From the video the battery and property damage charges are defensible. The DA will likely review the findings of the investigation and can add a trespass charge if warranted. Just because there isn’t a charge *now* doesn’t mean one won’t be added later, or for that matter that trespass didn’t occur. Charges are brought based on the ability of the prosecutor to prove them, not whether he believed it happened or not.

No, I was just responding to the question you posed:

Shouldn’t the penalty be at least the same for running on the field of a Cub’s game? That gets a felony trespass charge, same as here.

It’s not the same thing. The act itself of running on to the field and Wrigley Field and walking into Holy Name Cathedral are not the same, in the eyes of the law. It’s against the law for people who do not have permission to be on the field (players, coaches, press, grounds crew, etc…) to enter the field of play at Wrigley.

Anyone can walk into Holy Name Cathedral when it is open. Those protesters were not unauthorized to walk into the service.

The charges that were filed on Sunday were because of the fake blood that was splattered. If, on Monday, someone jumps onto the field and sprays fake blood on Prince Fielder to protest the war, not only will be probably get his ass kicked, but he’ll be charged with trespassing and assault.

The protesters were charged with two counts of felony criminal damage to property and two counts of simple battery… not entering Holy Name. There is no felony trespass charge for entering Holy Name Cathedral.

Given the blood throwing, they absolutely warrant the charges they are facing, and probably more.

I never said they don’t warrant the charges they are facing.

Of course they would be portrayed as a helpless, heroic victim by what’s laughingly referred to by our hopelessly biased and completely unethical “news” “media” (i.e. propaganda arm of the Democrat Party), but real Americans, the people who have had it up to here and beyond with these people, would have understood.

The same people who are going to hand a humiliating defeat to B. Hussein O. in Pennsylvania.

No surprise.

Anyone is allowed into Holy Name Cathedral.”

Legally speaking, I would argue that it is precisely the same. Public event, some restricted area for the event or ceremonies everyone is coming to see, a possible assault risk to the attendees and the officiators, and public interest in preventing precisely this type of demonstration disruptive to others. The tickets are not an element of the crime in a Baseball circumstance, because crimes are not contractual; it is the trespass to unauthorized areas that make the crime, and not the license of the ticket. (Or so I would argue.)

“…in the wake of two incidents at Comiskey where fans ran out on the field and assaulted people.”

You mean like the present case of being splashed with fake blood by a trespassing protester? Or are only fists a Battery? Law school question….

It seems that you want to minimize this, but the fact is that people go down for these same or similar actions all the time, and are charged with felonies. Given the blood throwing, they absolutely warrant the charges they are facing, and probably more.

So what laws are on our books protecting everyone during time at church?

What law protects you from anything?

A lot of leftists are going to get killed if they keep this up.

bonnie_ on March 25, 2008 at 10:22 AM

Yikes. Probably true, but still…

Oh, dumbest name ever: Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War. Filthy hippies.

Eventually, enough leftists are going to resort to violence that they won’t get the kind escort out of the building that these folks got. A lot of leftists are going to get killed if they keep this up.

I imagine the same as any other private institution that has an open-door policy, like say a Starbucks.

So what laws are on our books protecting everyone during time at church? Does posting “all are welcome” or “visitors welcome” deplete a church of its right and obligation to protect the sheep of its fold when the wolf or lion come to feed on easy victims?

But, I think these idiots are just that, and won’t easily learn any lessons here.

Well, legally speaking, I don’t think it’s the same. I think penalties have been strengthened for running out on to baseball diamonds in the wake of two incidents at Comiskey where fans ran out on the field and assaulted people.

Anyone is allowed into Holy Name Cathedral.

Shouldn’t the penalty be at least the same for running on the field of a Cub’s game? That gets a felony trespass charge, same as here. Should they be let off the hook because they are “protesting” something? If I ran onto the field at Wrigley in order to protest the continued TV blackout of Blackhawks games, I would still be charged the same. Frankly, because of the blood, they should also be charged with Battery as well. Maybe even Agg. Battery. I have a guy doing 6 months for that right now, and that was a gift from the Judge.

If they haven’t been bailed out, I can GUARANTEE that they are not having fun in custody of the Illinois Dept. of Corrections.

If It’s Intentional, Is It Malpractice?

Patterico does an excellent job of deconstructing a front-page Los Angeles Times hit piece on John McCain. The Times article includes this howler:

But McCain openly disputed Bush administration claims that Hussein appeared linked to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “I doubt seriously if there’s this close relationship between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein,” he told CBS News in September 2002.

We know that op-ed columns sometimes appear in print without ever being read by an editor, but I assume that front-page news stories are reviewed by at least one person other than the reporter who writes them. It is hard to believe that there are both a reporter and an editor at the L.A. Times who don’t know that this statement about “Bush administration claims” is false.

Over the last five years, we have witnessed something remarkable: our principal news media outlets have fabricated an alternative reality around the Iraq war by simply misreporting the facts. They have done this in order to advance their own political agenda. It is really quite extraordinary; someone should write a book about it. (powerline)

What a shocker for all of the once-a-year faithful who assume that what they had as kids will always be waiting for them when convenient to pick up as adults.

Disgusting to hear of it. Those were cowards. If they had something to say, they should have protested outside of the White House and taken their licks with pride. As it is, they just wet the appetite of the worst agitators for more.

Parishoners had better band together to organize themselves present during the judicial procedings and stand witness during all of the court procedures. Even if they present themselves in silence, they’d better not sweep the “peaceful” (no permanent bodily injury) ruin of their worship under the rug under the “forgiveness” wrap. There is reason for ceremony, and ruining the ceremony is not acceptable unless the unacceptable is acceptable. Daly or no Daly, the parishoners had better protect themselves at church.

I’m heartened that they have been charged with a felony in connection to this protest, although I doubt that Chicago will actually follow through on prosecuting it.

I would be more surprised if they didn’t prosecute them. Chicago has a large Catholic community and Daley is Irish Catholic himself, they don’t normally take very kindly to this sort of thing.

Teddy on March 25, 2008 at 5:16 AM

ahh the ‘magic’ of the CPD. :)

Maybe that the only way to get these idiots in church.

Idiots, plain and simple.  Why defile a church and disrupt an Easter Service to protest a war that the Catholic Church already opposes?

Someone please, explain this to me?

A…