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Appeals Court Delays Pepper Spray Trial

by No Pepper Spray (nopepperspray-subscribe [at] yahoogroups.com)
The federal Court of Appeals issued a stay order May 8 delaying the Headwaters vs.Humboldt pepper spray trial until our emergency appeal is decided.
Appeals court stay order delays Q-tip pepper spray Eureka trial from starting May 12!

Late Thursday, May 8, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay order delaying our second trial until the appeals court decides our emergency appeal. The case was assigned to the same three-judge appellate panel which handled our previous appeal and strongly reversed Judge Walker's decisions dismissing our case and granting immunity to the sheriff and his chief deputy.

The appeals court stay order instructs the defendants in our suit (Humboldt County, City of Eureka, Sheriff Gary Philp and ex-Sheriff Dennis Lewis) to file a response to our petition for writ of mandamus by May 20. We plaintiffs then have until June 2 to file a reply to their response. We think the appellate panel will make a decision sometime in June.

Attorney Ben Rosenfeld, who prepared the emergency appeal, had this reaction: "We are grateful the court has taken our appeal seriously because it IS serious. We were ready to go to trial on May 12 as scheduled, but we want it to be a fair trial with an unbiased judge and jury, and this is the way that can happen. Of course, there has been no decision yet on our petition to hold the trial in San Francisco and assign a different judge. But the 9th Circuit takes our arguments seriously enough to delay the trial until it has time to consider them carefully. We are hopeful that they will ultimately make the right decision."

Plaintiff Spring Lundberg commented on KMUD radio (Garberville/Redway CA) news this evening: "I love Humboldt County, I love the forests here, and I love the people. I think it's unfortunate that a multinational corporation is ripping us apart. I believe in bridging the gap between workers and forest defenders, and I hope that can happen and heal our community. I do love Humboldt County, but I believe that our pepper spray trial needs an international forum, and that will happen if we get a trial in San Francisco. And I would just add that this case should no more be tried in Eureka than a civil rights trial in 1965 should be moved to Selma, Alabama."

This case arose from the Humboldt County Sheriff's 1997 use of pepper spray applied to the eyes with Q-tips or sprayed from inches away to try to coerce nonviolent Headwaters Forest protesters into unlocking their arms from a human chain. Nine activists filed a federal civil rights suit, and after a hung jury in a 1998 San Francisco trial the judge dismissed the case rather than hold a new trial. The appeals court reversed the judge's dismissal, granting a new trial, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed. When the case was returned to the original trial judge, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, he decided to hold the new trial in Humboldt County's seat, Eureka, long a hotbed of controversy over logging protests against Pacific Lumber Company.

The political turmoil in Humboldt is particularly hot right now because Humboldt County's new District Attorney recently filed a $250-million fraud suit against Pacific Lumber, and the company has responded by instigating a recall campaign against the DA. The company has also been running a controversial ad campaign on TV, radio and in full-page newspaper ads portraying local environmental activists as "eco-terrorists" threatening timber workers and their families. Earth First! forest activists in the region have for over a decade rejected the use of tree-spiking and equipment sabotage, instead using civil disobedience tactics like tree-sitting and blockading logging roads, often using human chains in which activists lock their arms together inside metal tubes designed to make it more difficult to remove them.

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by Zany Muse (Zanymuse2 [at] yahoo.com)
What they say and what they do are two different things. SAYING they reject the practices of property damage is not believable when the incidents continue to happen and equiptment is frequently damaged or destroyed.

They say "innocent until proven guilty" yet they set themselves as judge, jury and executioners over Logging companies.
by Indigo Bunting
As your basic middle-aged, middle-class mom, I have to express my admiration for these gentle and brave souls who are putting themselves on the line to save the forests for all of us. It's quite clear their dedication runs deep, because they show much more self-control than the rest of us do in our day-to-day lives.

Clearly, if they wanted to, they could destroy most of PL's machinery, trucks, tractors, and so forth in less than a week. That one tractor only has been damaged is pretty clear evidence that it wasn't the forest defenders who were involved. Instead, they choose to risk something far more valuable to them and to their community--themselves.

