From Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/04/30-7
ACLU charges that bills that target actions against logging companies “effectively criminalize civil disobedience for one particular group.”
Andrea Germanos
Published on Tuesday, April 30, 2013 by Common Dreams
If you lie down in the road or sit in a tree to stop the clear cutting of old growth forests, you may be an “environmental terrorist,” an Oregon lawmaker charges.
The ACLU of Oregon is sounding the alarm over the state bills touted as targeting “environmental terrorism” but that the rights organization says would “effectively criminalize civil disobedience for one particular group.”
The bills in question, House Bill 2595 and House Bill 2596 were passed on Monday with overwhelming support.
HB 2595 criminalizes any act that “intentionally hinders, impairs or obstructs, or attempts to hinder, impair or obstruct, the performance of the forest practice,” and
Makes first conviction subject to maximum penalty of one year’s imprisonment, $6,250 fine, or both. Makes second or subsequent conviction subject to maximum penalty of 18 months’ imprisonment, $125,000 fine, or both. Requires mandatory minimum term of 13 months’ imprisonment and mandatory minimum fine of $25,000 for second or subsequent conviction.
HB 2596, The Register-Guard summarizes, “seeks to clarify that a private company contracted to log or otherwise manage state forest land can sue activists for financial damages related to any disruption caused by their protests. Such civil lawsuits could result in financial judgments against protesters.”
Rep. Wayne Krieger (R-Gold Beach), who carried both bills and is owner of a tree farm, said that HB 2595 “addresses environmental terrorism,” and said the bill would “allow your district attorney to charge these terrorists with a crime and make them accountable.”
“There’s been a 30-year reign of terror by these people having no respect for the rights of others,” the Associated Press quotes Rep. Wayne Krieger, R-Gold Beach, as saying. “If they want to do civil disobedience, they can do that. It’s part of the Oregon Constitution, and the federal. But when they go beyond that and start chaining themselves to trees, locking themselves to equipment, and laying down in the road, and in any way they impede access, then they have gone over the line.”
Continue reading at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/04/30-7
