Of course, that's also true for the suicide bombers employed by Al Queda and Company, and it's also true for a lot of the psychotic criminals incarcerated in our penitentiaries.
Bottom line: The Animal Liberation Front folks are going to fit in well in the Federal lock up, which is exactly where they belong. Good riddance to bad meat.
Animal rights activist gets 12 years for arsons
From the Associated Press May 25, 2007
EUGENE, ORE. — A federal judge Thursday sentenced Animal Liberation Front arsonist Kevin Tubbs to prison for more than 12 years, rejecting arguments that he was a minor player just trying to save animals and protect the Earth.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken declared that four of the nine fires Tubbs was involved in — at a forest ranger station, a police substation, a dealership selling SUVs and a tree farm — were acts of terrorism intended to influence the conduct of the government or retaliate for government acts.
"Fear and intimidation can play no part in changing the hearts and minds of people in a democracy," Aiken told Tubbs twice before sentencing him to 12 years and seven months in federal prison.
Tubbs is the second of 10 members of the Family, a Eugene-based cell of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, to face sentencing in U.S. District Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy and arson charges connected to a string of 20 arsons in five states that did a total of $40 million in damage.
Tubbs and his fiancee, Michelle Pace, made emotional pleas for mercy, but Aiken said Tubbs was trying to minimize his responsibility and could have been much more effective in helping save wild horses from slaughter by starting a fund to buy them and using them in programs with children.
Aiken said it was "profoundly and palpably sad" that she had eight more people to sentence who had wasted their lives by choosing violence rather than raising public awareness about threats to animals and the environment.
Aiken noted that the torching of SUVs in the Portland area this week was evidence that the misguided motives of radicals like Tubbs lived on. Portland police arrested three people in the fires and said they were not connected to the sentencing of Tubbs and others this week.
Defense attorney Marc Friedman characterized Tubbs as a gentle young man from Nebraska who once worked for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals organizing demonstrations against killing livestock and came to Eugene with his girlfriend to work for the Earth First! Journal, but soon found himself living in his car and "Dumpster diving" for food.
Tubbs met Jacob Ferguson, who set the Oakridge fire, at a Eugene park where Ferguson was helping hand out food to street people, and they became friends, Friedman said.
Tubbs became depressed when his girlfriend began an affair with another environmental activist, and felt he needed to get involved in violent acts to win her back, Friedman added. After he fell in love again in 2001, Tubbs told his fellow arsonists he was through and was living a productive life, looking forward to having a family, Friedman said.Friedman acknowledged that Tubbs had identified the Cavel West Inc. horse slaughterhouse as a target after learning that wild horses were killed there for meat, but said Tubbs had no idea when he drove Ferguson and his girlfriend to Oakridge that they would set the ranger station on fire. Friedman said Tubbs took part in the other fires out of loyalty to Ferguson, his only friend in Eugene.
His voice choked with emotion, Tubbs read from a statement saying he was deeply sorry for causing harm to others, particularly after hearing from the two Oakridge Ranger District employees about the fear and pain he caused them.
Acknowledging that it was no excuse, Tubbs said he was motivated by hopelessness and desperation over cruelty to animals and destruction of the Earth.
"I am disgusted, sickened, saddened, and totally ashamed that I played any part in any of the incidents," he said.
3 comments:
"Fear and intimidation can play no part in changing the hearts and minds of people in a democracy," Aiken told Tubbs twice before sentencing him to 12 years and seven months in federal prison. Someone might want to mention this to GWB and co., although it seems to be working pretty well for them (but not the country).
As an animal rights advocate, I don't condone violence of any kind, but get real, you can hardly compare what this kid did to what a suicide bomber does, or to what some hardened criminals have done. Did he kill anyone? From what I've read, all he did was damage property.
Any moron that fire-bombs $40 million worth of property and gets only 12 years in a federal penitentiary is damn lucky.
As for your uninformed opinion that "animal rights" and nonviolence are synonymous, you might be interested in the fact that the FBI and BATF do not agree with you, and neither does Congress, which recently-passed the "Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA)" to make sure animal rights terrorists who engage in criminal behavior go to prison. If violent animal rights lunatics have to go to jail to make sure medicines continue to made and restaurants can still operate, that's something most Americans are more than comfortable with.
You say you are an "animal rights advocate" but such words are meaningless. Do you oppose medical research that might save the life of your mother, yourself, your sister, your friend? Do you believe the FDA should not require animal testing on medicines to be give to our children? Do you support several thousand Americans a year being killed by more deer-vehicle impacts? Or do you simply believe farm-raised pigs and chicken should get a little more room and sunlight? The last statement is one that no one argues with -- the former statements are the ones that animal rights movement firmly believes.
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