Polise Harassment of EF! Activist in Cincinnati

ELP Information Bulletin (9th of Feb 2008)

Dear friends

ELP has just learnt about an act of harrassment against an American EF! activist (please see the below article). We understand that this is part of the same case that ELP reported on with a house raid in Detroit against another EF activist.

If anyone has any further information about this raid or any other raids against EF! activists please contact ELP as soon as possible.


GPS Unit discovered on Earth First! organizers car

The Green Scare is far from over.

Around 11:30pm last night (2/7/08), local Cincinnati, Ohio, Earth First organizer Marie Mason was terrorized by local police after her 16-year-old daughter discovered a plainclothes pig fumbling underneath the backside of her car. He showed his badge and claimed to be searching for prowlers. A short time later the same plainclothes officer--accompanied by a uniformed officer--was found attempting to enter the front door of the home without knocking. When confronted they exited the house and claimed the reason why they were looking under the car is to see if her catalytic converter was stolen. They soon left.

With memories of Judi Bari still fresh Marie and a friend went out to check under the car and discovered a GPS unit connected to the car with magnets (the device clearly said GPS on its backside). They removed the unit and were able to inspect it for a couple moments before a large pickup truck came speeding over the curb into the front yard with 4-5 plainclothes police officers who jumped out with guns drawn. They ordered Marie, her 16 year old daughter, and a male friend to the ground and took the GPS unit back by force. They then played good cop, bad cop routine for 20-30 minutes, claiming they knew what Marie was up to and generally terrorizing/interrogating the three. At one point, one of the officers called Marie's daughter by name and made the comment: "Shouldn't you be at your dad's tonight?"

Plainclothes pigs who claimed they were with the narcotics division of district 5 (4-5 plainclothes and 1 Cincinnati uniformed in a maker car) showed up shortly after. She was able to make a short call to friends before they literately wrestled the phone from her. When we arrived the police had left claiming they were going to secure a warrant after being denied consent to search the house. Shortly after we arrived the plainclothes police showed up and demonstrated some rather bizarre behavior. They were in a large pickup truck and were squealing out in front of her house stopping once to allow a passenger to jump out who ran into the back yard to places unknown. They were not seen or heard from for the rest of the night.

Marie has been harassed (she has been raided by federal agents in the past) by the FBI for over a year, repeatedly refusing their requests to discuss Midwest ELF actions. Their claim for requesting the interview is to remove her as a suspect. The general local assumption (though no confirmation or proof of this assumption has yet to be obtained) is that last night's incident was part of some Joint Terrorism Task Force with local cops playing lap dog for the Feds. Obviously this is ongoing and more information will be added as it becomes available.

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Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
BM Box 2407
London
WC1N 3XX
England
www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk