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Environmentalist Sentenced to 21 years as a "Terrorist"

Green Scare | 05.02.2009 21:38 | Ecology | Repression | Social Struggles | World

Environmentalist Sentenced to 21 Years as a “Terrorist”; Violent Racists Receive Half That
By Will Potter

Marie Mason - Sentenced to 21 Years
Marie Mason - Sentenced to 21 Years


I’ve written a lot of articles like this, when prison sentences are handed down to activists who have been labeled “terrorists” for property crimes, and instead of getting easier it just keeps getting harder. It’s getting harder to write about this rationally, calmly. These cases are getting worse, folks. The government is growing increasingly aggressive in its prosecutions, and increasingly transparent in its tactics.

Marie Mason, a longtime environmental activist [1] and mother of two, was sentenced this afternoon to 21 years in prison, [2] as a “terrorist,” for non-violent property crimes in the name of defending the environment. It’s a historic sentence, the longest yet for any of these Green Scare cases. [3]

In the lead up to her sentencing, the FBI took their “eco-terrorist” scare-mongering to a new level. Mason’s friends and family were prepared to attend the sentencing hearing and support her at such a terrible moment in her life. So what did the FBI do? Agents had the audacity to warn the press that “terrorists” might be attending Mason’s sentencing.[4] They said they “expect members of the eco-terrorist groups, the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front to gather and protest.” This, of course, is a bold-faced lie. Any FBI agents worth their salt knows that clandestine organizations like the ALF and ELF do not protest: they are illegal, underground groups. This was a calculated scare-mongering move meant to make normal, everyday people afraid of showing up to a public court proceeding, lest they be labeled as members of the “number one domestic terrorism threat.”

Let me reiterate this: The government made a concerted effort to demonize not just the defendant, but anyone who supports the defendant by attending a public court proceeding. Regardless of how you feel about Marie Mason, or the Green Scare more broadly, moves like this are antithetical to any semblance of a democracy. Intimidating citizens to keep them from attending a politicized court date is a defining characteristic of an out-and-out police state.

If that isn’t enough, let’s look at Mason’s sentence. Twenty-one years for arson that caused about $1 million in damage to genetic-engineering research at Michigan State University and didn’t harm anyone.

By comparison, on Monday the FBI put out a press release patting themselves on the back for the guilty pleas of four men who assaulted three African-Americans on the night of President Barack Obama’s election victory. [I've written previously about how the FBI is more concerned about environmental activists than presidential assassination attempts]. [5]

From the FBI’s news release: [6]

Nicoletti drove the group to the Park Hill section of Staten Island, a predominantly African-American neighborhood, where they came upon an African-American teenager and assaulted him. Nicoletti struck the teenager with a metal pipe and Garaventa hit him with a collapsible police baton.

The expected sentences for racist, violent attacks meant to punish people for voting for a black man? Between 10 and 12 years. That’s about half of Marie Mason’s.

The government’s press release said that “this successful prosecution sends a clear message.”

What is the message that you think it sends?

Notes
[1]  http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/2009/02/03/marie-mason-refusal-to-snitch/
[2]  http://www.wilx.com/news/headlines/39149257.html
[3]  http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/green-scare
[4]  http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=9793261&nav=menu25_2
[5]  http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/2008/11/25/fbi-puts-eco-terrorists-above-osama-and-assassination-attempts/
[6]  http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/nyfo020209.htm

Green Scare
- Homepage: http://www.greenisthenewred.com

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

dont do.....

05.02.2009 22:36

the crime unless you are prepared to do the time (oh yea an...check out what the time is).
Feel sad for her - hope she is strong is made strong and makes others strong - transform, transform...
stop your f**king protesting bullshit, your vandilizings and your winging- there is another way - seek it.

terry errorist


from an old friend (+ response to terry errorist)

06.02.2009 09:38

i know Marie personally and am really really shocked at her sentence. it's ridiculous and saddening and enraging all at the same time.

i don't necessarily support the actions that she was arrested and charged for (because they were probably counter-productive in the long run) but bear in mind, before judging her, that a) this was a long time ago and b) she does/did a lot of other really good work in local community groups and the IWW union before she was arrested. so please don't just assume that this is all she ever did, because she is so much more than a couple of arson attacks in the 1980s.

if you want to send her a letter, her current address is:

Marie Jeanette Mason
Clinton County Jail
1347 E Townsend Rd.
Saint Johns, MI 48879
USA

she really likes people to write to her, so please do.

but as the big man Joe Hill said before he went to the gallows:

"Don't mourn, organise".

lolwob


Red and Green are both Black

06.02.2009 12:04

"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?""


Whatever colour shirt she was wearing, whatever cause she was espousing, that isn't relevant compared to the state tactics. In prison Marie is a political prisoner worthy of support from any anarchist, red or green. We are all Black in the dark of night..

Terry Errorist should go hang. Do you feel sorry for her and wish her strength even as you applaud her imprisonment for damaging property? Seriously, someone should hang your head for shame.

ambigram
- Homepage: http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080207224512963


errorist

07.02.2009 02:56

Apropos.

Oh fuck you, errorist.

"don't do the crime unless you're prepared to do the time" is a justification for acqueiscence to any totalitarian, draconian state policy. What this woman did would seem unwise to most people. But it was brave and she's been treated unjustly. If we can't even recognise that much we're truly fucked.

anon


Call for Justice

07.02.2009 11:13

errorist is right to say don't do it if you won't do the time. BUT do what? The message in that sentence is that GM cannot be stopped by what was done. It can only be stopped if those who usurp God are killed.

What is the sentence for murder over there? The God the Americans fear is obviously Satan. When they crowd into their Churches, They insult the true God of Creation, their whole way of life is a devotion to destroying Earth's ability to support God's Creation of Life. Their live the Satanic Lifestyle.

Anoner
mail e-mail: kburchell@hot,ail.co.uk