Utah Bill Would Make Environmentalists Like Tim DeChristopher “Eco-Terrorists”

by Will Potter on February 6, 2009

in Terrorism Court Cases,Terrorism Legislation

Tim DeChristopher. Photo by Washington Post Newsweek Interactive

Tim DeChristopher. Photo by Washington Post Newsweek Interactive.

Yesterday’s article on the sentencing of Marie Mason to prison, as a terrorist, for 22 years has made quite a buzz. Nearly everywhere the piece has been posted (news sites, environmental sites, Digg, punk forums) there has been a slew of angry comments (by “green” folks, no less) supporting her sentence and condemning illegal activity.

The recurring message goes something like this: Marie Mason broke the law. She used arson and economic sabotage as political tactics. She’s an extremist. If you protest the right way, though, you don’t have anything to worry about. The government is only going after the radicals.

Here’s the deal folks: Marie Mason clearly broke the law, but corporations and politicians are targeting mainstream activists with the same tactics, and the same label.

A perfect example of this: A Utah lawmaker is promising to introduce new “eco-terrorism” legislation. His target? It’s not the Earth Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front, or some shadowy underground group. He’s openly, proudly targeting mainstream environmentalists.

He points to people like Tim DeChristopher, the University of Utah student who disrupted an oil and gas auction by bidding on parcels of land.

Noel [the legislator] said stopping a legal oil lease is no different than “burning down a man’s cattle operation — eco-terrorism.” DeChristopher “took millions of dollars away from us, and he’s laughing at us. It’s not right. It’s not fair.”

This isn’t an isolated example. When incendiary devices were left at the home of a California researcher, the government recklessly blamed it on animal rights activists. The Humane Society of the United States donated money to an “eco-terrorist” witch hunt in order to distance itself from any illegal activity. And you know what happened? It didn’t protect them from industry groups.

I never discuss tactics on this site or in my speaking events. I never talk about the efficacy or morality of direct action, sabotage, arson, or violence. And that’s for one reason: When it comes to the government and corporate campaign to label activists as terrorists, tactics don’t matter.

These people are hitting ELF activists, Greenpeace and Animal Planet with the same, sweeping label. It’s a coordinate campaign to instill fear and chill dissent, and it’s growing every day.

The only way the environmental and animal rights movements are going to make it through this is if mainstream groups stop blaming activists for their repression, stop repeating the government sound bites, and start fighting back.

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  • Anonymous

    well said will. and hopefully blogs like this will lead to discussion within mainstream groups before they openly condemn others(YES, EVEN IF ITS ARSON!). of course for many of those groups, their image in the public eye is going to be the only thing that ever matters, but hopefully some will begin to question and honestly engage in the issues surrounding “radical” tactics instead of acting as a lifeless puppet for the government’s agenda.

  • http://www.diggingthroughthedirt.blogspot.com Tracy

    Great post!

  • BB

    I suggest that those within the AR movement who are quick to condemn their accused, activist brethren, be reminded that the first principle of Law Enforcement 101, taught worldwide, is that of discrediting successful social activism by the most convenient means possible.
    Simply hire your own thugs to perpetrate crimes that those within the targeted movement would be unlikely to ever commit. Next, whip up plenty of furor, outrage and indignation in the media, ala “we won’t rest until the person or persons who did this are brought to justice”. You’ll need to target some innocent, deeply committed and idealistic schmuck(s) to take the fall in order to make it all look legit. Then sit back and watch as the movement deconstructs itself based on finger-pointing and paranoia. The FBI doesn’t need snitches on the inside to bring down the AR, environmentalist and peacenik movements, they’ll just continue to creatively light fires wherever they’ll do the most harm and let those who believe everything they read, hear and see be their biggest advocates.

  • http://apophaticattic.wordpress.com Alceste

    The comments you have posted are bizarre. She broke the law, damaged property, yada yada yada, fine. Nobody is arguing that point. But TWENTY TWO YEARS IN JAIL?!?!? Why not a FINE or something? Are all these people really suggesting that because a law happened to be broken, ANY punishment is justified? If so, the US is a strange, strange place!

    I think Americans have lost all sense of reason or perspective when it comes to establishing reasonable penalties for various forms of lawbreaking. Having the world’s highest per capita prison population seems to have taken its toll if people think a whole life wasted rotting in prison is the appropriate punishment for a crime like this.

  • http://www.greenisthenewred.com Will Potter

    Thanks, Alceste. The comments have indeed been bizarre. It’s terrifying to me that so many people seem to have no problem with vastly disproportionate sentences because of the politics of the crime. That’s a scary amount of power to put in the hands of the government.

  • BB

    Alceste wrote:
    TWENTY TWO YEARS IN JAIL?!?!? Why not a FINE… I think Americans have lost all sense of reason or perspective when it comes to establishing reasonable penalties for various forms of lawbreaking.

    You are assuming, of course, that the U.S. is ruled by the people and not corporate mobsters who control the courts and Capitol Hill.

  • http://sleepingjellyfish.wordpress.com Jonathan

    All of the federal agencies are competing for a cut of the federal spending pie, as well as the state and local law enforcement charges. With the enactment of the Patriot Act and the 2 invasions in the Middle East early in the decade, federal funding for all different branches of law enforcement exploded. The pie got a lot bigger, like an earlier post on this mentioned a local police branch getting a tank.
    While all of these different agencies are scrambling to not just maintain the general status quo, of their dominance, they also want more funding, or at least more than their competitors.
    When people refer to the US Empire wanting to maintain the status quo, I hope they keep in mind that it is in broad terms that they are speaking, and that their is a constant power struggle for more funding and more power going on between the departments.
    There is money and jobs on the line. Unfortunately, I think Mason’s 2X sentencing is going to be common place from now on. Anybody know what the last person who burnt down/pipe bombed a Planned Parenthood got or the earlier cross burning example? I’m curious to see what their sentencing was.

  • http://stockpix.com stockpix

    I think that property damage is wildly counterproductive and is too easy an answer to be very effective. I have little problem condemning it as a crime, but this sort of property damage is clearly not terrorism. At the same time, I completely agree with you on government intimidation, over prosecution and that the constant tarring of the whole environmental movement will not stop at those who do direct actions and will be used against anyone who is actually anywhere near effective. A COINTELPRO style program simply assumes you are guilty of something and prosecutes anyone targeted for anything they could frame, entrap, plant or weasel you into a prosecution for. Few are saints, and in this sort of environment, no one they choose to target is remotely safe. I agree that the mainstream environmental movement needs to wake up to this governmental abuse as a very real danger. I do tend to have some small hope that Dems with oversight charge of these agencies may reign in the most extreme seedy and underhanded tactics, but not very much hope for any real improvement without a major scandal breaking out that rekills the program.

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  • arparp

    You're full of crap, and tactics matter when they hurt other people and animals.

  • Firebird

    People who commit these crimes of eco-terrorism are not heros their crinimals and ned to be serverly punushed with longer time in prison and NO PAROLE and NO PLEA BARGINING,

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