help free young eco activist sentenced to 22 years 8 months in USA
schmoo | 05.12.2005 23:43 | Ecology | Repression | Social Struggles | London | World
TODAY (5th Dec) is Jeff Luers's birthday, he will be 27, and he will be spending it in an American maximum security prison (pictured above) serving a sentence of 22 years and eight months.
Jeff Luers has been in prison now for 5 years. He needs and deserves the support of every man woman and child on Earth.
If something is not done about it, he can expect to spend another 17 birthdays, locked up for a 'crazy' act of passion; trying to save humanity and the planet that sustains us, which we are systematically destroying.
Act of Passion
Five years ago, Jeff Luers and a friend went to a car dealers parking lot in Oregon, USA, and set a light to three SUV cars. Most people will agree this was a very miss guided act of 'eco rage' against the existence of these gasoline guzzeling beasts. Apart from anything else burning cars is extreamly harmful to the enviornment; SUV's should be either recycled into bicycles, or given to the UN to use in climate change disaster zones.
However, it does not deserve 22 years, 8 months in prison.
A comparison of sentences given in the same state shows rapists, child molestors, other far more destructive arsonists, and a man who attempted murder with an axe getting far less severe sentences.
In the same year that Jeff was sentenced to 22 years and 8 months for burning three cars, a man who raped a girl under the age of fourteen, and raped three girls under the age of 16, and contributed to the delinquency of a girl under the age of 18, and delivered drugs to a minor, was sentenced to just 13 years.
Jeff Luers is very much a political prisoner; his sentence proves it.
He first came to the attention of the authorities and the powerful logging companies, when he started trying to save the giant red wood trees, part of the American national heratige, which they wanted to chop down for profit.
He built tree houses at the top of the trees and chained himself to them, blocking the interests of one of the most powerfull vested interest groups in America.
Thats why he got 22 years and 8 months.
What Jeff Luers did was wrong, but so was his sentence, and two wrongs don't make for justice: he should be released now.
Even if you do not agree with what he did, Jeff Luers deserves your support, and the support of every man, woman, and child on this planet, because it was the planet he was trying to save.
His crime of passion involved no danger to life or limb and the three cars he burnt were insured.
A worldwide campaign for his release is underway, which will not stop until he is free, and you can help.
1. Raise this issue where ever you can. If you belong to an environmental action group, raise the issue at a meeting, and discuss what support you can give as a group.
2. A legal appeal about the length of his sentence is under way, but it needs financial support. Send a donation however small, it's the thought that counts. The more different groups and individuals that give a donation, the more pressure there is on the US authorities to do something. Try to get a local group to make a donation.
3. Write to Jeff and to the Governor of Oregon (details below).
4. Organise an event for the International Day of Solidarity.
5. Get information up on a website, blog or news group.
6. Think of something yourself, and do it. Also let us know.
Write to the Governor of Oregon:
MAIL
Governor Kulongoski
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, Oregon 97301-4047
PHONE
Governor's Citizens Representative Message Line:
503.378.4582
FAX: 503.378.6827
http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/contact_us.shtml
Free Jeff Leurs Campaign
If something is not done about it, he can expect to spend another 17 birthdays, locked up for a 'crazy' act of passion; trying to save humanity and the planet that sustains us, which we are systematically destroying.
Act of Passion
Five years ago, Jeff Luers and a friend went to a car dealers parking lot in Oregon, USA, and set a light to three SUV cars. Most people will agree this was a very miss guided act of 'eco rage' against the existence of these gasoline guzzeling beasts. Apart from anything else burning cars is extreamly harmful to the enviornment; SUV's should be either recycled into bicycles, or given to the UN to use in climate change disaster zones.
However, it does not deserve 22 years, 8 months in prison.
A comparison of sentences given in the same state shows rapists, child molestors, other far more destructive arsonists, and a man who attempted murder with an axe getting far less severe sentences.
In the same year that Jeff was sentenced to 22 years and 8 months for burning three cars, a man who raped a girl under the age of fourteen, and raped three girls under the age of 16, and contributed to the delinquency of a girl under the age of 18, and delivered drugs to a minor, was sentenced to just 13 years.
Jeff Luers is very much a political prisoner; his sentence proves it.
