Tree Protestors get $1.00 jury award

F

frans

Location
healdsburg, CA
Last month in California, a federal jury awarded $1 each to eight logging protesters that had their eyes swabbed with pepper spray during a 1997
sit-in in Humbolt County. Activists were protesting logging of Redwoods and had chained themselves together at Pacific Lumber Company's headquarters. Law enforcement officials warned the protesters that if they did not leave, that the pepper spray would be placed at the corner of their eyes. The law-suit had asked for damages between $10,000 and $100.00 for pain and suffering against county sheriff deputies and Eureka police. Two previous trials in 1998 & 2004 ended in deadlocked juries.
-AFRC NEWS

I lifted this article out of Loggers World magazine, June 2005 issue.
Maybe cooler heads prevailed and all the 'pain & anguish' that the protesters felt was shown (BY THEIR PEERS) to be aggrandizement./forum/images/graemlins/9lame.gif

Frans
 
The protestors had chained themselves to each other so could not raise their hands. It was, to say the least not a pretty site. The T.V. crews filmed it.
While I really support the stated goals the protestors have against the profit oriented old growth cutting of timber, I dont always agree with the methods of the protestors.
In my opinion they would be far more effective with simply clogging up the courts with being arrested by the hundreds or thousands than crying about being wrestled to the ground or being pepper sprayed.
When the protestors become combative they make an unspoked agreement that they are being solders. So in my opinion should'nt cry about the consequences of the battle.
I think their are many many people in this country who are fed up with the corportations raping and pillaging our country of jobs and resources. But for the most part people avoid being associated with guerilla warfare, extremism, and do I dare say it, terroism. But put a good cause forth and fight it cleanly and I think many more people would join in. Here in our neck of the country Redwoods are a focus point. The tree protestors have people coming from all over the country and many of them have never seen a redwood much less understand what is old growth harvesting and what is sensible, renewable logging. In the case of the Headwaters forest, the lumber company who owned it before Maxxim worked the land very successfully for many years. It was Maxxim who in a very short time did so much damage.
The protestors dont care who gets hurt or taken out of a job, they want all logging stopped. The federal goverment has also begun a process of closing off federal land to all public use/access. Just witness the wildfires we have had. With good land management these fires would be better contained (for example)
I know all this from personal experiance, being very close to the tree extractor/tree sitter situation.
Dont want to rant and rave but there you go
Frans
 
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At lunch this afternoon we talked about Ed Abbey's book "The Monkey Wrench Gang" Should be required reading, along with "Desert Solitaire"

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"One life at a Time" is pretty good too. Got them all three.

Dan
 
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The protestors dont care who gets hurt or taken out of a job, they want all logging stopped.

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Careful about speaking for others, Frans, you might be wrong.

Would it be accurate for me to assert that every timber worker doesn't care about the downstream residents who get hurt or flooded out of their houses by Maxxam's greed driven clear-cutting?

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I know all this from personal experiance, being very close to the tree extractor/tree sitter situation.

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Have we met? Healdsburg isn't exactly Freshwater, and is actually a few hours from here (Humboldt), where the damage by Maxxam is being done.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Jeny Card aka 'remedy', In what town do you lay your head at night?
Oh yea thats right you live in Eureka, got it (and more).
Frans

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If you made a point, I missed it. I lay my head closer to the tree I lived in for a year than Eureka proper. Eureka, Humboldt bay and the Pacific Ocean were all visible from my treesit. Healdsburg was not.

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he's half a bubble shy of plumb.

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That's funny. /forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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Tom, you might consider sweeping this nutcase off the site.

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That's not likely to happen :)

I know both of you and at times you are in perfect balance out there on opposite ends of the scale. That's what makes the TB Cafe what it is, friendly banter. Now if either of you were to start swinging or busting up furniture, we might have to toss you out. That's not likely though, you're both good folks!
 
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