Paying the Piper - I'm

Paying the Piper - I'm so deliriously happy with Tim Pawlenty today.

His current proposal would allow local courts to charge court costs to those arrested in "civil disobedience" protests. The Strib described it like this:

Following through on a provocative proposal that is garnering him some national media attention, Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Friday issued a letter to Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz, asking that judges seek restitution from protesters who are arrested.

"I suggest judges consider imposing restitution of court costs upon individuals who are arrested for unlawful protests or acts of civil disobedience," Pawlenty said in the letter.

On Thursday, officials with the Pawlenty administration said the governor had grown "frustrated" by war protesters who were getting themselves arrested and, in his opinion, squandering limited law-enforcement resources.

"While people have the right to free speech, they do not have the right to a free arrest," Pawlenty said in Friday's letter. "Protesters have openly admitted they are using the arrest process as a public relations initiative. In those instances, some restitution to the courts for processing costs seems fair and appropriate."

Back in the eighties, there was a commune in Luck, Wisconsin comprised of a bunch of, essentially, professional protesters. They freely admitted they exploited both arrest system, and the fact that the arrests they recieved were fully symbolic - token fines, no real jail time, essentially token charges given by a system run by people fundamentally sympathetic to their cause.

I think these people basically pervert the real American tradition of civil disobedience; Martin Luther King faced real consequences in his civil disobedience, which is what made it meaningful.

These people, on the other hand...

Boogeyman alert!

By Friday the proposal had become the buzz of local talk radio, with many listeners calling in to praise Pawlenty's proposal.

And with states across the nation trying to deal with anti-war rallies that attract tens of thousands, Pawlenty's proposal also quickly drew the attention of conservative media outlets.

By late Friday afternoon, he had penciled into his schedule an evening spot as a live call-in guest on the Hugh Hewitt Show, a nationally syndicated radio talk show.

Media shorthand for "the barbarians are at the gates".

Leave it to the far left, in the form of Ramsey County's Attorney, to stand up for such frivolity:

Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner on Friday said she believes the practice actually is uncommon. "Most of the offenders going through the criminal justice system are poor," she said. "So as a practical matter, you don't get costs from them."

Antiwar protestors? Poor?

Gaertner knows as well as I do - most Anti-Bush protestors are about as poor as Sarah Jane Olson.

Gaertner said she also was concerned about applying recovery of arrest costs to a particular type of offense.

"The question we have to ask is why are we targeting this group of offenders? Is it about keeping up with public safety costs or stifling political expression?

So charge every protester who is arrested for illegal disorderly conduct for restitution, regardless of what side of whatever issue they're on. How hard is that?

If people genuinely value civil disobedience, they should support this.

Of course, that would take much of the motivation away for much of the left...

Posted by Mitch at March 28, 2003 09:49 PM