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Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Graffiti Watch: Habeas Corpus, RIP, 1250-2006
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Sometimes, bits of area graffiti have a “stickiness factor,” and their images or messages haunt me. I remember, for example, when I first saw the strange face that is the trademark of Obey Giant, which touts itself as an experiment in propaganda. Or one on a trash can near Wild Oats market, which inspired me finally to plant a vegetable garden: “Grow Food, Not Lawns.” Recently, however, I have noticed a new rash of graffiti off I-71: “Habeas Corpus, RIP, 1250-2006.”
In the event that you have seen that one, too, but don’t know to what it refers, I thought I’d put together a small media round-up as part of my “Graffiti Watch.”
Wikipedia, as usual, has a nice entry for Habeas Corpus ("the name of a legal instrument or writ by means of which detainees can seek release from unlawful imprisonment"), and a specific subsection relevant to the graffiti in question: ”Suspension in the United States during the War on Terrorism.” Here is an excerpt:
On 29 September 2006, the U.S. Senate approved a bill which would suspend habeas corpus for any alien determined to be an “unlawful enemy combatant engaged in hostilities or having supported hostilities against the United States”[2], by a vote of 65-34. (This was the result on the bill to approve the military trials for detainees; an amendment to remove the suspension of habeas corpus failed 48-51.)
According to the ACLU, this bill “removes important checks on the president by: failing to protect due process, eliminating habeas corpus for many detainees, undermining enforcement of the Geneva Conventions, and giving a “get out of jail free card” to senior officials who authorized or ordered illegal torture and abuse.” According to Christopher Anders, an ACLU Legislative Counsel, “nothing could be less American than a government that can indefinitely hold people in secret torture cells, take away their protections against horrific and cruel abuse, put them on trial based on evidence that they cannot see, sentence them to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and then slam shut the courthouse door for any habeas petition, but that’s exactly what Congress just approved.” [3]
Here is an excerpt from the article linked above in footnote [3]:
Additionally, the bill undermines the American value of due process by permitting convictions based on evidence literally beaten out of a witness or obtained through other abuse by either our government or other countries. Government officials who authorized or ordered illegal acts of torture and abuse would receive retroactive immunity for many of these acts, providing a “get out of jail free” card that is backdated nine years.
In the closest vote today, the Senate rejected by a 51-48 vote an amendment by Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to preserve minimal protections of the courts in their historical and constitutional role as a check on the executive branch, through habeas corpus.
“Nothing could be less American than a government that can indefinitely hold people in secret torture cells, take away their protections against horrific and cruel abuse, put them on trial based on evidence that they cannot see, sentence them to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and then slam shut the courthouse door for any habeas petition,” said Christopher Anders, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. “But that’s exactly what Congress just approved.”
I just think it interesting when people use spray paint to make a point.
UPDATE: Okay, it looks like I remembered the date incorrectly—and that it should have been 1215 and not 1250, but two local blogs have decided to pick up on this TWO FULL WEEKS AFTER we broke the story!
Neither blog credits The Beacon:
http://www.andrewwarner.org/2006/10/guerilla-artwork.html
http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/gov/2006/10/cryptic-graffiti.asp
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10 Oct 2006 at 11:44 pm | #
Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.
Heaven help us, we are forfeiting “God given rights” and those things we hold to be true and “sacred.”
11 Oct 2006 at 09:01 am | #
In 1946 the U.S. Supreme Court refused the Japanese General Yamashita’s request for a fair trial and basically said that as long as the i’s were dotted and the t’s were crossed, the U.S. could do what it liked to him. I should also note that he was neither a U.S. citizen nor on U.S. soil. In his dissent, Justice Murphy said:
If I had my choice, that quote on a plaque in every courtroom in America.
14 May 2007 at 09:13 am | #
those where fun to paint
10 Oct 2007 at 10:13 am | #
I did see this on the way to a soccer game about a month ago, and it delighted my wonkish heart.
Graffiti can be quite telling. I used to represent clients in a state mental hospital back when George Allen was a mere governor. Two patients escaped from Central State in Richmond. Central State housed more of a criminal population than Western State, where my clients were. The escape caused widespread panic. Allen retooled the entire commitment system to focus on “public safety.”
The biggest impact was felt by inmates, I mean patients, themselves, particularly those who were not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI): suddenly they were under lockdown. (He got rid of parole in prisons, too, which had a similar effect.)
Well, NGRI patients were in all the hospitals, not just Central State. Mental hospitals are heavily addicted to behavior modification—that is, patients earn privileges via their own good behavior. So, like good Catholics after Vatican 2, overnight none of that behavior meant anything. Regardless of their progress or current privileges (some had weekend passes, jobs in town, etc.), no NGRI patient could even walk the grounds on their own.
Soon after this I was walking down a stairwell and saw, scrawled on the cinder block wall in tiny letters: “I hate Gov. Allen!”