SAFE Seeks Its Pound of Flesh

Saving Antiquities for Everyone has posted its plea for harsh justice to be meted out in the Four Corners case. See http://safecorner.savingantiquities.org/2011/04/will-sentencing-continue-to-disregard.html

It's not unexpected that the SAFE fanatics want their pound of flesh, but I find it interesting that SAFE President Cindy Ho first thought it necessary to ask the federal judge who is sentencing the defendants for his permission to publish their letter, but when that permission was not received, she published her letter anyway.

More importantly, its also worth noting that Ho's correspondence concludes,

We believe that the intentional violation of federal laws cannot be justified for certain communities or individuals. Even those who disagree with a particular aspect of the law must uphold it. If they do not, they should be held accountable for their actions.

That begs the question whether SAFE also feels that lawless behavior by the State Department Cultural Heritage Center as catalogued by Urice and Adler and at the recent CPRI Capitol Hill seminar should also subject State Department employees to discipline. Or, do the ends justify the means as far as SAFE is concerned?

Addendum: Derek Fincham has a thoughtful post on this issue contrasting the views on this sentencing. He notes that the Defendants in question include a mother and daughter whose husband and father committed suicide in the wake of the allegations. See
http://illicit-cultural-property.blogspot.com/2011/05/looting-and-criminal-sentencing-in-four.html It would seem they have suffered enough.