Catholic Worker Commentary: Patrick O'Neill: Y-12 protestors' sentences too harsh for the charges

Photo by John P. Kernodle

by Patrick O'Neill

There's a saying among lawbreakers: "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime." There's also another saying for law-keepers: "Make the punishment fit the crime."

The latter was not the case recently in Knoxville as U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton handed down several severely punitive sentences of up to eight months in federal prison with no chance of parole for defendants found guilty in U.S. District Court of misdemeanor trespass at the Oak Ridge Y-12 nuclear weapons facility on July 5, 2010.

On that sweltering summer day more than 14 months ago, I watched 13 people, among them four Catholic nuns and a Catholic priest, step onto a patch of grass — moving from state to federal property — in broad daylight and in full view of more than 100 uniformed police officers from several Tennessee and federal jurisdictions.

Acting in the nonviolent tradition of Indian pacifist leader Mohandas Gandhi, the group, which stood opposed to the production, testing and possible use of nuclear weapons, engaged in open resistance to Y-12's nuclear weapons program. After a few minutes the friendly group (several police officers kindly gave water to some of the elderly folks who were wilting in the heat) was rounded up by police in what was a gentle, largely symbolic and moving act of civil disobedience. Those of us on the other side of the fence cheered our friends as they were handcuffed and taken to jail.

The folks arrested at Y-12 that day were among a cadre of some of the nation's best-known anti-war and anti-nuclear activists who had come together at nearby Maryville College for "Resistance for a Nuclear-Free Future," a weekend conference about ways our nation and the world can move out from under the ominous cloud of nuclearism. Locally, the conference was sponsored by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance.

The 13 defendants (now 12 after the untimely death of Sister Jackie Hudson) followed a noble U.S. abolitionist tradition in which people of conscience take a stand, risk personal freedom and subject themselves to arrest in order to challenge unjust government policies. In past eras, civil disobedience has been successfully employed to oppose British tyranny (the Boston Tea Party); to stop slavery and segregation, to gain suffrage for women and in opposition to the Vietnam War.

Those of us who are nuclear abolitionists believe nuclear weapons represent the preeminent threat to human survival. Preventing nuclear war requires abolishing those weapons of mass destruction. There has never been a weapon developed that was not eventually used in war. Any use of nuclear weapons would be horrific beyond imagination. Untold millions could die. Preventing nuclear war is the life's work of many of those arrested at Y-12. These are good people who devote their lives to warning the rest of us about the moral imperative of nuclear disarmament.

While most readers likely believe some form of punishment was in order for the 12, it is also critical that said punishment be reasonable in light of the offense. The response of the federal government in Knoxville was unreasonable. Guyton imposed overly punitive sentences on most of these activists for what was a minor transgression of the law. Three of my friends — Bonnie Urfer, Michael Walli and Steve Baggarly — will miss Christmas with their families this year because of their harsh sentences.

Throughout their sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Kirby stressed to Guyton the importance of imposing stiff sentences as a deterrent. Rather than concern themselves with deterrence, Guyton and Kirby would have better served society if they had recognized the important role those defendants play in keeping a check on the U.S. military-industrial complex. Our democracy needs people like those 13 brave folks, who stood on principle and took a risk for peace. Why deter them? Their punishment surely did not fit the crime, but those good people of conscience are doing the time for the rest of us.

For information about sending letters to Y-12 protesters still imprisoned, click here:

http://orepa.org/supporting-jailed-y12-resisters/