The Occupation Project
By REKHA BASU
Des Moines Register
July 18, 2007
Maybe this is a sign that elected officials’ failure to end the Iraq war is wearing down Iowans’ patience, and they’re open to alternative ways to address it.
A Polk County jury of six last week concluded that five Iowans protesting the war were justified in refusing to leave Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Des Moines office after being ordered out by a Department of Homeland Security official. The five were not guilty of trespassing, the jury ruled, even though they admitted they were arrested after refusing to leave.
On the other hand, a judge convicted 11 people who had staged an occupation at Grassley’s Cedar Rapids office on the same day (Feb. 26) under the same basic circumstances.
So how can a judge and a jury reach such different conclusions? It comes down to a question of justification.
Iowa law defines trespassing as entering a premise and remaining, without justification, after being asked to leave.
The jurors thought the action was justified. “It was a federal office. They had every right to be there, and they never got their grievances heard at all,” said one juror who asked not to be identified. “That was the whole reason for having a constituent office.”
The verdict marks a shift, in the view of attorney Sally Frank, who defended three of the protesters. The six other civil-disobedience cases she’s handled in seven years have resulted in convictions or guilty pleas. But she thinks this shows that Iowans are more open to the idea of protest.
Little wonder. Now in its fifth year, the Iraq war has claimed 3,618 American troops and an estimated 73,600 Iraqis. It’s done nothing to stop al-Qaida, the force behind the Sept. 11 attacks. If anything, that threat is growing, as a new intelligence report warns.
Yet neither the widening evidence that the war can’t be won and is actually increasing terrorism, nor the fact that a majority of Americans now oppose it, will make a stubborn commander in chief budge. With even legislators from the president’s own party now defecting, the question of how responsive an elected official should be to constituents’ concerns is more relevant than ever.
Frank argued in court that the protesters were exercising their constitutional right to petition their government for a redress of grievances. The name of every war death read aloud constituted a “grievance,” according to Brian Terrell, one of those arrested. As one of two U.S. senators from Iowa, Grassley is supposed to represent Iowans’ concerns.
Similar sit-ins have been staged in the offices of Sen. Tom Harkin and Congressman Leonard Boswell. The actions are under the auspices of the Occupation Project, a national civil-disobedience campaign against the war. Since it began in February, more than 320 people have been arrested around the country for occupying representatives’ offices, according to the project.
Protesters have also been arrested at Harkin’s and Boswell’s offices, but at least got to air their concerns, says Frank. Grassley’s staff refused to engage at all, she said.
Grassley’s press secretary, Beth Levine, said the senator does believe his office needs to be available to constituents, and he has met with members of the Occupation Project at town hall meetings. He didn’t seek to have the protesters prosecuted; he even asked the county attorney not to, said Levine. But she said the Des Moines staff called police because they felt the protesters were disruptive.
How far are protesters justified in going? Staying past closing time? Moving in overnight? What if the protest means extra staff has to be called in? Frank said when police don’t make arrests, protesters always end up leaving, even if it’s at 2 a.m. “Our case would have been much weaker if they waited till closing time,” said Frank of Grassley’s staff.
Protesters can be annoying. They create confusion, distract attention and are single-minded in their cause.
But compare that to the single-mindedness of war-mongers, the resources they distract and confusion they create, and there’s no contest.
I, for one, am grateful for those who use their voices and their rights to try to bring an end to this disastrous war. The only thing worse, in the face of all this pointless death and destruction, is staying silent.
