Four Arrested, Charged Under AETA

Four people have been arrested in connection with a series of protests in Santa Cruz, Calif., and will be charged under the AETA.

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act was passed in 2006 to deter activists from speaking out against animal exploitation. It tacks on up to an additional five years' prison time for each offense and labels activists as terrorists.

The four people arrested -- Nathan Pope, 26; Adriana Stumpo, 23; Joseph Buddenberg, 25; and Maryam Khajavi, 20 -- are charged with "crimes" relating to the protesting of University of California animal experimenters' work. I put "crimes" in quotation marks because I don't see how the second incident is a crime:

Crimes arrested activists are accused of:

Oct. 21, 2007: A group of 20 protesters demonstrated outside of a UC Berkeley professor's home in El Cerrito. Some wore bandanas to hide their faces. They trespassed on his front yard, chanted slogans and accused him of being a murderer because of his use of animals in research.

Jan. 27, 2008: Demonstrations, including chalking, in front of the homes of several UC researchers

Feb. 20, 2008: A group of five protesters tried to forcibly enter the Westside home of a UC Santa Cruz researcher during a child's birthday party. The researcher's husband was hit during the demonstration.

July 29, 2008: Fliers left at Caffe Pergolesi in Santa Cruz that contained the names, addresses and telephone numbers of several UCSC scientists. The fliers said the researchers were "murders and torturers alive and well in Santa Cruz" and stated "We know where you live. We know where you work. We will never back down until you end your abuse."

While trespassing, assault and threats may be illegal, they hardly constitute terrorism. If a gang member trespasses on property, punches someone and issues a threat, he'll likely get arrested, but he won't be labeled a terrorist.

However, since animal exploiters -- whether they be college researchers, drug-company officials or slaughterhouse owners -- feared the progress that animal activists continue to make, they banded together to get the AETA passed. And they are quick to throw around the word "terrorist." In the next few days animal exploiters and those who support them will be blogging about these arrests, about this great accomplishment in saving mankind from these "terrorists."

Ironically, though, when activists get arrested, the underground activists commit more crimes in their names.

Authorities haven't charged anyone with the firebombings that occurred in August in Santa Cruz. Police, and even the media, were quick to definitively call those incidents the acts of animal-rights activists, even though no one was charged or had claimed responsibility. Some activists suspect the firebombings were the work of pro-vivisectors wanting to reignite enthusiasm for a bill to benefit University of California animal experimenters.

Taxpayers can rest easy tonight knowing that four "terrorists" are now behind bars. Well, maybe not that easy. Our money, of course, was used to hunt these savages down. For some reason it took three police jurisdictions -- including university police -- to arrest two of them.

The two other suspects [...] were arrested by the FBI, the San Francisco Joint Terrorism Task Force and UC Berkeley police.

I guess everyone wanted in on the self-congratulation.

Still, [Santa Cruz Police Chief Howard Skerry] said he was pleased with the progress made in the past year.

"A lot of cases are very complex," Skerry said. "We don't give up on the cases. If it takes years, it takes years."

Way to go, guys. Perhaps now you can try to catch the terrorists who actually kill people.

To learn more about the Green Scare, visit Will Potter's fantastic blog, GreenIstheNewRed.com.
To join the effort to repeal the AETA, visit the Coalition to Abolish the AETA.

(Image courtesy of GreenIstheNewRed.com.)