{"id":240534,"date":"2023-07-31T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=240534"},"modified":"2023-07-30T06:25:59","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T05:25:59","slug":"free-speech-denied-25-years-ago-free-speech-trialfree-speech-denied-25-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/07\/free-speech-denied-25-years-ago-free-speech-trialfree-speech-denied-25-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Speech Denied 25 Years Ago: Free Speech Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Big Island, Hawaii’s History: <\/em>Hawaii Tribune-Herald, 1998<\/em><\/h3>\n

(Big Island History was compiled by Brandon Haleamau for the <\/em>Tribune-Herald using newspaper archives. Whenever possible, the news accounts were taken verbatim from the newspaper.<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jim Albertini had a BIG check ready to pay his court fine on Monday. Big, as in size, that is.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

But a District Court judge wasn\u2019t amused with Albertini\u2019s offer of legal tender and threatened to find Albertini in contempt if the anti-nuclear activist persisted in using the \u201crather oversized check.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to write a<\/span> regular check,\u201d Albertini conceded after court.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Albertini was one of eight anti-nuclear activists who were convicted of simple trespass, a violation with no jail time, for passing out leaflets and demonstrating at the Prince Kuhio Plaza in 1995.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

District Judge Jeffrey Choi in March 1997 sentenced Albertini, James Kimo Pihana, Ole Fulks, Viviane Lerner, Lucien Noe, Dorothy Silva, Eugene Fulks, and Mara Stevens.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

They were fined either $50 or $100, depending on whether they had a previous trespass conviction.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Some of the fines were converted into community service. But Choi did not immediately implement the sentences pending the outcome of an appeal.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The state Intermediate Court of Appeals on<\/span> April 30 upheld the trespass convictions.<\/span> Last month, the state Supreme Court declined to step in. On Monday, most of the protesters appeared before Choi so their sentences could be carried out.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Albertini presented Choi with an estimated 5-foot-by-8-foot check made out to the District Court for the amount of $100. At the top of the check was written, \u201cfree speech denied\u201d and in the memo section of the check was written, \u201cno lie can live forever.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Albertini said he disagreed with the final decision in a case.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

*************************<\/p>\n

28 Jul 2023<\/em> – <\/span>Jim Albertini\u2019s Follow-up Commentary<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was about leafleting outside \u201cLIBERTY HOUSE\u201d and other entrances at Prince Kuhio Plaza in Hilo against French Nuclear testing in the Pacific urging a boycott of French products listed on the leaflet. People entering were very receptive.\u00a0 Few supported French nuclear testing in the Pacific at Tahiti. \u00a0 I chose \u201cLiberty House\u201d as a symbol of Free Speech.\u00a0 Hawaii didn\u2019t have a test case if shopping centers were the modern-day \u201cVillage Square\u201d of free speech.\u00a0 We chose to stand outside the mall entrances (between the parking lot and the mall), not inside the mall itself, to hand out leaflets.\u00a0 In Hawaii, you now have to stand outside the Mall \u201cmoat of capitalism\u201d (the parking lot) on the sidewalks along the streets, where it is dangerous to try to pass out a leaflet to entering vehicles.\u00a0 Much safer to let people park and offer leaflets to people as they enter the mall.\u00a0 Some states even allow leaflet distribution inside mall corridors.<\/p>\n

I checked with my bank ahead of time and they confirmed the check was legal.\u00a0 I don\u2019t recall having to write a regular check.\u00a0 I wanted to refuse to pay the $100 fine in principle, but I didn\u2019t have my farm covered, so I had to come up with a creative idea (Publishers Clearinghouse style) to pay the fine.<\/p>\n

Judge Choi was a right-winger.\u00a0 He drove a pickup truck with a US Naval Academy bumper sticker on it.\u00a0 At least 5 of the 8 free-speech fellow protesters are now dead.\u00a0 May they rest in peace.<\/p>\n

Chris Yuen was our volunteer attorney.\u00a0 He did a great job trying to defend our First Amendment rights of free speech. After the case, I asked him what we could have done better.\u00a0 He said, Not much\u00a0 \u2014 perhaps if the leaflet we were handing out was about pay raises for judges!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

___________________________<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jim Albertini is a member of the <\/span><\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>, a former Catholic School teacher, and long-time social justice activist since the US war on Vietnam. He has done research on the use of depleted uranium at Pohakuloa Military Training Area and is the author of <\/span><\/em>\u201cThe Dark Side of Paradise: Hawai\u2019i in a Nuclear World.\u201d<\/span> Jim is the founder and director of\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action<\/span><\/a><\/span>, <\/span>a spiritual community based on peace, justice and sustainable organic farming on Big Island, Hawai\u2019i – P.O. Box 489 Ola\u2019a (Kurtistown), Hawai’i 96760. Phone (+ 808) 966-7622 Email: <\/span><\/em>ja@malu-aina.org<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span> – website: <\/span><\/em>malu-aina.org<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Go to Original<\/span> \u2013 malu-aina.org<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big Island, Hawaii’s History: Hawaii Tribune-Herald, 1998 – Albertini presented Choi with an estimated 5-foot-by-8-foot check made out to the District Court for the amount of $100. At the top of the check was written, \u201cfree speech denied\u201d and \u201cno lie can live forever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":78196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[229,1817,2009,1149,1309,260,651,1476,450,70],"class_list":["post-240534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-activism","tag-anti-militarism","tag-anti-war","tag-asia-and-the-pacific","tag-hawaii","tag-history","tag-justice","tag-nuclear-abolition","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240534"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240542,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240534\/revisions\/240542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}