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Eco-terrorism
godpt3
Posts: 1,020
Aug 3, 9:57 PM EDT
FBI investigates new attacks on Calif. scientists
By MARCUS WOHLSEN
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The FBI is investigating two firebombings targeting scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as the latest in a rash of attacks against biomedical researchers who experiment on animals, authorities said.
One scientist and his family, including two small children, were forced to flee from a second-story window Saturday after a firebomb was lit on their front porch, filling the off-campus house with smoke, Santa Cruz police said. An adult was treated for minor injuries at a hospital and released.
Police were investigating the attack as attempted murder, said Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark.
"That device had a real potential to put that family in jeopardy," Clark said. He described the bomb as a "Molotov cocktail on steroids."
A sprinkler system and a neighbor with a garden hose helped keep the fire from spreading before firefighters arrived to extinguish it, Clark said.
Also Saturday morning, a firebomb destroyed a car belonging to another researcher parked at faculty housing on campus. Investigators said they were treating the attacks as "domestic terrorism."
The attacks came four days after police obtained threatening animal rights pamphlets left at a Santa Cruz coffeehouse containing the names and home addresses of UC Santa Cruz scientists.
"Animal abusers everywhere beware," the pamphlets read. "We know where you live."
Molecular biologist David Feldheim, whose front door was charred, was among the researchers on the list, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported. According to his Web site, Feldheim's lab uses mice to study the development of brain functions involved in eyesight.
Authorities would not identify the researcher whose car was destroyed but said that person's name was not listed in the pamphlet.
A spokesman for the North American Animal Liberation press office, which commonly posts messages from groups taking credit for animal rights violence, issued a statement Sunday saying it had not received any claims of responsibility for the attacks.
"It's regrettable that certain scientists are willing to put their families at risk by choosing to do wasteful animal experiments," press office spokesman Jerry Vlasak said in the statement.
Police said they have no suspects in Saturday's attacks, the first against UC Santa Cruz scientists since February, when animal rights activists showed up at the house of a breast cancer researcher during her young daughter's birthday party.
The masked protesters pounded on the front door, and one threw a punch at the researcher's husband as he tried to chase them away, according to police. The FBI is still investigating that case.
In recent years, three UCLA researchers who use non-human primates have been targeted with firebombs, though two failed to ignite. Animal rights groups claimed responsibility for all three attacks.
More recently, masked protesters targeting the University of California, Berkeley, have scrawled graffiti and broken windows at scientists' homes.
FBI investigators say the incidents at different universities are probably not centrally coordinated. But authorities said the attacks do share tactics, including the public posting of researchers' personal information and the type of firebomb used.
"These are odious assaults on individuals and on the principles of free inquiry by which we live," UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal said in a statement Saturday.
Police said they were offering stepped-up security to the 13 UC Santa Cruz researchers whose names appeared in the pamphlets discovered last week.
FBI investigates new attacks on Calif. scientists
By MARCUS WOHLSEN
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The FBI is investigating two firebombings targeting scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as the latest in a rash of attacks against biomedical researchers who experiment on animals, authorities said.
One scientist and his family, including two small children, were forced to flee from a second-story window Saturday after a firebomb was lit on their front porch, filling the off-campus house with smoke, Santa Cruz police said. An adult was treated for minor injuries at a hospital and released.
Police were investigating the attack as attempted murder, said Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark.
"That device had a real potential to put that family in jeopardy," Clark said. He described the bomb as a "Molotov cocktail on steroids."
A sprinkler system and a neighbor with a garden hose helped keep the fire from spreading before firefighters arrived to extinguish it, Clark said.
Also Saturday morning, a firebomb destroyed a car belonging to another researcher parked at faculty housing on campus. Investigators said they were treating the attacks as "domestic terrorism."
The attacks came four days after police obtained threatening animal rights pamphlets left at a Santa Cruz coffeehouse containing the names and home addresses of UC Santa Cruz scientists.
"Animal abusers everywhere beware," the pamphlets read. "We know where you live."
Molecular biologist David Feldheim, whose front door was charred, was among the researchers on the list, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported. According to his Web site, Feldheim's lab uses mice to study the development of brain functions involved in eyesight.
Authorities would not identify the researcher whose car was destroyed but said that person's name was not listed in the pamphlet.
A spokesman for the North American Animal Liberation press office, which commonly posts messages from groups taking credit for animal rights violence, issued a statement Sunday saying it had not received any claims of responsibility for the attacks.
