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

categories: Activism and Actions, Green Scare, Politics and Law

Published October 21, 2009 @ 08:17AM PT

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)

Share this Post

Add a Comment

For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

Comment

Check Spelling

Email me when there are new posts to this thread
Comment Policy

Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.

Author

Stephanie is an independent animal rights advocate, a vegan, a tree-hugging environmentalist, and a freelance editor and writer. She lives in St. Louis with an aging corgi-lab and an adolescent rescued pit bull.