The Occupation Project
Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center ALERT
July 28, 2007
Related — Carolyn Bninski in her own words: A redress of grievances By Carolyn Bninski
[VCNV Note: Carolyn Bninski is an organizer with the Occupation Project in Colorado. After receiving word of three acquittals in Occupation Project trials, we received news that Carolyn received by far the harshest sentence to date. The judge sentenced Carolyn to 365 days in jail, with 330 days suspended. Carolyn will begin serving the remaining 35 days in August, with work release privileges. The judge will retain the right to return Carolyn to jail to serve the 330 days suspended should she engage in other “unlawful” activity. Don Muller and Rob Mulford of Alaska also received lengthy suspended jail sentences for their participation in the Occupation Project in Fairbanks, Alaska and each also served 7 days in jail. Let the examples of these social advocates serve as an invitation to each of us to deepen our own commitment to nonviolent civil disobedience and civil resistance to end the Iraq war.]
Before a packed courtroom yesterday, a municipal judge in Westminster, Colorado sentenced long-time peace activist Carolyn Bninski to 365 days in jail and a $1,000 fine for actions stemming from a March 8th, 2007 visit by her and others to Colorado Congressman Mark Udall’s office.
Congressman Udall (D-CO) - who represents Boulder, Colorado, and surrounding area - was not in the office that day, but citizens frustrated with his failure to represent the bulk of his constituents of that district who oppose the war wished to increase the number of people visiting his office to urge that he quit funding the war. Congressman Udall had cut back on town meetings over the last couple of years and had been less accessible himself to those wanting him to personally hear their message: get out of Iraq, bring the troops home and end the violence.
Ms. Bninski - after Congressman Udall’s office had been visited by a steady stream of over 60 citizens on the morning of March 8, 2007, who all had urged that the elected representative take action to end the war - was asked by a staffer to leave the office after only five or ten minutes into the group’s presentation. She and her companions had been sitting on the floor of the office, taking turns reading some of the names of dead among a staggering toll of over 700,000 Iraqis and over 3,000 U.S. soldiers who have been killed in the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq. Bninski and the others all refused to leave and wished to continue reading names of the dead. Congressman Udall’s staff then called the Westminster police to have the citizens removed from the office. Bninski, one of Congressman Udall’s consitituents, was among those subsequently charged with unlawful assembly and trespass.
At the start of yesterday’s day-long trial over the incident, prospective jurors were asked about their positions on the Iraq war during questioning as to their ability to be fair and impartial in the case. One juror had voiced his strong objections to Cindy Sheehan and her style of anti-war activism. Another was dismissed and replaced with an alternate juror after voicing her opinion that Iraq was an illegal war. The prosecution presented only two witnesses - both members of Congressman Udall’s staff - who described the events of March 8th from their perspective. Both acknowledged that all the citizens’ actions that day had been nonviolent and peaceful, though they said it had distracted them and had become an inconvenience for them. For several weeks prior, constituents had been coming to the office, some staying all day. One described Ms. Bninksi as “polite and appropriate” in her actions on March 8th. Both testified that their intent was not to have Ms. Bninski charged with a crime, just removed from the office. Congressman Udall’s Chief of staff, Alan Salazar, was not called by the prosecution to testify, though he had been key to previous meetings with Ms. Bninski and others, and told them they would be arrested if they continued coming in Congressman Udall’s office and not leaving after a few minutes.
Ms. Bninski opted to testify in her own defense, using the witness stand to educate the jurors, judge and all assembled in the courtroom about the scale of grief and losses being endured in Iraq and the devastation of the entire country and its culture, as well as impacts here at home with the increasing number of so many young soldiers becoming casualties, and the grief suffered by their families. Over 67% of U.S. citizens now oppose the war in Iraq, Ms. Bninski testified, but Congressman Udall continues to fund the war and ignore the bulk of his constituents who oppose his position as their representative.
After hearing the case, the six jurors deliberated for twenty minutes before rendering their decision. They found Ms. Bninski innocent on the charge of unlawful assembly, but guilty of trespass for refusing to leave her Congressman’s office when asked. The City of Westminster, where Congressman Udall’s office is located, sought a jail sentence for Ms. Bninski, instead of community service. In responding to the prosecutor’s appeal that she serve jail time, she turned to look him in the eye and said that she’d accept whatever was ordered, and that whatever it would be would be insignificant compared to what the Iraqi people are enduring.
Associate Judge Randall J. Davis openly stewed prior to announcing his decision over Ms. Bninski’s fate, and said that his order had “nothing to do with the war in Iraq” but was about Ms. Bninski’s actions alone, though calling the event which led to her arrest “innocuous” and one which caused “no substantial disruption of Congressman Udall’s office.” He ordered that 330 days of her 365 jail term be suspended as well as half of the $1,000 fine. Ms. Bninski was given two weeks to prepare for her jail time and ordered to appear at 4:00 August 10th to the Adams County jail.
As she accepted her sentence, with no plans for appeal, Carolyn Bninski addressed the judge and read a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.: “We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak….there is such a thing as being too late….Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with lost opportunity….Over the bleached bones of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ‘Too late.’”
