“The Camden 28 were a group of “Catholic left” anti-Vietnam War activists who in 1971 planned and executed a raid on a Camden, New Jersey draft board. The raid resulted in a high-profile trial against the activists that was seen by many as a referendum on the Vietnam War.”

The trial
“By the time that The Camden 28 were brought to trial in the Spring of 1973, their case was viewed by many as a referendum on the Vietnam War. Each of the 28 faced seven felony charges stemming from the raid and more than 40 years in prison if convicted. The 28 chose to be tried together.

Immediately prior to the trial they were offered a plea-bargain whereby they would each plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge and the rest of the charges would be dropped. After intense discussion the 28 decided that they would not take the plea and that as political activists they preferred to be put on trial.

Unfortunately for the prosecution, its star witness Bob Hardy was feeling that he had been betrayed by the government. Hardy maintained that from the start of his interaction with the FBI he sought and received assurances that none of his co-conspirators in the raid would see any jail time. Now, as the trial loomed ahead, each of the “28″ was facing more than 40 years in prison.

For the FBI and the prosecution, the cost of betraying Hardy in this fashion was to lose him as a friendly witness. Scorned, Hardy would now, in fact, testify extensively for the defense. Hardy would testify regarding the extent to which the FBI encouraged and enabled the raid on the draft board to take place. Through Hardy’s testimony, the raid came across as being funded and driven by the FBI, and the defense was able to argue effectively that through the FBI, the government “over-reached” in its zeal to arrest and prosecute this particular set of anti-war activists.

On May 20, 1973, the jury returned “not guilty” verdicts for all counts against all 28 defendants, acquitting them.”

It’s a wonder that Joe doesn’t feel terrorized by whatever his government is putting (or allowing to be put) into our air, our water…. has he seen the cancer stats lately? His wife is more likely to die from accumulated toxins, household chemicals, and radiation exposure than she is from direct action. This idea that she’s ever “safe” while at work is so narrow. What about global warming, Joe? What about the very real - and universal- threats of environmental destruction that McDavid and others feel so powerfully?

I am a very serious environmental activist, but if anybody started talking to me about blowing anything up, I would immediately assume that they were, 1. an FBI agent or 2. Out of their freaking minds. I think that McDavid was totally set up, but he also sounds incredibly naive.

I am also opposed to violence, even arson that has little to no chance of harming anyone. I also think that if Eric was going to commit violence, that he should be ashamed.

But the person who would REALLY kill people in a case like this would do so without the government pushing, romancing, and financing them into it.

What did the FBI actually accomplish? Do you think Tim Mcvay would be dissuaded by Eric’s sentence of 20 years?

No - if anyone poses a threat to your wife, they are still out there and the government has wasted time and money and this person’s life because they were a soft target and the real violent criminals are too much of a challenge.

You and your wife are LESS safe due to operations such as this one.

Lazy cops are still lazy cops at any level.

We just upgraded security measures to try and protect staff and grounds from eco-terrorist. I work in the field most of the time, but I shudder to think what if some nutjob like McDavid were to set off a device while my wife was there.

I know that so far no act of eco-terrorism has resulted in a human death, but law of averages being what they are say that will change if violence like what McDavid planned continues.

The examples you cut and pasted from this website are different from this case for a few reasons, namely the intent to murder human beings (hundreds at a nearby school, in your last example) and also the lack of a government agent who financed, pushed and motivated the group into action.

I think it’s quite reactionary to respond to FBI tactics like this, which should scare everyone regardless of their politics, simply because you’re so against McDavid’s beliefs.

He told Lauren Weiner “he no longer believed that non-violent protest was working; that he told the others what they were doing was a crime; that his preferred target was the Institute of Forest Genetics, the so-called ‘tree factory’; that he knew that people were living at that facility, and that he was indifferent to the possibility that someone might be accidentally killed as a result of that attack.” He deserves all the time he got.

His sentence is not the unusual for this type of case a few other examples are the following,

Antigovernment extremist Charles Ray Polk is indicted by a federal grand jury for plotting to blow up the Internal Revenue Service building in Austin, Tex. At the time of his arrest, Polk is trying to purchase plastic explosives. He will be sentenced the following year to almost 21 years in federal prison.

Tax protester Joseph Martin Bailie is arrested for trying to blow up the Internal Revenue Service building in Reno, Nev. He will be sentenced to 36 years

Seven members of the Mountaineer Militia are arrested in a plot to blow up the FBI’s national fingerprint records center in West Virginia. In 1998, leader Floyd “Ray” Looker, will be sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Three Ku Klux Klan members are arrested in a plot to blow up a natural gas refinery outside Fort Worth, Texas. The three, along with a fourth arrested later, planned to blow up the refinery, killing hundreds of people including children at a nearby school, as a diversion for a simultaneous armored car robbery. All four will plead guilty to conspiracy charges and be sentenced to terms of up to 20 years.