Green Scare Updates: SHAC 7, Knowing Your Rights, and Double Standards

by Stephanie Ernst · 2009-10-21 08:17:00 UTC
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The usual weekly (or biweekly, sometimes, I know) Animals in the Blogs roundup is on its way soon, but in advance of that, I want to direct you to the latest goings-on at Green Is the New Red in a separate post because Will Potter has published multiple important reports this past week. For example, as many know by now, the SHAC 7 conviction was upheld, and this is bad news for all activists, as Will notes:

This case is much bigger than the SHAC 7, and it is bigger than the animal rights movement. The AETA 4 are facing terrorism charges for chalking slogans and protesting with masks. Climate groups are organizing massive civil disobedience campaigns. These movements continue to grow, and so does the crackdown against them.

This is critical time in American history. Corporations, working alongside ambitious prosecutors, are radically expanding cultural and legal conceptions of “terrorism” in order to push a political agenda. Mainstream animal and environmental groups, the press, civil liberties groups, they have all largely remained silent on this historic case. As a result, this appellate court has issued its sweeping ruling with impunity.

Appellate Court: Encouraging Civil Disobedience Is Not Protected Speech: Will examines the SHAC 7 ruling and its implications in detail here. This post is a must-read.

Pet Shop Protesters Shot -- Will It Be Labeled Terrorism?: "If an animal rights activist had committed a crime like this, against an animal researcher for instance, they would undoubtedly be prosecuted as a 'terrorist' under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act."

Activist to Iowa Grand Jury: “We will not be intimidated. We will not cooperate.”

Know Your Rights Booklet for Activists (image, above, of the booklet cover courtesy of the Center for Constitutional Rights)

Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
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