuVi

D'accordo sul fatto che sia un evento spiacevole ma se si giustifica la disobbedienza civile non si sa dove si va a parare. In questo modo si mette a rischio la stabilità sociale ovunque e comunque, se si desidera lottare esistono limiti che non dovrebbero essere superati. Ognuno, almeno in teoria, ha a disposizione gli strumenti propri della democrazia e può fondare un partito, raccogliere consensi ed infine utilizzare questi per cambiare le cose. Atti eclatanti non sono auspicabili ne tollerabili proprio perchè si stabilirebbe, un principio con questi precedenti, autorizzante chiunque, per qualsiasi ragione più o meno valida, alla violazione delle regole stabilite tramite voto democratico situazione sufficiente a gettare nel caos qualunque società. Che queste regole possano essere discutibili o anche sbagliate non è un mistero ma i modi per cambiarle sono noti a tutti e vanno rispettati da chiunque.

Ciao

Non e' possibile giustificare o condannare "in toto" la protesta civile.

La mentalita' hippie del "voglio tutto e subito" che esprimono certi manifestanti e' incompatibile con una societa' democratica, oltre che con l'ordine pubblico. Se si vuole solo cambiare una legge specifica, ci sono raccolte di firme, ed altri strumenti previsti dall'ordinamento, senza nessun bisogno di violare alcuna legge.
Non si puo' giustificare l'illegalita' e la protesta violenta solo perche' e' piu' "gustosa" per dei giovani invasati... si puo' anche crescere e imparare a rispettare gli altri...

Allo stesso tempo non e' possibile sostenere che non serve la protesta perche' si possono sempre fondare partiti e proporre nuove leggi... A volte non basta.
Ad esempio... se non vuoi che gli USA attacchino l'IRAQ, non serve molto iniziare un metodo che ha tempi di due o tre anni, perche' nel frattempo la guerra sara' gia' finita...

Ma ho preso l'esempio sbagliato... quello era un caso di rilievo internazionale.
Considera che la giunta comunale voglia demolire una vecchia chiesa.
Un gruppo sostiene che questa ha un valore storico e protesta.
Se questo gruppo volesse cercare di essere eletto alla prossime elezioni troverebbe la chiesa gia' demolita, e a quel punto non ci sarebbe piu' niente da fare...

Vista sotto questo aspetto devo riconsiderare la mia opinione in base alla correttezza del tuo discorso e darti ragione.

In ogni caso la tua opinione apre scenari assai complessi, chi giudica la giustezza di una manifestazione ?, che meritano, sempre tenendo in conto il tuo pensiero, un meditato approfondimento con eventuale rinegoziazione di certe regole inerenti la convivenza civile.

Ciao

Se avessi le soluzioni non starei qui..

Il problema e' che non e' possibile definire delle regole che vadano bene sempre.
Ma questo non e' un problema solo della politica. E' la vita...

Il bello dell'opposizione e' che si puo' fare tanto casino senza doversi scontrare con le difficolta' del costruire qualcosa.

Ti credo sulla parola, se cerco di immaginare una soluzione sbatto continuamente contro un muro di gomma e se cerco di aggirarlo mi ritrovo, in men che non si dica, al punto di partenza, bell'affare!!!!.

Ciao.

P.S. Una soluzione ci sarebbe ma serve un'umanità diversa e non credo ciò sia, almeno per ora e forse per molto tempo, alla nostra portata.

Una donna americana è stata multata di 10.000 dollari per aver fatto per tre mesi lo scudo umano in Iraq. Ma lei non vuole pagare.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dy ... ge=printer


SARASOTA, Fla. - A retired schoolteacher who went to Iraq to serve as a "human shield" against the U.S. invasion is facing thousands of dollars in U.S. government fines, which she is refusing to pay.




The U.S. Department of the Treasury said in a March letter to Faith Fippinger that she broke the law by crossing the Iraqi border before the war. Her travel to Iraq violated U.S. sanctions that prohibited American citizens from engaging in "virtually all direct or indirect commercial, financial or trade transactions with Iraq."

She and others from 30 countries spread out through Iraq to prevent the war. She spent about three months there. Only about 20 of nearly 300 "human shields" were Americans, she said.

Fippinger, who returned home May 4, is being fined at least $10,000, but she has refused to pay. She could face up to 12 years in prison.

In her response to the charges, she wrote the government that "if it comes to fines or imprisonment, "please be aware that I will not contribute money to the United States government to continue the buildup of its arsenal of weapons." Since she won't pay, she said, "perhaps the alternative should be considered."

The government also has asked Fippinger, 62, to detail her travels to Iraq and any financial transactions she made. In her response, Fippinger wrote that the only money she spent was on food and emergency supplies.

If Fippinger does not pay, the fine may increase, and the money will be drawn from her retirement paycheck, her Social Security check or any of her assets, officials said.

"She was (in Iraq) in violation of U.S. sanctions," said Taylor Griffin, a Treasury Department spokesman. "That's what happens."

Shortly before the U.S. invasion in March, Fippinger was one of several dozen human shields scattered around a refinery in Baghdad.

"We are planning to stay here in the refinery if war breaks out," Fippinger said at the time. "We are staying here because we think this war is unjust."