The Green Scare

Note: This is part 1 of 2.

On December 7, 2005, one of the largest roundups of environmental and animal liberation activists in American history began. Using the code name "Operation Backfire," the FBI arrested seven people in four different states, for allegedly taking part in a wide variety of actions the government attributes to the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Since then, many other people have been caught up in what has been called The Green Scare [4], and just recently, most of the defendants were sentenced to prison.

Lauren Regan is an extremely active attorney who also works with the non-profit organization, the Civil Liberties Defense Center [5]. The CLDC focuses on "defending and upholding the rights of activists through education, outreach, litigation, and legal support and assistance." One of their projects these days is to fight against The Green Scare, and Lauren has been a prominent voice against the government throughout all this.

Lauren gives a breakdown of what has happened in the Green Scare, talking about some of the legal and illegal tactics used by the government, including intense criminalization (some defendants were facing Life plus hundreds of years in prison for their roles in arsons), infiltration and hiring provocateurs, and more. Lauren also shares insights learned from the sentencings into the motivations and the desperation of the government, and talks about security culture [6], organizing in response to this repression, and doing what we know is right. Lauren is an excellent speaker and has unique insights into all this, since she has been Jeff Luers [7]' lawyer, and has been active in these issues for a long time. Now that the most of the sentencings have been handed down, there is a lot to reflect on.

For more interviews by Healing the Earth Radio, please check out resistanceisfertile.ca [8].

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