Peace Women, Convicted of Trespassing, Teach the US Government a Lesson in Diplomacy

The head of communications for the US Mission, Richard Grenell, was the most absurd of the witnesses. While a videotape we introduced as evidence showed a group of about 40 mostly middle-aged women strolling toward the Mission singing Give Peace a Chance, Mr. Grenell testified that he found the group threatening because "they were wearing pink, they were laughing and they were clearly happy." When one of our stellar lawyers, Robert Gottlieb, asked incredulously how a happy group of women dressed in pink could possibly be threatening, Grenell gravely replied, "You had to be there to understand."

In a way, he's right. You had to be there and then in the courtroom to understand how ridiculous it was for the US diplomatic office to refuse our petition, how absurd it was for the private security to lock down the building, for the NY City police to haul us off to jail, for the DA's office to pile on extra charges, and for the jury, the prosecutors, eleven witnesses, our wonderful lawyers and ourselves to have to waste tens of thousands of dollars on such a frivolous case. It should have been George Bush, not us, being prosecuted for truly criminal actions that are maiming and killing people every day.

If the government intended to use this high-profile case with well-known "peace mom" Cindy Sheehan as a way to intimidate anti-war activists, the tactic backfired. The jury acquitted us of the more serious misdemeanor charges and found us guilty of trespassing, a violation akin to a parking ticket. After paying a $95 court fee, we were free. The prosecutor wanted us sentenced to some days of community service—an irony for a group of women who have more or less devoted our lives to community service, but the judge required us only to pay a $95 court fee and set us free.

The arrest also backfired because we left the courtroom outraged that we had ever been arrested in the first place, and that we had been convicted of trespassing for being outside a government office that should be open to the public.