Community | January 08, 2010 | 5 comments

Army Imprisons Soldier for Singing Against Stop-Loss Policy.

source: http://www.truthout.org/article/army-imprisons-soldier-singing-against-stop-loss-policy

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Army Specialist and Iraq war veteran Marc Hall was incarcerated by the US Army on December 11, 2009, in Liberty County Jail, Georgia, for recording a song that expresses his anger over the Army's stop-loss policy.

Stop-loss is a policy that allows the Army to keep soldiers active beyond the end of their signed contracts. According to the Pentagon, more than 120,000 soldiers have been affected by stop-loss since 2001, and currently 13,000 soldiers are serving under stop-loss orders.

Hall, (aka hip hop artist Marc Watercus), who is in the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, was placed in Liberty County Jail for the song (click here to listen to "Stop-Loss," by Marc Watercus), in which he angrily denounces the continuing policy that has barred him from exiting the military.

Military service members do not completely give up their rights to free speech, particularly not when they are doing so artistically while off duty, as was the case with Hall. He is charged under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which covers "all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline" and "all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces." The military is claiming that he "communicated a threat" with his song. Hall mailed a copy of the song to the Pentagon after the Army unilaterally extended his contract for a second Iraq deployment.

Hall planned to leave the military at the end of his contract on February 27, before his commander, Captain Cross at Fort Stewart, moved to have him incarcerated for the song. The military currently intends to keep Hall in pre-trial confinement until he is court-martialed, which is expected to be several months from now.

Jim Klimanski, a civilian military lawyer, member of the National Lawyers Guild and the Military Law Task Force, who is closely following Hall's case, told Truthout that he feels the military is overreacting to the case, and that it is simply a matter of free speech and that the Army's actions violate his First Amendment right to free speech.
  1. groups:
    Community,   Orwellian Nightmare
  2. tags:
    Freedom of Speech,  stop-loss
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5 comments // Army Imprisons Soldier for Singing Against Stop-Loss Policy.

  • timetide
    • 0
      timetide  

    • *sigh* when you are in the military you are not allowed to make any public political statements. You are not allowed to be interviewed with out the base commander’s permission and essentially have no freedom of speech. When you join the military they own you heart, body and mind. You say, do, and act however they see fit. If you make any such statements they will backhand and prosecute you. This is one of the things you give up when you join the military. He knew exactly what he was doing by producing that song before his enlistment was up. His choice, his actions and now he should man up and take responsibility. If he wanted to keep his freedom of speech he should have chosen another profession.

    • 2 years ago
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  • spacemikey
    • 0
      spacemikey [removed]  
    • timetide:

      While I see where you're coming from, It's still about like a no litigation clause in a Haliburton contract. Not exactly fair, I could see being brought up taught you live in a free country, that you have a say, then some recruiter comes a long and brainwashes with a fake bill of goods and you sign up to slavery.

      The military isn't defending anything but corporate interests, he has a right to complain, openly, publicly how ever. Think we live in a democracy, this democracy has a military but the military isn't an extension of that democracy?

      I see the need for unquestioned leadership on the battlefield, but these G.I.'s are getting screwed over all the way around, and the military doesn't "own" them...

    • 2 years ago
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