"It's regrettable that certain scientists are willing to put their families at risk by choosing to do wasteful animal experiments," press office spokesman Jerry Vlasak said in the statement.
Police said they have no suspects in Saturday's attacks, the first against UC Santa Cruz scientists since February, when animal rights activists showed up at the house of a breast cancer researcher during her young daughter's birthday party.
The masked protesters pounded on the front door, and one threw a punch at the researcher's husband as he tried to chase them away, according to police. The FBI is still investigating that case.
In recent years, three UCLA researchers who use non-human primates have been targeted with firebombs, though two failed to ignite. Animal rights groups claimed responsibility for all three attacks.
More recently, masked protesters targeting the University of California, Berkeley, have scrawled graffiti and broken windows at scientists' homes.
FBI investigators say the incidents at different universities are probably not centrally coordinated. But authorities said the attacks do share tactics, including the public posting of researchers' personal information and the type of firebomb used.
"These are odious assaults on individuals and on the principles of free inquiry by which we live," UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal said in a statement Saturday.
Police said they were offering stepped-up security to the 13 UC Santa Cruz researchers whose names appeared in the pamphlets discovered last week.
"If all those sweet, young things were laid end to end, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised."
—Dorothy Parker
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6902/conspiracytheoriesxt6qt8.jpg
—Dorothy Parker
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6902/conspiracytheoriesxt6qt8.jpg
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Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
Why did they try to eat my cat??? I thought they were vegans.
Oh, wait, that's ALF.
—Dorothy Parker
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6902/conspiracytheoriesxt6qt8.jpg
the problem right now is that the fascists are infiltrating legitimate organizations such as the Humane Society and World Wildlife Foundation.
—Dorothy Parker
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6902/conspiracytheoriesxt6qt8.jpg
*Edit: I see it's been distinguished.
I don't condone acts of violence. Then again, when I think about what researches do to animals I feel a wave of vengefulnes come over me - probably like what most people feel when they hear about a child being tortured to death.
***********************
"We've laid the groundwork. It's like planting the seeds. And next year, it's spring." - Nader
***********************
Prepare for tending to your garden, America.
I'd like to see animal researchers tried for animal cruelty.
- Signing off for now, must get back to work.
***********************
"We've laid the groundwork. It's like planting the seeds. And next year, it's spring." - Nader
***********************
Prepare for tending to your garden, America.
however you feel, it doesn't seem like violence against humans is the answer.
The KKK doesn't "condone" violence, either. At least, not officially.
—Dorothy Parker
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6902/conspiracytheoriesxt6qt8.jpg
Warped sense of reality and right vs. wrong.
Funny, these same people probably vilify the anti-abortion activists that do the same thing. When in reality, they are exactly the same.
—Dorothy Parker
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6902/conspiracytheoriesxt6qt8.jpg
Yep. PETA's no different than Operation Rescue.
—Dorothy Parker
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6902/conspiracytheoriesxt6qt8.jpg
and...?
I'm getting the sense that you feel it's ok to fire bomb homes with children...
of course, I could be wrong...
when i think of the advancements that we've made medically b/c of animal research I feel great thanks...smallpox vaccine, organ transplantation, many surgical techniques, treatments for asthma, cancer, the list goes on here... http://www.njabr.org/programs/medical_milestones/.
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
Do they walk through the building before hand to make sure no ones in there? Doubt it.
There is no 2-sides to this story. Only 1 side, the side where people firebomb public or private property and put people's lives at risk. That's it.
If you can't win people over to your side of the dabate without killing them, something is wrong with you.
from the article, sure sounds like they're targeting people to me. Unless you don't consider scientists to be people.
—Dorothy Parker
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6902/conspiracytheoriesxt6qt8.jpg
ITA - there has to be other avenues these folks can use to get policies changed. All this does is give the animal rights groups a bad name. It's a shame.
The real eco terrorists arent those standing up for human and non humans alike and actually doing something other than pulling a stupid lever every 4 years. the real terrorists are those in power who stand silently by and do nothing as the world turns to hell.
3 SUVs probably constitutes close to $100,000 worth of destruction of property. I'd say the sentence is pretty fair.
—Dorothy Parker
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6902/conspiracytheoriesxt6qt8.jpg
Also, on a side note and in my opinion, I always feel because these type groups don't target people, it's more at the heart of the matter - which people take more offense too. It questions their opinions and judgements on the issue compared to being able to just say, hey, this grouped killed x number of people and that's wrong, etc.
