This was sent to me by another Mudcatter. I think it is worthy of note. Where there is emphasis, it is mine.

FREE SPEECH GETS EXPENSIVE
­ by William A. Collins
(Columnist William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut.


If you're looking

To get fined;

Go downtown,
         
And speak your mind.


Back in 1950, after grappling with Nazis for five years, the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal offered this frustrated pronouncement: "Individuals," it said, "have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience Therefore (individual citizens) have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."

By this the judges clearly meant that the German populace should have risked its collective life by standing up to Hitler. Not being suicidal, however, very few Germans did, and the world paid the price. But the tribunal's words still carry a certain heft today, and they even reemerge from time to time here in our own, more tolerant, superpower nation. Here too, though, "violating domestic laws" for "peace and humanity" can prove hazardous to one's health.

Take Hartford. It has become Connecticut's center for anti-war demonstrations. That's often a big strain on the city's police department, sometimes undertrained for such unsought work. On October 25, for example, a couple hundred protesters took a deep breath and blocked traffic, having discovered that more passive forms of war protest failed to get them much ink. Ink they got, and also some blood, as one of their number was swatted a few times too many on the head with a nightstick. Others were carted off for booking, as those who block traffic might expect to be. One, however, was charged with "conspiracy to incite a riot." Could it be that we're getting in a little deep here? Some were held in the clink for 28 hours, and assigned bail of $50,000. One might think they had been planning to destroy evidence of espionage, or were seeking to flee to Venezuela.

Clearly disagreement with federal policy is growing in gravity as a local criminal offense.
Indeed by December 14, the police were even denying permits for loudspeakers in front of the Old State House, Connecticut's hottest protest venue. There's no telling what those dissenters might say if they had a little more amperage.

And still today fallout from the October 25 traffic snarl isn't over. One young man, having exercised some leadership among the peaceful demonstrators, is being charged with "inciting injury." The Yale Daily News quotes the prosecutor as saying that he'll ask for a 10-year sentence.

Over in Stratford another guy already got a one-year sentence for refusing to leave Sikorsky property during a protest. He and his colleagues took umbrage at the dirty war that the United States is currently supporting in Colombia (with Sikorsky helicopters). The prosecutor there was especially uneasy about the defendant's organization, the Catholic Worker Movement, which the prosecutor felt might become a useful tool for terrorists in attacking the United States. Right.

One unfortunate reason that today's dissenters feel so impelled to take to the streets is that there is no good way to take to the press. Radio nowadays brooks no dissent at all on issues like Afghanista, Colombia, or Iraq, and television is not far behind. Those who disagree with America's assertive military policies are not invited to appear.

Newspapers are a bit better, at least on their opinion pages. Their news pages, however, still quote uniformly from pro-war sources. Even opposing congressmen have trouble getting heard. Thus dissent understandably takes to the street in order to get a hearing, the police get caught in the middle, and opposition to war becomes a remarkably expensive crime. Connecticut, obviously, is not Germany , but you'd think the Constitution State could do a bit better than that.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: A photo of William A. Collins is available at: www.opedresource.com )