These sentence guidelines seem a little over the top, no?
A 60 year-old environmental activist who hung two banners in a government building will be sentenced Tuesday — and faces up to three years in prison.
Bloomfield, NJ resident Ted Glick will be sentenced Tuesday for unfurling two banners saying “Green Jobs Now” and “Get to Work” from the Hart Senate Office Building’s 7th floor into the atrium on Sept. 8, 2009, the day the Senate returned from its summer recess. Glick and approximately 30 demonstrators were attempting to pressure the Senate to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which passed the House in June 2009.
Gus diZerega
It’s telling, alas, that the Democrats are more interested in sentencing a citizen for a nonviolent ‘crime’ of free speech whereas the Bush criminals are still collecting huge salaries and living high on the hog.
Heckuva job there folks.
jwb
@Gus diZerega: “Mission Accomplished.”
Bootlegger
If repeat offenders get more serious penalties, shouldn’t the coal industry be facing public torture ending in drawn-and-quartering? How many offenses do coal companies get to pile up before they negotiate for a lesser fine? Then they start the count all over again.
Chad S
Prison time for scaling up a Senate office building to hang a banner when you can stand outside of it a few feet away all you want seems just. I feel the same way whether its an environmental activist or a tea bagger.
tofubo
attempting to redress their greivances to the government
where did they get that treasonous threat to the constituion of an idea
KCinDC
It says “up to three years in prison”, meaning that’s the maximum sentence for whatever the charge is, and as usual the story uses that to maximize sensationalism. If he gets anything resembling that, then I’ll work on my outrage, but I expect he’ll get something more in line with the sort of price one normally pays for illegal demonstrations of this sort.
QuaintIrene
What tha…? I live in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and this is the first time I’ve heard of this guy. Who knew our little town could be a haven for such desperado’s!
Last week they busted Russian spies trying to infiltrate the PTA over in Montclair. I shudder to think what’s going to pop up next, in Nutley or Hoboken.
Resident Firebagger
My gawd, it’s ecoterrists.
(And how odd here in Comments that exclamation points aren’t supported.)
Triassic Sands
@Chad S:
Yeah, cuz scaling a building is such a heinous crime. He may even have scared a pigeon.
El Cid
He could have been using code to signal to an Al Qa’ida sleeping cell.
MikeJ
@Gus diZerega: Which Democrats did this? I’d guess it was either DCPD or Park Police or US Capitol Police. Did the story say the ghost of Tip O’Neill came back to personally handcuff this chump?
hilzoy fangirl
@KCinDC:
I think the concern is that the prosecutors are asking for such an absurd sentence. Especially when the prosecutor in DC is the U.S. Attorney, directly appointed by the President.
scarshapedstar
Scaling? Da fuck? It said he hung the banner inside the atrium. As in, he took the elevator up to the seventh floor, walked over to the balcony, and hung a banner from it.
I don’t see why doing Spiderman shit should necessarily be illegal, but… that isn’t what he did.
Chad S
@Triassic Sands: Its a crime. The freedom of speech doesn’t give you the right to scale the White House or other federal buildings. Especially when you can express your views right next to the building without anyone stopping you.
burnspbesq
The story is full of holes. It doesn’t say what offenses he’s being sentenced for, or whether he pled or was found guilty after a trial. Both of those are highly relevant in sentencing decisions. Either sloppy or deliberately inflammatory.
My WAG is that if he pled to trespassing in a public building, he’ll get six months of home detention plus a fine and costs of prosecution.
MikeJ
@hilzoy fangirl: Are the prosecutors asking for the absurd sentence, or is that what he could get if he got the maximum on every count?
Chad S
@scarshapedstar: Thats right, I misspoke. He didn’t scale the building, but if the law says you can’t unfurl a banner inside the office building, he violated the law. And he still could unfurl his banner right outside the building.
If you think that unfurling a banner will effect one vote on the floor on Congress, please look at how all the tea bag screaming even inside Senate/House offices didn’t stop the HRC bill.
Chad S
Glick also turned down a plea bargain for 30 days in jail.
burnspbesq
As a former Ridgewood resident, I have to say that six months in Bloomfield seems like an extremely harsh punishment. ;-)
Lord Omlette
What would Phil Hart do?
bluejersey.com/diary/16088/phil-hart-wouldnt-want-ted-glick-in-the-slammer
Zuzu's Petals
I don’t know how you get prison (as opposed to jail) time on misdemeanor charges. For instance, the maximum jail time for disorderly conduct in DC appears to be 90 days.
Unless the article is just plain wrong, maybe they are enhancing his sentence because of past violations, or possibly he even violated probation. In any case, the three years seems to represent the far end of a range, not the actual sentence.
Mark S.
@burnspbesq:
@MikeJ:
It still seems incredibly harsh for the crime.
Zuzu's Petals
@Chad S:
Seems to be a bit of a tradition.
