Environmentalist Sentenced to 21 Years as a “Terrorist”

Feb.5th, 2009 by Will Potter

I’ve written a lot of articles like this, when prison sentences are handeddown to activists who have been labeled “terrorists” for property crimes,and instead of getting easier it just keeps getting harder. It’s gettingharder to write about this rationally, calmly. These cases are gettingworse, folks. The government is growing increasingly aggressive in itsprosecutions, and increasingly transparent in its tactics.Marie Mason, a longtime environmental activist and mother of two, wassentenced this afternoon to 21 years in prison, as a “terrorist,” fornon-violent property crimes in the name of defending the environment. It’sa historic sentence, the longest yet for any of these Green Scare cases.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 preparedto attend the sentencing hearing and support her at such a terrible momentin her life. So what did the FBI do? Agents had the audacity to warn thepress that “terrorists” might be attending Mason’s sentencing. They saidthey “expect members of the eco-terrorist groups, the Earth LiberationFront and Animal Liberation Front to gather and protest.” This, of course,is a bold-faced lie. Any FBI agents worth their salt knows thatclandestine organizations like the ALF and ELF do not protest: they areillegal, underground groups. This was a calculated scare-mongering movemeant to make normal, everyday people afraid of showing up to a publiccourt proceeding, lest they be labeled as members of the “number onedomestic terrorism threat.”Let me reiterate this: The government made a concerted effort to demonizenot just the defendant, but anyone who supports the defendant by attendinga public court proceeding. Regardless of how you feel about Marie Mason,or the Green Scare more broadly, moves like this are antithetical to anysemblance of a democracy. Intimidating citizens to keep them fromattending a politicized court date is a defining characteristic of anout-and-out police state.If that isn’t enough, let’s look at Mason’s sentence. Twenty-one years forarson that caused about $1 million in damage to genetic-engineeringresearch at Michigan State University and didn’t harm anyone.By comparison, on Monday the FBI put out a press release pattingthemselves on the back for the guilty pleas of four men who assaultedthree African-Americans on the night of President Barack Obama’s electionvictory. [I've written previously about how the FBI is more concernedabout environmental activists than presidential assassination attempts].From the FBI’s news release: Nicoletti drove the group to the Park Hill section of Staten Island, apredominantly African-American neighborhood, where they came upon anAfrican-American teenager and assaulted him. Nicoletti struck theteenager with a metal pipe and Garaventa hit him with a collapsiblepolice baton.The expected sentences for racist, violent attacks meant to punish peoplefor voting for a black man? Between 10 and 12 years. That’s about half ofMarie Mason’s.The government’s press release said that “this successful prosecutionsends a clear message.”What is the message that you think it sends?