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
so if you, yes you godpt3 tonight went down to a store and burnt it to the ground you personally would expect a sentence of 23 years? Are you on drugs, friend?
Certainly you would be in major trouble, but to sit in jail for 23 years? No way.
He set fire to 3 suv's. In the dark of night. The buisness of closed. No people were killed or harmed. The only damage was the suv's.
How is 23 years a justifiable punishment?
You read the paper dont you? Some killers and rapists dont even get 23 years.
there is a reason you havent heard about it. Thats their code of conduct. To be a part of the ELF you need to not harm human or non human life.
The ELF and ALF have never ever injured or killed a human or nonhuman. Ever.
I support these groups wholeheartedly.
It's like a murderer saying the real murderers are those in power who wage wars from behind their desks. Though, he makes a point, he's still guilty of murder.
naděje umírá poslední
If he behaves himself he won't serve 23 years either. Without reading the facts of the case I'm guessing they tried him for Arson which would be a major Felony and could def. carry a sentence of 23 years.
Even if intentions are good you should never resort to violence or Arson or expect to pay the price.
6/7/2003 (***1/2)
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4/10/2008 EV Solo (****1/2)
6/25/2008 MSG II (*****)
10/1/2009 LA II (****)
10/6/2009 LA III (***** Cornell!!!)
I agree it's a harsh punishment.
How is burning down 3 SUVs a justifiable action?
naděje umírá poslední
I'm not surprised. You're probably one of those black hoodie wearing anarchists from Eugene that came up to Seattle during the WTO meetings just to break out windows downtown. Bunch of thugs creating anomosity for rather than awareness.
And how dare you lecture us about what activism is. Aren't you the one who posted a thread saying you were not interested in voting this year and that you get all of your news from Jon Stewart? Sheesh.
how dare you act like you know me from a few posts on a message board, no less!
Jon's great but frankly, I dont think of him as an activist, he isnt one.
I love how rude people are on this board. Instead of asking about my history, and if i have any experience in activism, you assume I dont.
I dont have to justify a goddamn thing to you, jeffbr you jerk.
Read previous posts of mine, I may not be an activist currently, but I was in the past. Politics has shaped my life for a while.
The Battle in Seattle, was one of the more significant events of our generation. It was when our generation finially fought back. And I can tell you for damn sure, most of those people who went to seattle for the protest could give a damn about electoral politics or Bush v Gore at that point.
Eugene is an epicenter or was an epicenter of radical activism. I remember clearly in 1999, a string of events here, anarchists throwing bricks into banks, anarchists jumping on cars, violent scuffles with police etc...
So to act like I know nothing about activism is naive and frankly insulting. Go back to your Britney Spears tapes pal!
Oh yeah, so the WTO protests didnt have an impact? It was front page news worldwide. It shut down the talks in Seattle. It was a rite of passage, from what i was told by people who attended.
But then again, you know the real way to protest dont you, jeffbr. Dont you? Its standing on a corner with a sign. Or its voting a politician into office. And those have worked out real well to end the war in iraq and afghanistan right? I mean the largest protests in human history were held in the lead up to the iraq war, and we got "antiwar dems" in office in 2006.
Wow what an impact that made!
Desperate times call for desperate measures. I dont have patience for the snail pace of electoral politics version of change and progress.
How could you not be pissed off? Obama wants to continue the war, and people act like he is a messiah! I dont get it.
All I know is that change, real change never occured by a politicians hand. To believe otherwise is to brand yourself a fool
so I guess those drugs must be good. This was a kid without a criminal history as well. He set fire to three suv's. Thats it. He didnt kill anyone. Didnt injure anyone. How is it okay for him to be sentenced to 23 years? Its outrageous, which is why i was for his release immediately and still am. he commited an illegal act, but lets face it, alot of kids commit arson. And I dont EVER remember reading about a first time arsonist being sentenced to a little over 2 decades.
What about 1 or 2 years in jail at the most?
Someone here posted an article about a nelected kid left to rot in her room. The mother spent little to no time in jail. Yet we send people like Jeff Luers, Mumia and Peltier to jail for half a lifetime or their entire lives.
As futher proof, google it. Google the simple words "arsonist sentenced". I see 7 years, 9 years, 13, but no 23.
Free Jeff Luers. Jail the real criminals. He is a hero and will remain one. Even the courts think so, as they ruled he should be released in 2009. They felt his sentence was unfair.
Just like in the case of the WM3, who will pay for this? Who will pay for those years stolen from Mr Luers. Or stolen from the Wm3? or mumia? or peltier?
Who will serve time for that?