QuaintIrene
have to say that six months in Bloomfield seems like an extremely harsh punishment. ;-)
MikeJ
@Mark S.: I’m unwilling to accept that I should get 5-10 for armed robbery. Should I rush right out and do it and then whine that it’s not fair?
Zuzu's Petals
@Mark S.:
Ah, so he’s being sentenced under federal guidelines. Should have realized that, thanks.
Chad S
@Zuzu’s Petals: I bet they were charged with the same crime also. Along with everyone who disrupts congressional floor action with douchery.
Zuzu's Petals
@Chad S:
I would imagine so. Although protesting in the office building doesn’t exactly disrupt a floor action.
Mark S.
@MikeJ:
Right. Because I think 3 years for unfurling a banner is harsh, I don’t think there should be any punishment for armed robbery.
burnspbesq
@QuaintIrene:
Was a joke.
Frank
@Chad S:
I know people who drove their car drunk, got into an accident, and badly injured other people as a result. The driver got a lighter sentence than this demonstrator did.
Perhaps we should take a step back, get some perspective and judge what is worse; some idiot driving drunk or someone who is simply demonstrating illegally.
MikeJ
@Frank: He wasn’t simply demonstrating. He was arrested for the third time and turned down a plea bargain. If you want to engage in civil disobedience, you need to be prepared to go to jail. He’s getting arrested over and over again. He’s a repeat offender that they offered a sweet deal, and he turned it down.
He has nothing to complain about.
Frank
@MikeJ:
As I said above; unlike the drunk driver he didn’t hurt anybody. Yet, he is getting a much harsher sentence than a lot of drunk drivers who actually hurt somebody.
I certainly can’t buy the logic.
Gus diZerega
Maybe he should have ordered that some people, including innocent ones, got tortured. Apparently that is not nearly as bad a crime.
LanceThruster
Maybe he wanted to ensure that all the perfumed princes and princesses of Congress could read it without their spectacles.
We supposedly have a respect for the tradition of protest and civil disobedience…but the niggling police state rules means that anyone can be sanctioned beyond what is appropriate while at the same time larger criminals and charlatans (as long as they’re of the government or campaign donor class) receive virtually no penalties, admonishments (toothless or otherwise). In fact, they’re more likely to be rewarded for their incompetence and malfeasance.
I say give him a medal of freedom and a golden parachute just to level the playing field a bit.
KCinDC
@Frank, he’s not being sentenced until Tuesday, so you’re comparing the *maximum* he could get with the sentence some drunk driver (who may have gotten too low a sentence) received. Surely the drunk driver “faced a sentence of up to” considerably more than three years.
Triassic Sands
@Chad S:
Punishment should be proportionate to the severity of the offense. Hanging a political banner from a building qualifies, in my book, as just about the least severe “crime” anyone can commit. I can think of no victim to this crime, except perhaps your delicate sensibilities.
If the punishment is disproportionate, rational people will lose respect for the law, which is not a good thing in what is supposed to be a free and open society.
Should I assume you favored three-strikes life sentences for such major criminals as MLK and Gandhi?
hilzoy fangirl
@Zuzu’s Petals:
He’s actually being sentenced under D.C. law, and since these offenses are only misdemeanors there are no sentencing guidelines – the judge has virtually unlimited discretion to give anything from a fine, probation, or up to the three years in prison that the prosecutors are asking for. D.C. law provides that sentences for misdemeanors can be enhanced like this if someone has prior convictions for similar crimes, but to my knowledge the U.S. Attorney’s office rarely ever asks for such enhancement. That they are doing so in a case such as this is very troubling to me.
trollhattan
So, tell me that little shit James O’Keefe is getting twice the time as this terrrrrr-rist so I have some point of comparison, m’kay? After all, intent must have some consideration in charging & sentencing, right? Right?
Used to have relatives in Bloomfield. Nice town back in the day. Only place I’ve ever seen fireflies.
fucen tarmal
bring mary beth buchanan out of her cave and have her be special prosecutor emeritus for the federales. not only did she crack the chong’s bongs case wide open, she got a recluse sentenced to, survey says, home confinement…the chick is good….
dude will be hanging banners on light poles in dc for the redskins, wizards, capitals, and nationals, til he has to have the bucket truck has to be fitted for his mobility chair.
Hillary Rettig
as others point out, we’re missing some details, but here’s a good website documenting how nonviolent environmental and animal activists are being branded (and treated like) “terrorists” simply for exercising their free speech and other rights. This guy might have trespassed, but the harsh sentence fits in with this pattern. Here’s the website:
greenisthenewred.com/blog/
Mnemosyne
I agree that the prosecution even asking for three years is excessive, but MikeJ does have a point here:
At what point did we decide that civil disobedience should be consequence-free? Martin Luther King didn’t write his famous letter from the Birmingham McDonald’s, fer chrissakes.
Lesley
That sentence is so insane, where does one begin.
But then the prison industry is growing and is a huge source of slave labour for American corporations so he’s just one more they can exploit.
fucen tarmal
@Mnemosyne:
better chance from him to get a meal at the birmingham jail…though i don’t know how far mcd’s had spread by then, in some fairness.