It seems as though the community will eventually come together over this issue. I just hope it happens before all the ancient trees are destroyed, and before another activist is injured.
by Marian the Librarian
God Bless the Tree People!! We're all rooting for you!
by Same old B.S.
Hey Bunting, you must be new to the mis-information world. It has been more than one tractor as you state. As for the ancient trees, It seems that you Eco-Terrorist just don't get it through your heads. P.L. can no longer mill old growth. You see, that is why my handle is "Same old B.S.". Because all I ever hear from you people is the SAME OLD B.S.. All of you just can't seem to realize that the old growth that you wanted saved, has been. Now it seems as though you tree huggers are on a new mission now, and that is to shut down logging altogether. And you tell us that you don't want to stop logging. HA!!!
by Same old B.S.
Marian the Librarian,
The real tree people are the loggers. And if you want to bless the loggers, then it is kindly accepted.
by Marian the Librarian
Yes, and God bless the loggers, too, even if they are eco-terrorists!

by Indigo Bunting
To the person who writes the same old BS: Many ancient trees have been cut in the last two months. It's even worse that PL is cutting all these ancient trees if it's true, as you say, that they can't even mill them. Isn't that like killing someone for their organs and then not even harvesting the organs? You must be furious at Maxxam! Everyone I've talked to wants these trees saved.

We're so thankful someone is willing to stand up against corporate greed and waste in order to save our country!
by Same old B.S.
In your dreams Librarian.
by Same old B.S.
Hey Bunting,
Tell me, are these the trees that the treesitters were in? Last that I seen on these trees, they were de-limbed, but still standing. If tree huggers would stay out of the trees, then they won't get pruned.Stay out of the forest.


















by Indigo Bunting
Ho ho ho, that's not the same old BS! That's something silly and new! Imagine! Maxxam was planning to leave all those lovely old trees there, but someone touched them, and that made them mad, so they cut them all down!

I remember my kids doing stuff like that when they were toddlers. Silly old BS! That's not Maxxam's game! They cut them down as fast as they can and take 'em on down to the mill. Or rather, Maxxam gets the poor loggers to do it for them, and then they suck up all that lovely money with a looong straw all the way from Texas!
by Marian the Librarian
I'm dreaming of blessings for loggers, forest defenders, grumpy people, positive people, and everyone else.
by Same old B.S.
Indigo,
Tell me one thing, and I have said it before to other airheads, If I was to come over to your place and decided to camp out on your front lawn, what would you do? You say that Maxaam was just iching to cut these trees down to mill them, where? You say that Maxaam is sucking up all the money from Texas, Where do you think your money goes when you shop at Sears, or eat at McDonalds or Burger King. And it's even worse when you eat at Burger King because U.K. is sucking on a very long straw. Get with the plan bunting. Oh yeah, you said that it made Maxaam mad that someone touched the trees. Well get on with life bunting for it was on Private property. If I remember right, there is a thing called " private landowners rights"! if you don't believe in this, then move to a third world country where you don't own property. See how you feel then.
by Indigo Bunting
BS--stop and consider what a peculiar world view it is, that anyone should willingly choose to eat at Burger King or MacDonald's, or shop at Sears or Walmart. I suppose people who did those things would think corporations were some kind of god, and should own the world and do what they will with it.

Now imagine that there are many people who believe in what this country's founders described, but who cook their own food and make their own clothes, or pay others in their town to cook or sew nice things for them. They don't depend on foods whose safety has been compromised or the labor of children in sweatshops. Most of all, they don't have to subject themselves to the burden of mass commercialism. They've started thinking about the importance of our future, and what's good for our community, instead of passively handing over the last of our resources to the bizarrely wealthy.
by Wildcard
BS seems adament about the property rights of Maxxam/PL, but can't or won't talk about the property rights of those who's property (homes, ground water, apple orchards, etc) have been destroyed and degraded by Maxxam/PL logging practices. It doesn't just work one way. Those unfortunate folks have asked time and time again for protection for their property, but asking for help from a system that is ruled by Maxxam/PL is like pissing in the wind. All you get is more dirty water to deal with.
by do you want it all
What do we know about private property? That if you own some, you are still not allowed to have toxic waste there,or generate it. You aren't even allowed to let a a mud-slide off of it and destory other peoples home. This was proved when Maxxam lost the law-suit filed against Maxxam by Stafford Road. So is P.L. a monster, why certainly!
by q-tip
Wrong, bucko. Maxxam did not lose the Stafford suit. The Stafford suit was settled because Maxxam's bean counters decided that settling was cheaper than the cost of going to trial whether they won or not. That was reported in the newspapers. The Stafford plaintiff's case was incredibly weak and based mostly on emotion. Settling was a huge political mistake because it allowed the Stafford myth to continue and encourage more extortion.
by p.l. lost
Maxxam lost, thats what happens when you settle a lawsuit not in your favor!
by From Maryland
Whether or not you agree with the protesters, the use of pepper spray on non-violent protesters is simply wrong. It was torture and excessive force. The police could have simply removed the protesters' chains and arrested them. Pepper spray can cause permanent damage and certainly causes great amounts of pain, and if the protesters were posing no threat to anyone. It recalls the violence used against the peaceful demonstrators for civil rights in the 1960's and torture methods used in non-democratic countries.
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