{"id":16105,"date":"2023-05-28T19:08:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-29T02:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/?p=16105"},"modified":"2023-05-28T23:09:51","modified_gmt":"2023-05-29T06:09:51","slug":"eco-vandals-indicted-for-attack-on-national-gallery-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/eco-vandals-indicted-for-attack-on-national-gallery-of-art.html","title":{"rendered":"Eco-vandals indicted for attack on National Gallery of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

On May 24, 2023, the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued a Grand Jury indictment<\/a> against two members of the American eco-extremist group \u201cDeclare Emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Timothy Martin and Joanna Smith, both 53, were charged with \u201cwillfully\u201d committing \u201can offense against the United States,\u201d by injuring an object of art and an exhibit \u201cwithin the National Gallery of Art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Museum police take “Declare Emergency” vandals into custody for April 27, 2023 vandalism.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u201cobject of art\u201d referred to is Edgar Degas\u2019 sculpture, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen<\/em>. I detailed the scandalous attack by Declare Emergency in my April 28, 2023 essay Eco-Vandals Attack Degas Statue<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

On May 26, 2023, the US Department of Justice followed up with a Press Release<\/a> that provided more details on the indictment. The statement confirmed that Martin and Smith were charged with \u201cconspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit,\u201d and that the two had surrendered themselves to the authorities.<\/p>\n

I should remind readers that an indictment is a listing of charges that does not imply guilt. The defendants are now in custody and will be tried in a court of law.<\/p>\n

To my knowledge this is the first such indictment of its kind that has been issued against the eco-fanatics that have been waging a war on art in the US, Europe, and Australia. If found guilty, Martin and Smith could face a \u201cmaximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll just say this, I won\u2019t be opening a Go Fund Me account to raise money for the defense of the eco-vandals.<\/p>\n

I found the core description of charges as elucidated by the Justice Department, to be succinct and quite interesting. In part it reads:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe indictment further alleges that Martin and Smith agreed, along with other currently uncharged co-conspirators, to enter the National Gallery of Art for the purpose of injuring the exhibit. Martin and Smith entered the National Gallery of Art armed with plastic water bottles filled with paint.<\/p>\n

Martin and Smith handed their phones to other conspirators and waited until patrons cleared the area in front of the Little Dancer. Martin and Smith proceeded to smear paint on the case and base of the exhibit, at times smacking the case with force.<\/p>\n

Prior to the attack, members of the conspiracy had alerted the Washington Post, and two reporters from the Post recorded and photographed the offense. Additionally, other members of the conspiracy filmed and photographed the offense. Smith and Martin caused approximately $2,400 in damage and the exhibit was removed from public display for ten days so that it could be repaired.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The first thing I noticed was the Justice Department referring to \u201cother currently uncharged co-conspirators,\u201d which sounds as though further arrests might occur in the near future. But my primary focus was on the passage: \u201cPrior to the attack, members of the conspiracy had alerted the Washington Post, and two reporters from the Post recorded and photographed the offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, well, well. That is not<\/em> how the Washington Post reported on the matter. In their May 26, 2023 article Climate protesters indicted for smearing paint around case of Degas statue<\/em><\/a>, the liberal daily stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe indictment also accuses Martin and Smith of working with unknown co-conspirators to carry out a plan, which included researching \u2018potential targets\u2019 in the National Gallery of Art, telling \u2018at least one member of the media\u2019 about their plans, and documenting Smith and Martin smearing paint.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The proper use of quotation marks designate a direct quote\u2014written or spoken<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While the sentence \u201cat least one member of the media\u201d appeared on page 2 of the original District of Columbia indictment, it appears the Washington Post chose to ignore the US Justice Department\u2019s clarifying statement that \u201cPrior to the attack, members of the conspiracy had alerted the Washington Post, and two reporters from the Post recorded and photographed the offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wonder. If the vandals \u201calerted\u201d the Washington Post of the impending action, and the daily sent two reporters to cover the vandalism rather than report the imminent hooliganism to authorities… does that make the Washington Post a \u201cmember of the conspiracy\u201d? Democracy Dies in Darkness indeed.<\/p>\n

Even more absurd was the coverage of the indictment by the ABC News website. Under the headline Feds charge climate protesters for allegedly defacing Edgar Degas exhibit at National Gallery of Art<\/em><\/a>, readers find a photo of Martin and Smith sitting beneath the red and black paint smeared case housing Degas\u2019 Little Dancer<\/em> statue, their hands dripping red and black paint.<\/p>\n

The word \u201callegedly\u201d seems a stretch when viewing the \u201ccat ate the canary\u201d type of photo. Video also exists of the vandalism as it\u2019s committed by Martin and Smith.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the charge against Martin and Smith is not vandalism, but whether or not they committed an offense against the United States by ransacking an exhibit held in the nation\u2019s premiere art museum.<\/p>\n

And folks wonder why so few people trust the mass media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On May 24, 2023, the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued a Grand Jury indictment against two members of the American eco-extremist group \u201cDeclare Emergency.\u201d Timothy Martin and Joanna Smith, both 53, were charged with \u201cwillfully\u201d committing \u201can offense against the United States,\u201d by injuring an object of art and an exhibit \u201cwithin the National Gallery of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-war-on-art"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}