[Imc-newsroom] Judi Bari headline for newshour

[Molly Stentz]

Hi,
Don't know if anything went out on last week's newshour about the Judi
Bari case but here is a longish headline I wrote if you want to use it
tomorrow.
-Molly

FBI ORDERED TO PAY $4.4 MILLION IN DAMAGES FOR TARGETING ACTIVISTS

Oakland, CA - JUNE 11, 2002

On June 11, in a landmark civil rights case, a federal jury ordered the
FBI and the Oakland Police Department to award $4.4 million in damages in
favor of activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney for harrassment and
violation of their First Amendment rights.

This settlement marks the beginning of the end of a decade-long battle
between activists and the FBI over what some say was an FBI-orchestrated
murder attempt on the lives of Bari and Cherney that the FBI then used to
accuse them of domestic terrorism and to slander, vilify, and silence
environmental activists.

Bari and Cherney were well-known members of the environmental organization
Earth First!, which organized massive campaigns to protect Redwood and
other old-growth forests in Northern California from destructive logging
practices. They were responsible for organizing an event called Redwood
Summer which drew thousands of people from around the country to protect
the endangered forests. They were also the target of many right-wing
groups and vigilante loggers, and were under intense scrutiny and
harrassment by local law enforcement and the FBI.

On May 24, 1990, Bari and Cherney were driving through Oakland, California
in Bari's station wagon when Bari stepped on the brakes and triggered a
motion-activated pipe bomb that had been planted beneath the driver's side
seat. The bomb exploded, sending shrapnel and nails throughout the car
and its two passengers, leaving a 2 by 4 foot hole in the car's floorboard
and leaving the two activists seriously injured yet still alive, Bari with
a broken back and shattered pelvis and Cherney with loss of hearing.

As Bari lie in a hospital operating room just hours after the bombing,
Oakland police were busy filing the paperwork to arrest them on suspicion
of possessing explosives. The Oakland police and FBI then issued a series
of press releases triumphantly announcing the arrest, falsely insinuating
and associating Earth First! with the bombing, and ultimately accusing
Bari and Cherney of attempting to blow themselves up.

Bari and Cherney filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the FBI and
Oakland Police a year after the bombing. They accused them of violating
their civil rights in attempt to discredit Earth First! and its political
message. The case finally went to court this April.

According to attorneys for the activists, this has been only the
third-ever civil rights case with a jury trail against the FBI, and the
damages awarded were the higest ever in history.

The $4.4 million dollar settlement surpassed the damages awarded to the
family of Black Panther Party activist Fred Hampton, who was targeted and
killed in an FBI raid in 1969 and those awarded to the family of Vicky
Weaver, who was shot and killed by an FBI sniper at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in
two highly politicized cases.

Supporters of the activists say this is a huge victory for free speech
and the rights of citizens, yet in the case of Judi Bari, it came way too
late. Bari died of breast cancer in 1997.

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Headline brought to you by Molly Stentz of IMC Radio News.