Activism and Incarceration at the Hands of the State.... What if?

[Kelvin]

I personally wonder if prison it is in some of our futures at some point (especially the hardcore activists), even though most of them are not "real" criminals.  By not being "real", I believe it is impossible to live anything resembling a "normal" life in this country without breaking many minor laws / regulations every day.  

With the way things are changing in the USA, actions clearly protected by the Bill of Rights could soon be judged very serious offenses.  It is not inconceivable that those who take action in defense of their freedom could be imprisoned as terrorists or Sedition.

Check out this definition, it wouldn't be difficult to apply this to a lot of activities I hear about on FTL.

From Wikipedia:

Sedition:
"In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent (or resistance) to lawful authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws. Seditious words in writing are seditious libel. A seditionist is one who engages in or promotes the interests of sedition...."

Insurrection:
"Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order.[1] It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state. On the one hand the forms of behaviors can include non-violent methods such as the (overlapping but not quite identical) phenomena of civil disobedience, civil resistance and nonviolent resistance."

What say you all?  Think in the next few years activists will start being charged with sedition / insurrection?

-Kelvin
 

[SonicThePorcupine]

I suppose being put in jail is slightly better than being shot by the red coats. At least it isn't death.

[Diogenes The Cynic]

I suppose being put in jail is slightly better than being shot by the red coats. At least it isn't death.

Ten times more soldiers died at the docks in prison ships than in the Revolutionary War battles.

Gavrilo Princip died in jail during WW1 from the horrible conditions of the jail.

[SeanD]

Actually New Hampshire (New Hamster as my niece calls it) is probably one of the best places for anti government speech in the country since the right to revolution is written into the State Constitution.  Granted it won't protect anyone from the Federal Jackbooted thugs.

[SonicThePorcupine]

I suppose being put in jail is slightly better than being shot by the red coats. At least it isn't death.

Ten times more soldiers died at the docks in prison ships than in the Revolutionary War battles.

Gavrilo Princip died in jail during WW1 from the horrible conditions of the jail.

I would say that that would be more of delayed execution rather than jail.

[Diogenes The Cynic]

I suppose being put in jail is slightly better than being shot by the red coats. At least it isn't death.

Ten times more soldiers died at the docks in prison ships than in the Revolutionary War battles.

Gavrilo Princip died in jail during WW1 from the horrible conditions of the jail.

I would say that that would be more of delayed execution rather than jail.

I keep hearing people saying stuff to the effect of "the can't jail us all" but, in fact, they can! The conditions will get progressively worse, tho. And if you don't believe a large mass of people involved in an insurgency can be jailed, remember that the Boers were sent to concentration camps by the British during the Boer war. They sent in almost everybody.

[SonicThePorcupine]

I keep hearing people saying stuff to the effect of "the can't jail us all" but, in fact, they can! The conditions will get progressively worse, tho. And if you don't believe a large mass of people involved in an insurgency can be jailed, remember that the Boers were sent to concentration camps by the British during the Boer war. They sent in almost everybody.

Nowhere did I say "the can't jail us all" so I don't know why you're responding to me with that.
What I said was that locking you up in a way where you're almost certain to die is like a slow execution instead of jail.

[blackie]

At some point I think free staters will be charged with federal crimes, like the SHAC 7.

Originally, seven individuals were charged, along with the organization Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA. The individuals were Kevin Kjonaas, Lauren Gazzola, Jacob Conroy, Joshua Harper, Andrew Stepanian, Darius Fullmer, and John McGee. McGee was eventually dropped from the case.

All of the defendants were charged with conspiracy to violate the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, a never-before-applied 1992 statute. Kjonaas, Gazzola, Conroy, and Harper were also charged with conspiracy to harass using a telecommunications device (sending black faxes). Kjonaas, Gazzola, Conroy, and SHAC USA were charged with conspiracy to commit interstate stalking and three counts of interstate stalking via the Internet.

While the charges themselves sound alarming, the defendants are not actually accused of having personally engaged in terrorist or threatening acts. Instead, the government's case centers around the idea that aboveground organizers of a campaign are responsible for any and all acts that anyone engages in while furthering the goals of the organizers. In this case, the claim is that the SHAC7 should be imprisoned because underground activists took illegal actions against companies with ties to H.L.S.

If it weren't so serious, this distortion of the law would be laughable, and yet somehow the defendants were convicted and are now facing years in federal prison based on the claim that being part of an activist campaign is tantamount to being a member of a global conspiracy.

Andrew Stepanian was put in a CMU.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/25/exclusive_animal_rights_activist_jailed_at

In a Democracy Now! exclusive interview, we speak with Andrew Stepanian, an animal rights activist who was jailed at a secretive prison known as a Communication Management Unit, or CMU. Stepanian is believed to be the first prisoner released from a CMU and will talk about his experience there for the first time. He was sentenced to three years along with six other activists for violating a controversial law known as the Animal Enterprise Protection Act. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of CMUs. We also speak with Stepanian’s lawyer and a reporter covering the story.

Ed Brown is in a CMU.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_Management_Unit

A 2011 story by NPR reported 50 units and 71 inmates at CMUs. It also described open cells, and a basketball court. A lawyer from ACLU has been inside the Terre Haute CMU.[5] NPR also claimed to have identified dozens of inmates at the CMU and compiled a list on its website. The sorts of cases include:[13]
Cases involving material support of terrorist groups like Hamas or Hezbollah (and various charity frauds)
Plots: LA Bomb plot, Buffalo Six, Portland Seven, Liberty City Seven, '04 NYC subway plot, Toledo Plot, Paintball Jihad, etc.
Crime attempts from within jail, including threatening judges
Various murder, bank robbery, and drug cases.

Ed Ross of the Bureau of Prisons said the units were designed for the following offenses:[5]
people convicted of terrorism,
prisoners who have dealt drugs
prisoners who tried to recruit or radicalize others
prisoners who have abused their communications privileges by harassing victims, judges and prosecutors