Eight RNC Protesters Accused of 'Furthering Terrorism' Thanks To Statute
Submitted by anonymous on November 14, 2008 - 1:15am
![[The RNC 8: Left to right: Eryn Trimmer, Nathanael Secor, Luce Guillen-Givins, Monica Bicking, Garrett Fitzgerald, Rob Czernik, Erik Oseland, and Max Specktor.]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/rnceight1112.jpg "rnceight1112.jpg")
The RNC 8: Left to right: Eryn Trimmer, Nathanael Secor, Luce Guillen-Givins, Monica Bicking, Garrett Fitzgerald, Rob Czernik, Erik Oseland, and Max Specktor.
Eight RNC Protesters Accused of 'Furthering Terrorism' Thanks To Statute
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL - Eryn Trimmer sits in a Loring Park coffee shop and peers out the window to the street below. Dressed in a casual charcoal-colored sweater, with wispy blond hair, the gangly 23-year-old handyman resembles your typical coffeehouse regular. You'd hardly suspect he's an accused terrorist.
The Saturday before the Republican National Convention, Trimmer was sleeping upstairs in his two-story home in Minneapolis's Powderhorn neighborhood when he was awakened by a clatter. Within seconds, armed officers burst through his bedroom, guns drawn, and arrested Trimmer, his live-in girlfriend Monica Bicking, and their roommate Garrett Fitzgerald.
The RNC 8: Left to right: Eryn Trimmer, Nathanael Secor, Luce Guillen-Givins, Monica Bicking, Garrett Fitzgerald, Rob Czernik, Erik Oseland, and Max Specktor.Five more RNC protesters would be rounded up during that weekend in advance of the RNC. Dubbed the "RNC 8," the defendants-seven of whom were members of anarchist group the RNC Welcoming Committee-stand accused of "conspiring to riot," a second-degree felony. According to a police affidavit, the eight acted as ringleaders in a plot to "kidnap delegates" and "sabotage the Xcel Center."
Authorities leveled the charges based on evidence provided by paid informants and undercover agents who infiltrated the RNC Welcoming Committee in the months leading up to the convention ("Moles Wanted," 5/21/08). "We assumed the group was under surveillance and that that could include informants," Trimmer says. "It was an open group and we weren't organizing anything illegal, so we didn't want to kick anybody out."
But the RNC 8 face more than the standard felony charges. For the first time, authorities are wielding an obscure state anti-terrorism statute passed in the nervous aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Second-degree "conspiracy to commit riot" ordinarily carries a maximum two-and-a-half-year prison sentence, but because the alleged crime was intended to "further terrorism," the sentence can be doubled to a maximum of five years.
"The statute's definition of 'terrorism' appears to be modeled after a statute in the Patriot Act," says attorney Bruce Nestor, who is defending one of the accused conspirators. "But whereas the Patriot Act statute requires an act of violence against people, the language here extends the definition to include 'violence to property.'"
The original bill, proposed May 2, 2001, had nothing to do with terrorism: It required morticians and funeral directors to issue death notices for unidentifiable homeless people. Twelve months, five revisions, and one national tragedy later, the bill had mushroomed into a massive omnibus bill that included the hastily appended terrorism statute. Because the addendum was a relatively minor part of a larger piece of legislation, no one seems to be able to say for sure who inserted it.
"There was reaction to 9/11 and everybody wanted to get prepared," says Rep. Mary Liz Holberg (R-Lakeville), who voted for the bill. "I think the rationale behind it was that if individuals act in an organized manner and perpetuate crimes on the public, stiffer penalties are in order."
The most controversial aspect of the statute is its characterization of terrorism, which includes any felony that "significantly disrupts or interferes with the lawful exercise, operation, or conduct of government, lawful commerce, or the right of lawful assembly." Attorney Larry Leventhal, who is representing accused RNC 8 conspirator Max Specktor, says the language is overly broad.
"By that rationale, the definition of terrorism could be extended to anything," Leventhal argues. "If they don't like what you and I are saying to each other over a phone they're tapping, they can say that it's 'terroristic.'"
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher says that the RNC 8 may not look like the terrorists who crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center, but their actions justify the stiffer penalties. Fletcher points to the fact that a 50-pound sandbag was hurled from a freeway overpass onto a busload of delegates as proof.
"I think it's fair to say the people who were in downtown St. Paul during the convention, including delegates, felt a level of terror from the actions of the individuals associated with the RNC Welcoming Committee," Fletcher says.
The RNC 8 deny having any operational involvement in the sandbag incident, but admit that some members may have planned acts of "civil disobedience," such as blockading the Xcel Center.
At a probable cause hearing Monday, attorneys for the RNC 8 successfully argued for an extension to gather further evidence. But even if the defendants are convicted, it's doubtful any of them will serve the five years in prison called for by the new law.
"The judge has a great deal of discretion as to what probationary conditions to put into place," says County Attorney Susan Gaertner. "Generally, that might include up to a year in jail, community service, or treatment."