LanceThruster
@Mnemosyne:
I think as long as torture is consequence-free, civil disobedience should get a pass too.
Or allow protesters to get disruptive outside of chambers anytime the business on the floor is one of those ceremonial “Declare July 4th National Hot Dog and Watermelon Awareness Day – sponsored by MegaFoodCo[tm]” motions. That would serve a dual purpose in alerting the public when Congress is just wanking off.
That sounds fair.
Boney Baloney
If you’re going to get three years in the pen, why not earn them? Fool me twice, won’t get fooled again. Eventually American protestors will learn about nail-bomb vests with dead-man switches. “Put your hands where we can see them!” Sir, yes sir! Timer begins counting backwards now…
When the history of the 21st century is written, that “broken-windows policing” asshole in NYC will have a lot to answer for. Except, not. He’ll be dead, which is just as well.
Triassic Sands
@Mnemosyne:
There is a difference between making civil disobedience consequence-free and treating run-of-the-mill civil disobedience as though it represents a threat to society. In most cases, civil disobedience isn’t much more than a nuisance. A free and open society can afford to treat most participants in civil disobedience as citizens engaged in non-violent protests that may be performing a valuable service by calling attention to societal and governmental flaws that are in need of attention and adjustment.
The use or threat of violence should be treated accordingly. The fact that the protester(s) may have a moral or ethical point does not give them the right to resort to violence. Those engaging in civil disobedience have to accept responsibility for their actions. If, as a result of something a protester does, people are hurt or property is damaged, the protester can’t be forgiven because his or her heart was in the right place. On the other hand, if the harm results from irresponsible or criminal law enforcement overreaction or response, then the protester should not be held responsible.
A healthy society should be able to treat sincere, non-violent protesters with a very light touch. People who engage in responsible civil disobedience to call attention to perceived wrongs, should not have their lives ruined or severely disrupted by prosecution and excessive incarceration. In some cases the country owes protesters a thank you, an apology, or both for the actions they took, and we are a better country because of some acts of civil disobedience.
bob h
Will the guy who threatened Pelosi get three years? Probably not.
David in NY
@Lord Omlette:
Thank you, I was about to say that Phil Hart (my Senator back then) would be on Ted Glick’s side, but you beat me to it.
slag
OK. This is just weird.
russell
At what point did we decide that hanging a banner in a public building was “civil disobedience”?
You can bring a loaded assault rifle to a Congressional town hall, but you can’t hang a banner in an office building.
That is some crazy shit.
scarshapedstar
I presume that we wouldn’t arrest someone for carrying a sign. And, heck, if there were two or three people carrying a banner stretched horizontally between their hands, I don’t think anyone would regard that as “civil disobedience”.
It’s in the act of tying one inanimate object to another that it becomes Serious Shit and everyone involved should expect jail time just like Martin Luther King did.
Catsy
Good grief. Anytime I see authoritarian douchebags like you smugly bleating about why someone else ought to have their life ruined, I can only pray that you have no pets or children who have to suffer living with you. For the love of all that’s decent, get some fucking perspective.
Thirty days in jail for nonviolent protest that involved nothing more than hanging a banner is not a “sweet deal”, it is disproportionately punitive. Rejecting that deal out of principle does not mean he has “nothing to complain about”.
Being prepared to go to jail for civil disobedience does not mean signing up to quietly accept whatever book they decide to throw at you.
There is a deep and serious need to reevaluate the sentencing guidelines at every level of government in this country, or else we will continue to see perverse and indefensible cases like this. No one should face 30 days in jail for nonviolent, nondestructive protest–let alone three years.
People like you are a big part of what is sick and wrong with this country.
LanceThruster
@scarshapedstar:
Too true. That bastard could have been tying his diversionary “sign” with detonating cord. In the land auf Der Homeland Schutzstaffel, it’s not what you’re actually doing, but what they’re afraid you *might* be doing that gets you into so much trouble. And they just happen to be a damn scaredy bunch.
That’s why the TSA can literally put your nuts in a vise just for looking at them funny (and btw, it doesn’t matter if it’s funny “ha-ha” or funny “strange”).
I’m sure there will be a full review of the inadequate response on security’s part but aren’t they now required to taser the f*(# out of him or be summarily demoted.
CalD
How’d that work out, BTW. Did it turn out to be an effective tactic for influencing the course of legislation? Just asking.
Wile E. Quixote
@Chad S:
There’s nothing wrong with you that a rifle butt upside the head couldn’t cure.
KCinDC
No jail: “In the end, the judge suspended Glick’s 30-day sentence as long as he doesn’t get arrested in the next year and serves 40 hours of community service.”
Also: “The U.S. Attorney’s Office requested a sentence of three years, all of which would have suspended except 40 days.” That’s quite different from the impression left by the claims above that somehow omitted the “suspended” part.
Mark S.
@KCinDC:
That was kind of an important part to leave out. Ah, journalism’s a tough gig.