Opinion ID: 3037382
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: “A Certain Level of Violence”

Text: The degree of violence in Vietnam at the time of Vo’s conduct does not reach the level necessary to characterize it as an “uprising.” Quinn described an uprising as synonymous with “rebellion” or “revolution” and involving “a certain level of violence.” 783 F.2d at 807. The term does not “apply to political acts that involve less fundamental efforts to accomplish change or that do not attract sufficient adherents to create the requisite amount of turmoil.” Id. Rather, an uprising “refers to a people rising up, in their own land, against the government of that land.” Id. at 813. [4] The application of this facet of the uprising prong in other cases clearly demonstrates that the degree of violence in Vietnam at the time of the offense did not reach the level of an uprising. In Quinn, we held that an uprising occurred in Northern Ireland because there had been “a number of bombing campaigns” during a very long and frequently violent period of conflict between Irish nationalists and the United Kingdom. Id. at 812-13 (noting the Provisional Irish Republican Army, of which Quinn was a member, “advocated armed insurrection”). More recently, we found that “ ‘[t]ens of thousands of deaths and casualties’ . . . as Sikh nationalists clashed with government officers and sympathizers in Punjab” constituted “[s]ubstantial violence” sufficient to rise to the level of an uprising. Barapind, 400 F.3d at 750. Similarly, a continuing clash between indigenous people and police in northern Canada that was “not just an isolated violent disturbance” but part of a long history of struggle between native people and the government of Canada was found to constitute an uprisVO v. BENOV 5523 ing. United States v. Pitawanakwat, 120 F. Supp. 2d 921, 935 (D. Or. 2000).6 Other courts analyzing the uprising prong have looked for “endemic and widespread violence.” Ahmad v. Wigen, 726 F. Supp. 389, 409 (E.D.N.Y. 1989), aff’d, 910 F.2d 1063 (2d Cir. 1990) (holding that violence against Israeli settlers in the West Bank, before the Intifada of the 1980s, was not an uprising). The analysis in these cases shows that in order to constitute an uprising, a conflict must involve either some short period of intense bloodshed or an accumulation of violent incidents over a long period of time. Barapind, 400 F.3d at 750; Quinn, 783 F.2d at 812. [5] The burden of proving the existence of a campaign against the Vietnamese government that involves sufficient violence to rise to the level of an uprising is on Vo, the party presenting an affirmative defense to extradition.7 Vo has not met this burden. In support of his claim that an uprising exists in Vietnam, Vo cites the thousands of signatures on a petition for his freedom as evidence of a “war” between the GFVN and Vietnam. He claims that “GFVN members [have been] murdered and imprisoned for their actions,” and points to a handful of attacks against the Vietnamese government that GFVN has attempted or carried out. He further notes that Vietnam “consider[s] Vo a terrorist.” The exhibits that Vo has presented are not particularly convincing. Furthermore, even if we construe all the evidence in his favor, Vo still cannot 6 The district court there stated that: Native people from multiple tribes undertook simultaneous, if not coordinated, action in defense of their unceded lands and in defense of their people on more than one front by petitioning the Queen of England, setting up armed encampments, creating a supply network with other tribes, overtaking a Canadian military base, and taking control of large areas of land. Pitawanakwat, 120 F. Supp. 2d at 935. 7 See, e.g., Pitawanakwat, 120 F. Supp. 2d at 928 (“The initial burden of proof is on defendant to establish the essential elements of the political offense exception.”). 5524 VO v. BENOV show a sustained and widespread degree of violence that rises to the level of an uprising. The sum of a few skirmishes with the police, coupled with a handful of explosions and bombing attempts around the Pacific Rim and a keen desire to see the downfall of the communist regime in Saigon, does not amount to an uprising. Because the events relied on by Vo do not reach the necessary level of violence, he cannot meet this critical component of the uprising prong. Thus, his conduct is not protected by the political offense exception.