From: Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
Date: Fri Jun 14 2002 - 03:02:03 MDT
I have never known what to make of this affair. It's less clearcut than, say,
the burnout of MOVE in Philadelphia. Cointelpro and [its purported child] LA's
"Glass House" were no strangers to intrigue.
And the recent LA-Rampart scandal's roots go back years and years. The whole
1960s-70s Efram Zimbalist Junior Clean-as-a-Whistle Dragnet image was intended
to rehabilitate LA's sordid police past.
OTOH, E1! has apparently taken credit for dynamiting at least one power tower
in the Santa Cruz hills.
We're back to "Whom do you trust, and on what basis?"
Do tall poppies deserve napalm? How tall is too tall? Oh to be the man in the
high tower.
Damien Broderick wrote:
>
> This is a *very strange story*. What's the view inside the USA?
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/12/national/12FRAM.html?todaysheadlines=&page
> wanted=print&position=top
>
> June 12, 2002
> Environmentalists Win Bombing Lawsuit
> By EVELYN NIEVES
> OAKLAND, Calif., June 11 - Twelve years after they were accused of
> carrying a bomb that exploded in their car, two Earth First
> environmentalists were awarded $4.4 million in a federal civil suit
> contending that their rights had been violated by the local and federal
> officers who arrested them.
> After 17 days of deliberations, a jury found that six of seven defendants
> - three F.B.I. agents and three Oakland police officers - had violated the
> rights of Darryl Cherney, now 46, and Judi Bari, who died of cancer in
> 1997. One F.B.I. agent was cleared.
> Mr. Cherney and Ms. Bari were injured when a homemade, studded pipe bomb
> exploded in Ms. Bari's Subaru wagon in May 1990 in Oakland as they were on
> their way to lead a presentation to promote demonstrations that summer
> against the logging of ancient redwood trees.
> Hours later, Ms. Bari, whose pelvis was crushed by the blast, and Mr.
> Cherney, who was slightly wounded, were arrested by the Oakland police and
> the F.B.I., which said the bomb had accidentally detonated while the pair
> were transporting it to use for ecoterrorism.
> The charges were dropped six weeks later for lack of evidence, and no one
> else was ever charged in the blast. But Ms. Bari and Mr. Cherney, who
> remains an Earth First leader, swore to clear their names.
>
> [etc for full story]
>
> Damien Broderick
--
butler a t comp - lib . o r g
I am not here to have an argument. I am here as part of a civilization.
Sometimes I forget.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:14:47 MST