Black Dove Support Network: California: Four Activists Arrested By FBI

Saturday, February 21, 2009

California: Four Activists Arrested By FBI

SAN FRANCISCO -- Four animal rights activists suspected of terrorizing University of California researchers in Berkeley and Santa Cruz have been arrested by the FBI and members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, authorities announced Friday.According to a complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco on Thursday, Adriana Stumpo, 23, of Long Beach, Nathan Pope, 26, of Oceanside, Joseph Buddenberg, 25, of Berkeley and Maryam Khajavi, 20, of Pinole allegedly used force, violence, or threats to interfere with the operation of the University of California in violation of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.A joint press release issued by the FBI and the Santa Cruz Police Department details three separate operations that brought the four suspects into custody on Thursday and Friday. Pope and Stumpo were arrested Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina by the FBI and members of the Charlotte Joint Terrorism Task Force as they returned to the United States from Costa Rica. The two appeared in federal court in Charlotte Friday morning, and will be extradited to California to face charges.Members of the San Francisco Joint Terrorism Task Force, police officers with the University of California Berkeley, and FBI agents arrested Buddenberg at the Alameda County Courthouse Friday morning. Khajavi was arrested separately Friday morning in Oakland. Both appeared before United States Magistrate Judge Nandor J. Vadas in federal court in San Francisco after their respective arrests.The arrests stem from a series of threatening incidents beginning in October 2007:On October 21 in 2007, a small group of approximately twenty protesters, including Buddenberg, Pope, and Stumpo, demonstrated outside a University of California Berkeley professor’s personal residence in El Cerrito, California. The group, some wearing bandanas to hide their faces, trespassed on his front yard, chanted slogans, and accused him of being a murderer because of his use of animals in research. The professor told police the demonstration left him feeling frightened, harassed and intimidated by the activists.Just over two months later, on Sunday, January 27, 2008, a group of approximately eleven individuals, including Mr. Buddenberg, Mr. Pope, Ms. Stumpo, and Ms. Khajavi, demonstrated outside the private residences of several University of California Berkeley researchers over the course of the day. At each home, the activists -- dressed generally in all black clothing and wearing bandanas to hide their faces -- marched, chanted, and chalked defamatory comments on the public sidewalks in front of the residences. One of the researchers informed authorities he had been previously harassed and the incident had caused him to fear for his health and safety.Approximately one month later on February 24, 2008, five to six individuals including Pope, Stumpo, and Khajavi, attempted to forcibly enter the private home of a University of California researcher in Santa Cruz. When her husband opened the door, a struggle ensued and he was hit by an object. As the individuals fled, one yelled “we’re gonna get you.” The UC Santa Cruz faculty member conducts biomedical research on breast cancer and neurological diseases. The professor and her husband both told the FBI they were terrified by the incident.The final incident centered on threatening flyers that were found in late July at a Santa Cruz café. The stack of flyers titled "Murderers and torturers alive & well in Santa Cruz July 2008 edition" was found at the Café Pergolesi. The flyer listed the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of several University of California researchers and stated “animal abusers everywhere beware we know where you live we know where you work we will never back down until you end your abuse.” The investigation connected Buddenberg, Pope, and Stumpo to the production and distribution of the fliers.Distribution of the fliers preceded two firebomb attacks outside researchers’ Santa Cruz homes, both of which are still under investigation by the FBI. Each defendant is facing charges under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and could face up to five years in prison if convicted."With so many legal options to make their voices heard and to effect policy change, it is inexcusable and cowardly for these people to resort to terrorizing the families of those with whom they do not agree," said FBI special agent Charlene B. Thornton from his San Francisco office. "The FBI intends to pursue those involved in this sort of extremist activity to the full extent of the law.""This sends a strong message that our community won’t tolerate this type of senseless violence. You have absolutely no right to attack a family in the sanctity of their home," said Santa Cruz Police Department Chief of Police Howard Skerry. "We are proud of the collaboration with our law enforcement partners on this case and look forward to those involved being held fully accountable for their actions.""We are very grateful for the efforts of federal law enforcement officials whose persistence has led to these arrests," said Mickey Aluffi, police chief at UC Santa Cruz. "The Santa Cruz Police Department has also worked tirelessly on the cases involving our researchers, and we are very appreciative of that office's commitment and support."

From:http://www.ktvu.com/news/18762536/detail.html & www.infoshop.org

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What is the Prison Industrial Complex?

