Reply #2: ret. FBI agent Coleen Rowley has Letter to the Editor in the Pioneer Press [View All]

[annm4peace]

"A modern-day Rosa Parks

As the Pioneer Press reported, eight peace activists were on trial for trespass committed at the Xcel Energy Center on Aug. 31, 2008, the day before the Republican National Convention started ("Nun among 8 on trial for war protest," Sept. 16).

The city's attorney insisted the case was not about constitutional and international law. Rather, the prosecutor said, the case was about the ability of police to control a crowd.

The judge cut off testimony, claiming he didn't want to confuse the jury by allowing evidence of the defendants' claim of right to be on the property in reliance on the Minnesota and U.S. Constitutions, the Geneva Conventions and other international law.

Neither the prosecutor nor the judge understood that the Minnesota statute regarding trespass is subordinate to the Minnesota and U.S. Constitutions and treaties, which have been signed and thus become the "supreme law of the land."

Those attending this trial found it hard to respect those who claim to be men of law but who would prosecute a modern-day Rosa Parks for sitting in the wrong seat while disregarding the larger illegal discrimination that restricted the seating.

Coleen Rowley, Apple Valley"