Vietnam veterans arrested for taking too long to read war dead names?

Forgive our trespasses: Judge tosses convictions for vets arrested in Vietnam Memorial name-reading ceremony
New York Post
By DANA SAUCHELLI
July 13, 2013

They're guilty — but exonerated.

A Manhattan judge today convicted 11 Vietnam veterans and one Bronze Star-holding World War II veteran of trespassing for refusing to stop reading the names of the dead "in a timely manner" at a downtown war memorial last Fall.

But Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Robert Mandelbaum then immediately dismissed the convictions in the interest of justice.

"In these unique circumstances, this is the rare case where justice is served by dismissing the case," the judge told the silver-haired seniors.

A total of 25 people had been flex-cuffed, frisked and tossed in a paddy wagon last October for refusing to observe a 10 p.m. park curfew and leave the Vietnam Memorial between South and Water streets.

The eleven vets who took the case to trial argued that it should not be a crime — no matter what time of day it was — to solemnly read the names of the 1,754 military personnel from New York State who were killed in action during Vietnam, as well as the thousands more names of KIA from Afghanistan and Iraq.
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