Albany Democrat-Herald editorial on Green Scare pleas

The editorial below is from The Albany Democrat-Herald yesterday.

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http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2006/07/24/news/opinion/edit01.txt

No 'eco' in this gang

Federal investigators in Oregon and across the country deserve credit for
their persistence in running to ground the so-called ecoterrorists of “The Family.”

Their efforts were crowned with success when several members of the cell
were arrested over the last several months, and again last week, in federal
court in Eugene, with the guilty pleas of some of those charged. They will
now be available to testify in the trials of the rest.

The press has called these people ecoterrorists because they supposedly had
the motive of saving the earth, which sounds kind of lofty. But actually,
they destroyed property without rhyme or reason. None of their actions
saved any part of the earth. Nothing they did resulted in any easing of the
plight of animals in our society.

They bombed installations such as wild-horse corrals in Burns, a federal
plant inspection station in Washington state, and a lumber company office
in Monmouth. They also torched a lumber mill office in Glendale and a truck
dealer in Eugene. In all, they launched 16 firebombings or other attacks
between 1997 and 2001.

Predictably, their actions proved pointless. Meat eating was not reduced. The
fate of domestic animals was not improved. In attacking research laboratories,
they destroyed material intended to improve the environment by better farming practices.

If they had wanted to make a difference, they would have had to do the heavy
lifting that people in the traditional activist groups do, to a sometimes
aggravating degree: arguing, writing, campaigning, picketing and even
filing the occasional suit.

The Northwest firebombers may claim that their attacks were planned to
destroy property, not hurt people. Even if true, that would be no excuse. They
could never have been certain that an unexpected visitor would not be trapped
by one of their arson attacks, or that firefighters would not be be injured or
killed doing their duty in fires the arsonists had caused.

These raiders, in other words, were just plain criminals and deserve no more
respect than that.

Like other dangerous criminals, they also deserve prison terms when they
appear for sentencing later this year. (hh)