US Sentences 78-Year-Old Woman to Prison for Defending Human Rights
By 78-year old Nancy Smith is one of two individuals arrested last year after crossing onto the Ft. Benning military base in Georgia as part of a protest against the School of the Americas, a military training academy notorious for the human rights abuses of its graduates:
Nancy Smith and Chris Spicer were among the thousands who gathered on November 19-21, 2010 outside the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia to demand a change in U.S.-Latin America foreign policy and the closure of the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC). Four people peacefully crossed onto Ft. Benning, site of the school, while thousands stood vigil at the gates of Fort Benning in memory of those killed by graduates of the institution. Two of the four, Father Louis Vitale and David Omondi from California plead no contest and were sentenced in November to six months in federal prison. Nancy Smith and Chris Spicer plead not guilty and are scheduled to go to trial on January 5, 2011.
The two have since been sentenced. Smith, a retired psychology professor at Columbia-Greene Community College, with a long history of international work with humanitarian organizations, told supporters she was “not particularly worried” about going to prison:
“It would be a far different experience for me if I were not white, middle class, educated and old…. I face less risk in prison simply by virtue of my race and economic class.”
Not so surprisingly, there’s been almost no coverage in the US media of Smith’s incarceration.
School of the Americas Watch is publicizing the video below, in which Smith explains her views:
Whether or not you believe the US government should be accountable for the actions of soldiers they train upon return to their home countries, whether or not you buy the notion that SOA has cleaned up its act since it changed its acronym to WHINSEC, and whether or not you think the the right to peaceful assembly extends to entering federal property, the sentence itself is pretty outrageous. Even if one accepts the US government’s assumption that it should prosecute civilians who trespass on military facilities, surely something short of incarceration in a federal prison would have been more appropriate for a woman of Nancy Smith’s age, particularly given the nature of the offense.
Acts of civil disobedience such as this are most worthwhile when they serve to draw wider public attention to an issue. Please consider forwarding this post to others you know concerned about the School of the Americas or about the US’ detention of human rights defenders. Readers interested in sending cards of support to Nancy Smith may find information here. You may also contact Amnesty International ‘s International Secretariat about drawing attention to Smith as a “prisoner of conscience.”