Feds Target Bay Area Activists

Since the arrest of Peter Young in Santa Clara County, after over 7 years on the FBI's WANTED list, there have been increasing levels of activity by the feds in the counties of San Francisco, Alameda, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz. This comes as no great surprise as the Department of Justice seems desperate to try and blame their failure to arrest Peter on some sort of vast consiparacy.

Under this thinly veiled excuse for harassment, federal agents have been swarming over activists in the bay area - following them, detaining them, and most recently raiding two homes. At 6am, Sunday April 10th, members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI, ATF, Secret Service, Coast Guard, and local police raided activist homes with guns drawn. Items carried away in the raids ranged from blank unopened CDs and DVDs to cell phones,
computers, books, and a Conflict audio tape. At least the feds had some good music to listen to for a change!

During the federal occupation of the homes lawyers were denied entry and occupants of the houses were prevented from observing exactly what items the agents were actually taking. One activist was also arrested on an outstanding warrant she had never received any notice about, but was released from jail within hours. Local police indicated their reluctance in cooperating in this sort of blatant harassment of activists.

The scope of the warrants issued, and the receipt for items the feds
admitted to taking suggests that their primary emphasis is on targetting people who are doing support work for Peter. All materials related to his support campaign found at the homes were seized, and people who have visited Peter in jail, or attended court dates have been followed.

Peter's supporters will not let this intimidation campaign deter them. Within an hour, attorneys were present at both homes and a lawyer is currently handling the return of property and other legal motions.

It is more important than ever that we stand by Peter Young and show the Department of Justice that the animal liberation movement will not be swayed by this sort of harassment and guilt by association mentality. It is only by standing up for our rights and spotlighting this sort of misuse of federal authority that we will ever defeat it.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

* Support Peter Young and all animal liberation prisoners:
http://www.SupportPeter.com
http://www.nocompromise.org/resources/prisoners.html

* Exercise your right to remain silent when
approached by federal agents and contact No Compromise
if the feds are on your back:
http://www.nocompromise.org/issues/23legalrights.html
http://www.nocompromise.org/news/attack.html

* Educate everyone you know about the importance of
maintaining your rights and spotlighting government
abuse of authority to chill the free speech rights
of activists