What is the Prison Industrial Complex? The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a complicated system situated at the intersection of governmental and private interests that uses prisons as a solution to social, political, and economic problems. The PIC depends upon the oppressive systems of racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia. It includes human rights violations, the death penalty, industry and labor issues, policing, courts, media, community powerlessness, the imprisonment of political prisoners, and the elimination of dissent.How the PIC WorksTo fully describe the PIC, we have to look at the big picture of how it functions. For example, the prison construction boom can be linked to, among other factors, the huge increase in the number of people sentenced to prison terms with the onset of the war on drugs, the repression of radical movements by people of color for self-determination, and the anti-imperialist struggles of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The "war on drugs" and the national and local efforts to destroy radical political movements led to increasing police presence in communities of color and poor communities, higher arrest rates, and longer prison sentences.This boom is also fueled by dramatic and racist reporting about "crime," "delinquency," and "rebellion," creating a culture of fear in which it continues to be acceptable and desirable to many people to lock people (primarily people of color, youth, and poor people) in cages for longer and longer in the interest of "public safety." The way the many parts of the PIC interact is exactly what makes it so powerful and destructive. In order to fight this system, we have to see it for all that it is and recognize what drives and shapes it.Fighting the PICFighting the PIC means fighting the mainstream ideas of public safety and challenging the idea that police, prisons, and the court system make people who are not in power safer. At the same time, we must create alternative ideas of security based on the safety of the people most affected by the PIC.The United States currently imprisons around 2 million people. About 6.5 million people are presently under some form of supervision within the criminal justice system. Women represent the fastest rising prison population. Since 1980, the number of women imprisoned in the U.S. has risen by almost 400 percent. Racism continues to be a major factor in the United States, illustrated by policies and programs that sustain white supremacy. Racism, as it is used through criminal laws that target people of color, is essential to the PIC, not accidental.Prisons Are Not an Answer to CrimeThe wrongdoings we call crime do not exist in the same ways everywhere and are not "human nature". What is considered a crime is determined by the societies we live in. Because we have seen over and over again that locking more people in cages does not reduce crime, we must understand the power relationships that lead society to lock up only certain people. Since prisons do not stop problems like poverty, racism, or drug addiction, we cannot expect them to stop crime. We need to understand that we have no option but to fight and continue to fight until all of the different parts of the PIC that continue to put our survival in danger are eliminated.The Movement Against the PICThe movement against the PIC runs the risk of being shaped by easy victories or simplified struggles that do not recognize and fight the whole system. We must go beyond false separations, such as "non-violent" versus "violent" that place prisoners in opposition to each other. One important place to begin to fight the PIC is by pushing the movement to a more complete race, class, and gender analysis. We cannot allow ourselves to do short-term work that undermines our long-term vision and goals, or rely on the same systems of oppression and domination that sustain and drive the PIC to influence "mainstream" voters and decision makers. In order to do this work, we must continue to create spaces for people with different points of view to have honest discussions and disagreements about directions the movement against the PIC should take.What We Are ForSince we are so frequently asked what we are "for" rather than "against," the struggle against prisons, police, repression, punishment, and the criminalization of entire communities must display a clear vision that a world without the PIC is possible. One way to define and shape what we are for is through creating a culture of resistance, or a culture and society that fill all the different parts of our lives with alternatives to the culture of imprisonment. A new culture must nurture and sustain our struggle and provide space for political education, conversation and debate about what we are doing and what we need to do in the future.In order to figure out why people get locked up and under what circumstances, we need to look at what are sometimes called "root causes." This strategy requires looking at the competing priorities of the systems in which we live and understanding why they work well for some and horribly for others. The systems of race, class, gender, and sexuality, for instance, are commonly understood as privileging some people's needs and ideals over others. By exploring why and how those systems work for some and not for others, we can begin to develop a better understanding of how to include concrete steps in our work that deal with the negative effects of these systems on the people who are most often put in cages.To oppose the PIC, activists must work on both theoretical and practical levels. We cannot only engage in single-issue struggles, because all the issues intersect. How can we best create social change in an era of globalization? The voices of today's radical activists, particularly activists of color, must be at the front of the fight against the PIC. Those who are most affected by the system must be the ones planning its end.Organizing against the PIC is as much about building something as it is about fighting what is destroying our communities. Our organizing is also an ongoing effort to create alternatives, not only to imprisonment, but to the culture of punishment we've become so used to.

Black Dove Support Network

Saturday, February 21, 2009

California: Four Activists Arrested By FBI

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What is the Prison Industrial Complex?

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