Arrested Gap protestors released, all charges dropped

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, May 28, 2002, two protestors, Scott Munson and James Caroll, were arrested in front of the Gap clothing store at Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco while keeping a vigil protesting the Fisher family's plans to convert redwood forestland to housing developments. The Fishers, founders and major shareholders of Gap, Inc, bought 235,000 acres of redwood forestland in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties in 1998 and have been plagued by Gap protests ever since. The protestors, charged with vandalism and conspiracy-both felonies-claimed there were no grounds for the arrests, and went on a hunger strike while in jail, protesting the violation of their First Amendment rights.

Evidently, their claims were justified. All charges were dropped and the protestors were released from jail yesterday evening. They have resumed their vigil at the Haight Street Gap store.

"Arresting people of conscience who take a public stand against endangered species extirpation, watershed destruction, and sweatshop abuse is a gross transgression of our Constitutional rights and misuse of community resources. This kind of harassment on the part of the SFPD echoes FBI/Oakland police harassment of redwood activist Judi Bari after she was bombed in 1990, and should not be tolerated by civil society," stated Munson, who has called on all Bay Area environmentalists, human rights activists, and civil rights advocates to assemble at the Gap store at Haight and Ashbury for an constinued protests this week. The Bari lawsuit against the FBI and Oakland police is currently being tried in Oakland.

Mary Bull, Coordinator of the Save the Redwoods-Boycott the Gap Campaign, said that the Gap vigil has been called in response to the recent news that the Fishers intend to convert their redwood holdings in Sonoma County to housing developments. "When the Fishers bought the land, we predicted that, after logging the last merchantable timber, they would convert the forest to vineyards and subdivisions-with a few tree zoos thrown in at public expense to show what great environmentalists they are. They have begun this process with the Willow Creek watershed. Meanwhile, the Fishers' logging company is filing clearcut logging plans hand over fist on their holdings in Mendocino County-69 logging plans in 2001 alone. We're witnessing the extinguishing of endangered species and the collapse of the ecosystem."

Mary Pjerrou of the Greenwood Watershed Association, a public interest group that watchdogs logging on the redwood coast said that the Fishers and their logging company are using every trick in the book to avoid public accountability for logging impacts. "The police unjustly arresting logging protestors at the Gap is yet another attempt to suppress dissent and silence and punish the public for telling the truth. We're in court with the Fishers' logging company again this Friday, trying to enforce court rulings on this very issue-public accountability," stated Pjerrou.

Bull said, "At a point in history when 80% of the Earth's forests have been obliterated or so severely damaged that they can no longer be logged sustainably-most of this done in the last 30 years-and when we are facing a world water crisis, our remaining forestland and watersheds should be vehemently protected and restored. Instead, the Fishers are destroying them for profit. Who are the criminals here?"