He first came to the attention of the authorities and the powerful logging companies, when he started trying to save the giant red wood trees, part of the American national heratige, which they wanted to chop down for profit.
He built tree houses at the top of the trees and chained himself to them, blocking the interests of one of the most powerfull vested interest groups in America.
Thats why he got 22 years and 8 months.
What Jeff Luers did was wrong, but so was his sentence, and two wrongs don't make for justice: he should be released now.
Even if you do not agree with what he did, Jeff Luers deserves your support, and the support of every man, woman, and child on this planet, because it was the planet he was trying to save.
His crime of passion involved no danger to life or limb and the three cars he burnt were insured.
A worldwide campaign for his release is underway, which will not stop until he is free, and you can help.
1. Raise this issue where ever you can. If you belong to an environmental action group, raise the issue at a meeting, and discuss what support you can give as a group.
2. A legal appeal about the length of his sentence is under way, but it needs financial support. Send a donation however small, it's the thought that counts. The more different groups and individuals that give a donation, the more pressure there is on the US authorities to do something. Try to get a local group to make a donation.
3. Write to Jeff and to the Governor of Oregon (details below).
4. Organise an event for the International Day of Solidarity.
5. Get information up on a website, blog or news group.
6. Think of something yourself, and do it. Also let us know.
Write to the Governor of Oregon:
Governor Kulongoski
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, Oregon 97301-4047
PHONE
Governor's Citizens Representative Message Line:
503.378.4582
FAX: 503.378.6827
http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/contact_us.shtml Free Jeff Leurs Campaign
schmoo
Homepage:
http://www.schmoo.co.uk
Additions
addtional information
05.12.2005 23:49
More information + uk campaign at http://www.schmoo.co.uk
Free Jeff Luers Campaign: http://www.freefreenow.org
http://www.schmoo.co.uk Free Jeff Luers Campaign:
http://www.freefreenow.org
schmoo
Comments
Hide the following 6 comments
Eh?
06.12.2005 17:34
Is it OK to destroy property if it is insured? What about the insurance premiums going up because of vandalism such as this? Somewhere somebody poor won't be able to afford the increased premiums this yob has helped cause.
Donny
22 years
06.12.2005 21:05
Anne Archie
Donny
06.12.2005 22:02
Are you trying to say that the court was justified in giving the guy almost 23 years in prison for burning 3 cars? Property is nothing compared to the damage the companies that sell the cars are doing to the environment.
The act of burning the cars was probably to show major displeasure at the company for selling such stupid vehicles. This is not a case of 'someone poor will suffer' it is a case of 'millions of poor people are suffering' due to the companies involved destroying the environment we live in.
fredrico
e-mail:
musteatvegan@yahoo.co.uk
Dear Fascist Bastard,
07.12.2005 20:57
Dear Governor Kulongoski,
I've just heard of Jeff Leurs, who the state of Oregon is holding prisoner until the year 2022 for the crime of burning three cars, and I was wondering if you could answer some questions that spring to mind.
First, what part of the Peoples Republic of China is Oregon in ? I used to think it was part of the United States of America but only dictatorships imprison people for most of their lives for crimes against property. Can you name a single democracy that has ever imprisoned someone for so long for such a minor crime ? I can't.
I'm an activist in Scotland. If I burned three cars I'd get two years at the very most, and yet the UK isn't ablaze with burning SUV's. Have things really got that bad in the US that you feel justified in such outrageous sentencing ? Jeff's actions were silly but the judges sentencing is brutal and perhaps the poor car-dealership will have recovered from the damage after these five years that you have been incarcerating Mr Leurs. Have you thought this through ? If a legal sentence is meant as a deterrent then the message you sending out to potential criminals and political activists is you may as well attack people instead of property. Such sentencing for crimes against property causes violent crime instead of preventing it.
I meet lots of American tourists and students in Edinburgh, I'm going to ask each of them from now on if they are from the backward state of Oregon. If they are I'll laugh at them and ridicule them in public and if they aren't then I'm going to congratulate them on their good-fortune.
best regards,
Danny
Insurance premiums
08.12.2005 02:04
Danny
Surely...
09.12.2005 13:42
Rob Corlett