The government still sucks.

author: Otter Portland Indymedia

Random notes on the Stanislas Meyerhoff sentencing hearing.

[The following expresses the author's personal opinions, and is in no way guaranteed to be true or accurate.]Today in federal court in Eugene, Oregon, Judge Ann Aiken told Stanislas Meyerhoff that he was "very brave." This was how she described his actions immediately after he got arrested, when he caved in under the pressure of the police state, and without even requesting legal counsel, instantly informed on all of his former friends and allies, and himself, to the maximum extent of his ability.She considers this action to be very courageous, and well she might, because as noted exhaustively in court, he thereby volunteered himself into the life of an intellectual, mild-mannered nonviolent 130 pound snitch in a maximum security prison. She was so proud of him that she chose to expose him to only 13 years of this existence, instead of the fifteen that the prosecutors were recommending. She read him a couple of uplifting stories about young men who'd found productive ways to spend their time in prison, and then she wished him luck.

At several points during the hearing, Judge Aiken expressed frustration at her inability to have any effect on the fate or treatment of inmates once they leave her care. Earlier one of the expert witnesses for the defense advised her to try writing a letter to the warden, or the position immediately above the warden. He did note, however, that a letter from the District Attorney would be more effective than a letter from a judge.

All of these people had just spent several hours discussing in uncomfortable and graphic detail the statistical likelihood of Stan being physically and sexually abused in prison, especially if he is labeled a terrorist and sent to max or supermax. His own psychological expert witness put up a chart showing the personality characteristics of a sexual predation victim, and which ones Stan shared that were likely to get him into trouble. (He fit about 3/4 of the profile.) Another expert witness who had spent nine years behind bars and now works for a halfway-house organization, testified that Stan basically didn't stand a chance.

It apparently never occurred to any of the participants in this surreal conversation to realize that what they were describing was an absolutely barbaric, horrific, and bizarre institution, completely out of place in any civilized society. For some people, the only rational response would have been to refuse to participate in any part of the process until the system could be made safe and effective. But not for this group.

No, the condition of the prisons was not what this group of people was here to discuss. Nor were they there to discuss the condition of the planet, or whether or not any of the defendants' political or environmental claims may have had scientific merit. They certainly were not there to discuss whether the government had any political biases motivating the prosecution of these particular arsonists.

What they were there to talk about were the motivations of Stanislas Meyerhoff, and whether or not these motivations made him a terrorist.

The definition they were going to use for this decision, as established by Congress, specified that any act of "violence" (including property destruction), which can be proven to have been motivated by a desire to retaliate against or coerce some branch of government, is terrorism.

Apparently private homes and businesses don't count, at least not during the time period in which the arsons took place. What also doesn't seem to matter is the fact that every real life example used by Congress to pass these words into law involved crimes that clearly cost multiple human lives -- the Oklahoma City Bombing, other terrorist attacks all over the world. Terrorist attacks. Suicide bombers. Cafes exploded in the middle of the lunch rush. Buses blown sky high with bodyparts all over the street. Terrorism.

EVERYBODY KNOWS WHAT TERRORISM IS. Except, apparently, the government whose job it is to protect us from it. The same government who, under the influence of pressure from corporate lobbying groups representing the very same "earth raping" businesses targeted by the ELF and ALF, chose to devote a very large proportion of its law enforcement resources to the pursuit of these new "domestic terrorists". They chose to put their money into chasing this new kind of terrorist, who never kills anybody, at the expense of pursuing right-wing militias and abortion clinic bombers, and foreign terrorists, who have no such scruples.

At no time during the sentencing hearing was there any mention, of course, of the scale of this forty million dollar environmental arson spree when compared to the bombing spree underway in Iraq for the past four years. There was also no mention of the civilian casualties currently being inflicted by this very same government, which is run by the rule of law, and which refuses to tolerate the use of violence in pursuit of political objectives.

I don't know about you, but I sure feel a lot safer now.