That comes as little consolation to Luce Guillen-Givens, one of the eight accused. Having been involved with various immigrant-rights and antiwar groups since the age of 15, Guillen-Givens, now 24, worries what will happen to the next person accused of "furthering terrorism."
"Historically, these crackdowns serve the purpose of disrupting and undermining movements of resistance," she says. "First, you try conspiracy charges out on the fringes and, if it works there, you move incrementally in."
© 2008 City Pages (Minneapolis)
RNC8
Here’s the actual law contained in the Patriot Act.. It’s a treaty with Europe concerning acts of terrorism on fixed platforms on the Continental shelf, bizarre as it might seem.
The only “person’ LIABLE for furthering terrorism, as it states in the Treaty, would be a government agency or government employee party to the treaty. Any property damaged would be on the Continental Shelf. Folks, this is as far as you can get from the fifty states, without getting into international waters.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin ... 08.110.pdf
PDF format. 67 pages long
PROTOCOLS OF 2005 TO THE CONVENTION CONCERNING
SAFETY OF MARITIME NAVIGATION AND
TO THE PROTOCOL CONCERNING SAFETY OF
FIXED PLATFORMS ON THE CONTINENTAL SHELF
Page 8
<<<‘‘State or government facility’’ includes any permanent or temporary
facility or conveyance that is used or occupied by representatives
of a State, members of Government, the legislature or the
judiciary or by officials or employees of a State or any other public
authority or entity or by employees or officials of an intergovernmental
organization in connection with their official duties. (Terrorist
Bombings Convention, Article 1(1)).
• ‘‘infrastructure facility’’ means any publicly or privately owned
facility providing or distributing services for the benefit of the public,
such as water, sewage, energy, fuel, or communications. (Terrorist………
*Note state doesn’t mean any of the fifty states, it means any country party to the convention, which owns property on the continental shelf
page 11
Counterterrorism offenses
Article 3bis(1)(a) makes it an offense for a person to unlawfully
and intentionally, with the purpose of intimidating
a population, or compelling a government or an
international organization to do or abstain from doing any act:
Here’s the provision in the Patriot Act
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 113B > § 2331
(5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
*Note territorial jurisdiction of the United states would be insular possessions.Washington D.C, and the continental shelf. Not the fifty states.
So in addition to the actual crime of terrorism, there’s a nuance a thought crime, if you will, it’s referred to as an accessory offence,
Accessory offenses
A comprehensive framework creating criminal liability
for accessory offenses is provided in Article 3quater, which
is added to the Convention by Article 4(7) of the 2005 SUA
Protocol. Subparagraph (a) of Article 3quater makes it an
offense to kill or injure any person in connection with any
offense under Articles 3(1), 3bis, or 3ter of the Convention.
Subparagraph (b) of Article 3quater makes it an offense to
attempt to commit an offense under Articles 3(1),
3bis(1)(a)(i)–(iii), or 3quater(a) of the Convention. Subparagraphs
(c) and (d) of Article 3quater make it an offense to
participate as an accomplice or organize or direct others in
connection with any offense under Articles 3, 3bis, 3ter, or
3quater(a) or (b). Finally, subparagraph (e) of Article
3quater makes it an offense to contribute to the commission
of one or more offenses under Articles 3, 3bis, 3ter, or
3quater(a) or (b) by a group of persons acting with a common
purpose. These accessory offenses are substantially
the same as those provided for by the Terrorist Bombings
Convention and the Terrorist Financing Convention. They
will strengthen the ability of the international community
to investigate, prosecute, and extradite those who conspire
or otherwise contribute to the commission of offenses
under the Convention.
Criminalization and jurisdiction under domestic law
Article 5(1) of the 2005 SUA Protocol modifies Article 5
of the Convention to add the offenses enumerated in Articles
3, 3bis, 3ter, and 3quater to the list of criminal offenses
that States Parties must make punishable by appropriate
penalties that take into account their grave nature.
Article 5(2) of the 2005 SUA Protocol adds to the Convention
a new provision, Article 5bis, to ensure liability for
legal entities as well as persons. Article 5bis requires
States Parties, in accordance with their domestic legal
principles, to take the necessary measures to enable a
legal entity located in their territory or organized under
their laws to be held liable when a person responsible for
the management or control of that legal entity has, in that
capacity, committed an offense under the Convention.
Such liability may be criminal, civil, or administrative and
is without prejudice to the criminal liability of individuals
having committed the offenses. Further, States Parties
must ensure that legal entities held liable for offenses
So who is liable for a thought crime, or an accessory crime, in furtherance of terrorism, why a federal agency or government employee, referred to as a legal entity.
It is noteworthy that the State of Minnesota Statute mirroring this Treaty, is located in the Public Safety division, under the Civil code. The civil code only deals with state employees. The assistant secretary for Public Safety who oversees this division doesn’t appear to have delegated authority, might require more research.
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