AR-News: (US) Free Free: The Case of Jeff Luers

[Animalconcerns]

[from Infoshop News]

You can judge my actions, but you can’t judge my heart. It cannot be said
that I am unfeeling and uncaring. My heart is filled with love and
compassion. I fight to protect life, all life, not to take it. —from Jeff
Luers’s sentencing statement, June 11, 2001

Back in June 2000, a young activist named Jeff Luers, known to his friends
as ‘Free,’ set fire with friend Craig Marshall to three Sport Utility
Vehicles (SUVs) at Romania Chevrolet car lot in Eugene, Oregon, using
simple milk jugs of gasoline, incense sticks and matches. Instead of
receiving a three year sentence and fading into the background, Jeff was
slapped with a 22.5 year sentence—which was not only longer than his
lifetime at that point, but is one usually reserved for the most heinous
of crimes like rape and murder, not acts of property destruction.
...
>From the prosecutor’s actions, it seemed that Jeff was a trophy
conviction—one that would deter future actions and allay criticism of
Oregon’s inability to solve cases of property destruction by the Earth
Liberation Front (ELF). Since 1996, over 200 actions against animal
industries, logging, mining and biotechnology have been claimed by the ELF
or ALF (Animal Liberation Front), causing hundreds of millions of dollars
in damage to these companies—cases that are still unsolved. The action
taken by Jeff and Craig however was not claimed by the ELF and they have
stringently denied involvement in the group. Nonetheless, the prosecutor
seemed to be driven by the need for a major conviction.

full story:
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/01/25/5597568

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