JONAH HOUSE 1301 MORELAND AVE
BALTIMORE MD 21216 410-233-6238
disarmnow@verizon.net
March 20, 2007
The Honorable Rufus King III
Superior Court of the District of Columbia
500 Indiana Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001
Dear Judge King,
I was convicted in your court on March 14, 2007 for something resembling impeding access to the House Rayburn Office Building on September 27, 2006. Enclosed is your order to pay $50.00 in Compensation to the Victims of Violent Crime by April 16, 2007.
I do not intend to pay that assessment and I felt the need to be truthful with you about that.
Why? Basically two reasons...
1. - As I tried to communicate to you in court (I refer to the closing statement I made on behalf of the Rayburn defendants) I do not believe that we committed any crime and I ache for some court to recognize the criminal conduct now endemic in this government and the responsibility of citizens under international law and the law of God to resist that conduct. Along with many of my co-defendants, I have spent countless hours with the images and laws that came out of Nuremberg and have come to believe that if I do not act against the crimes of my government, I myself become criminal. Is that not what the prosecutions at Nuremberg were about? Were we not proud, at that time and concerning that time, of the stance our government took - that obeying orders is no excuse for committing crimes? And yet all of us who continue to try to act in this spirit can count on the fingers of one hand (with digits left over) the judges in this country who will even try to understand what we are saying.* I had deep hope that you might be one of them.
2. - The victims of the violent crimes of this government surround us. I live in a faith based community in inner city Baltimore where, on a daily basis, we minister to those who have become the waste of this government - inadequate to no housing, poor diet, no jobs, rampant drug and alcohol abuse, schools that more and more resemble prisons, etc. Our small community seeks to minister to them out of our own pocket. We give out bags of groceries to over 100 families every week. We add bread and clothing and household items as we can. This service costs us of roughly $500 a month (the food is purchased by us at the Maryland Food Bank for something like $.18 a pound). That is my on-going contribution to the victims.
You can accept this. If need be, I can send you check stubs and or bills. Or you can reject this and come up with whatever your imagination might conjure. I have been to jail and prison often in my journey of faith and I expect that that journey will continue and I expect that, in that journey, I will continue to try to have jail or prison time serve the cause of justice rather than see it as time I am required to serve. It is a matter of indifference to me. However, being required to put money into a system in which I have good reason to have very little trust is not something I can, in conscience, do.
I did feel that you listened intently to what we were trying to say. But I felt that your trust in the police and the systems of control over constitutional rights shuts out our voice and the truth we are trying to speak.
I hope to hear from you, one way or the other. I have enclosed a self addressed and stamped envelope for that purpose.
Respectfully submitted,
______________________
Elizabeth McAlister
CC - Mark Goldstone, Advisory Counsel for the Defense
Brittany Kyle, Counsel for the District of Columbia
* In Kitsap County in Washington, on June 7, 1999, activists were acquitted of disorderly conduct charges stemming from a blockade at the Bangor Trident submarine base. Judge James Riehl allowed testimony on international law and sent the jury to deliberate with this specific instruction: "You are instructed that as a matter of federal Constitutional law, states are bound to respect the terms of treaties entered into by Congress. Congress alone has the power to abrogate a treaty or impose any additional limitations. Thus to the extent there may be a conflict between a law of the state of Washington, and a right granted or an obligation imposed by a treaty of the U.S. the right granted or the obligation imposed by the treaty will govern." Another jury instruction said, "A person acts with 'lawful authority' when he or she acts in reliance upon his or her reasonable interpretation of a relevant state or local ordinance, state or federal statute, treaty, or state or federal court ruling." At least two court cases involving anti-nuclear activists in Kitsap County ended in acquittals.
• In courtrooms where juries are allowed to hear the facts regarding international law and the laws of armed conflict, "violators" are declared innocent.
• In geographies where First Nation Treaty Laws are understood, judges have been open to hearing such testimony and ruling in the light of it.