Looking forward to hearing the government’s excuse as to why out of 1250 people arrested at the White House during the Keystone XL Pipeline Tar Sands action last August, Dan Choi was singled out for prosecution.

The Obama administration will likely soon announce that the State Department will consider an alternative route for the Keystone XL Pipeline.  If that happens, it will likely delay any decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 election.  From USA Today: The State Department is preparing to announce its decision that it will explore a [...]

I was as at the White House once again yesterday protesting the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline along with many of the folks I was arrested with on September 9 including Dan Choi, Jessica, Ari, Scarecrow and Bill McKibben. It was really gratifying us to see that our relatively small crew of 65 who were handcuffed, hauled off in paddy wagons and sent to jail with zero media attention that first day had now swelled to a crowd of over 12,000 that the media could not ignore.

At the beginning of Day 3 of the government’s case against Dan Choi, the defense filed a motion to compel production of certain documents. Among them was a Secret Service email sent the day before Choi’s arrest on November 15, 2010 for chaining himself to the fence of the White House with 12 others in order to protest Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Defense attorneys Robert Feldman and Norman Kent asserted that there was a coordinated effort among federal agencies to use the power of the government to single out Choi and persecute him in order to silence him. Judge John Facciola decided in favor of the defense, saying that he believed a prima facie case had been made that the government was engaging in “vindictive prosecution” of Choi.

Assistant US Attorney Angela George asked for a recess while she conferred with her supervisors at the Department of Justice. Following a 2 hour break, the trial resumed. There were four Supervising US Attorneys present as George informed the Judge that she was filing a writ of mandamus to prevent him from allowing Choi’s attorneys to present a defense of “defensive prosecution” or “vindictive prosecution.”

TRANSCRIPT:

In a remarkable turn of events, the Department of Justice has elected to file a writ of mandamus to prevent Judge John Facciola from allowing Dan Choi from offering a “selective prosecution” or “vindictive prosecution” defense. The government elected to pursue federal charges against Choi and 12 others for chaining themselves to the White House fence on November 15, 2010 to protest Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

There were several jaw-dropping moments from the Dan Choi trial today, but none more dramatic than the moment Lt. LaChance of the Park Police admitted he was advised by Solicitor Randolph Myers of the Department of Interior to press federal charges against the DADT protesters on November 15 — three hours before they began protesting.

The same thing that happened to Alice Paul and the suffragettes is happening to Dan Choi, his fellow DADT protesters, and now Bill McKibben and the Tar Sands protesters. I do not know how anyone could argue with a straight face that laws written to control traffic are not being selectively enforced to punish free speech when it embarrasses the President, just as they were in Woodrow Wilson’s time. And the minute that the law is selectively enforced by those in power in order to persecute their political critics, those people that the government incarcerate become political prisoners.

Dan Choi, Bill McKibben and Scarecrow have now spent two nights in jail courtesy of the DC police for an offense that routinely equates to a parking ticket. According to Ted Glick over at Grist, the orders to hold them came from “higher up.”

sequence. Let him know that people who care about the environment, from conservative Nebraska ranchers to urban climate change activists, oppose this rapacious act of oil company greed.

Join the Tar Sands 14 Day White House Sit-In.

John Chandley, Dan Choi and Bill McKibben are spending tonight in jail again so that the government can send a message to you on behalf of the oil companies. They don’t want you to come to Washington for the next two weeks and overburden the DC jail system by throwing your body upon the gears, to quote Mario Savio. They hope you will look at what is happening to John and Dan and Bill and be intimidated and discouraged.

There were 45 more people today who refused to be discouraged. They watched what happened to Dan and John and Bill and were willing to get arrested anyway, in the hope of “lighting a fire” under the world.

Are you discouraged?

Jane posts the following, Dateline Jail: Central Booking, Washington DC -  The President promised in 2008 that when he was elected the earth would begin to heal.  Instead, he allowed 65 environmentalists to be arrested and held for two days on a charge that’s equivalent to a traffic ticket, in order to deter others from [...]