If
you�re thinking of taking a stand on principle on behalf
of American workers and the American economy, maybe you�d
better think again.
A
young man�s protest two years ago that took the form of
bidding on government oil and gas leases in a Utah wilderness
area should give pause to folks concerned about working
Americans, especially if it involves going up against
the �energy industry.� In this particular case, Tim DeChristopher
was sentenced to two years in prison, during which sentence
he landed in solitary confinement (now they use the euphemism
�segregation�) for an alleged threat he made.
The
�threat� comes later in the story. First, DeChristopher
was making a statement and a protest when he went to the
2008 government auction, in which wild land was to be
sold as leases to the highest bidder to search for gas
and oil or any other mineral that might bring profits
to the companies� shareholders.
DeChristopher
was alarmed that they would do such a thing to some gems
of wilderness and went to observe the auctions. When he
actually was in the presence of the corporations and their
bidding process, he decided to bid himself, although he
said later that he didn�t go there for that purpose.
In
the process of bidding, he ran up the cost of leases for
other bidders and ended up with the purchase of $1.79
million worth of leases that totaled 22,500 acres. Being
a 29-year-old student at the time, he didn�t have the
money and he was eventually indicted for disrupting the
sale of leases.
He
was eventually tried and sentenced to two years in prison
for his protest. To show the character of American jurisprudence
at this time and the climate of imbalanced punishment
(prison for the 99 percent and an award for good citizenship
to the 1 percent), at sentencing, Judge Dee Benson said,
among other things, �This is not a case of Rosa Parks,�
adding that it is a �myth� that DeChristopher acted because
he had no other choice when he deliberately derailed a
federal oil and gas lease auction in 2008. The sentencing
took a few hours, including a 35-minute statement by DeChristopher.
And then, the judge pronounced his sentence.
Considering
the crimes (some of them �high�) and misdemeanors of Corporate
America, especially in the massive sector of �energy extraction,�
the vengeful sentencing of DeChristopher by Benson stood
in sharp contrast to the lack of jail time or even a reprimand
of those wealthy among criminals and the nearly total
lack of punishment of corporations who have done harm
to Americans and their land for generations.
Indeed,
it may be that DeChristopher is no Rosa Parks, but Benson
and his supporters in the harsh sentencing indicated that
Parks took her stand of civil disobedience after a long
struggle against unjust laws�for many generations, in
fact. What they failed to notice is that the struggle
against the gross imbalance of power in America
(Corporate America vs. The People) has been going on nearly
as long and it will continue. Civil disobedience of the
kind engaged by DeChristopher seems to be warranted, and
he�s been described as a political prisoner, as have so
many black and minority activists over the years.
The
lease auction was termed to have been improper or illegal,
and that�s one of the things that DeChristopher was protesting
in the first place, even before he decided at the last
minute to make a bid. Also, many of his supporters have
pointed out that there have been other cases in which
untold lives have been lost and unimaginable amounts of
money have been spent or pocketed by industry without
fear of prosecution, let alone punishment.
But,
after all, Judge Benson himself was quoted as describing
the real reason that DeChristopher was sentenced harshly:
In the process of sentencing, he admitted that �the offense
itself ... wasn�t that bad,� but that DeChristopher�s
��continuing trail of statements�� as the reason for the
harsh sentence. �Free speech� certainly can get one in
a lot of trouble in 2012 America.
Now,
for the speech that got DeChristopher in solitary confinement:
He was placed in a minimum security prison to serve his
term, but, while there, he got wind that a corporate donor
of $25,000 to his legal defense fund might be a party
to the transfer of jobs or industry from the U.S., to another country. He communicated with
the staffer of the non-profit he co-founded, Peaceful
Uprising, and said that if it were found to be true that
the company shipped out the jobs, he would feel compelled
to return the money and write a letter to the firm, telling
them that he would conduct a campaign against their actions
at some future time.
Well,
that was two threats: to return the money and to conduct
a campaign against taking the jobs out of the country.
There are computer programs that pick up on trigger words
among billions of words that instantaneously home in on
the perpetrator. DeChristopher�s jailers apparently have
that and they picked up on the �threats� and removed him
from the minimum security to the segregation unit, an
eight by 10 cell shared with another inmate. Along with
the miniscule space go other punishments, such as 15 minutes
of phone calls a month, limited (or no) visits, limited
ability to write or otherwise communicate, and hardly
any access to sunshine and air and exercise.
The
outcry from DeChristopher�s supporters and the general
public was deafening and, within a matter of days, he
was moved back into the general population of the minimum-security
prison. How did he get to solitary? According to several
press and other sources, a phone call from a single congressional
representative about his �threats� was enough to get him
sent to the box. It took a volume of calls from the people
to get him out.
The
only good thing that can come out of this kind of episode
in the pathetically unbalanced judicial system is that
environmentalists may begin to see that people of color
have been subjected to this kind of treatment for decades�and
they still are. The lopsided percentages of the two million-plus
inmates in America�s prisons are (for
their percentage of the general population) still overwhelmingly
black and others of color.
Americans
know that the nation�s judicial system needs reform, so
that the people are treated as gently as Corporate America
is treated, when corporations commit their crimes. Reform
seems to be happening all the time, but the structure
and slant of the system can be counted on to remain the
same: if you�re rich, you�ll get off; if you�re poor,
you�re going to jail.
None
of this will change, unless the people in their endless
variety begin to demand justice and until they start supporting
people in positions of power who will actually change
the judicial system and change the political system that
makes it all possible. Men and women who are defending
the rights and well being of the people need to know that
there are millions standing behind them, who will fight
to protect them from arbitrary prosecutions and, even
more strenuously, from authoritarian punishments.
BlackCommentator.com
Columnist, John Funiciello, is a labor organizer and former
union organizer. His union work started when he became
a local president of The Newspaper Guild in the early
1970s. He was a reporter for 14 years for newspapers in
New York State. In
addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers
as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure
from factory food producers and land developers. Click
here
to contact Mr. Funiciello.
