Redwood Summer Justice Project
www.judibari.org
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY
15, 2000
TRIAL DATE SET IN CIVIL RIGHTS CASE
10th Anniversary Commemoration of the car-bombing of
Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney
Contacts: Alicia
Littletree (707)462-9145, Noelle Hanrahan (415)648-4505,
Redwood
Summer Justice Project (707)887-0262
Oakland,
CA--On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the car-bombing of Earth First!
activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, a federal judge has set a trial date
for their landmark civil rights lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) and Oakland Police (OPD).
On
October 1, 2001 a federal jury will hear dramatic evidence proving that the FBI
and the Oakland Police conducted an illegal campaign to disrupt and destroy
Earth First!s Redwood Summer campaign protesting cut-and-run logging of
California’s old-growth redwood forest.
On
May 24, 1990 Earth First! organizers Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were targets
of a car-bomb assassination attempt in Oakland California as they were on their
way to a Redwood Summer organizing event.
The bombing was preceded by an aggressive campaign of threats and
harassment aimed at stopping their nonviolent defense of Northern California’s
ancient redwood forest.
The
FBI and Oakland police arrived on the scene of the blast within minutes and
ignored all the evidence that Judi and Darryl were victims of a
politically-motivated bomb attack.
Instead, the government agents conspired to frame Bari and Cherney,
arresting them within hours for transporting explosives and using this violent
attack against the environmentalists to falsely associate them with bombs. With the police and FBI investigation
focusing only on the victims, the real bombers were never apprehended and
remain at large. Evidence gathered in the civil rights lawsuit so far,
including dramatic police photos and thousands of pages of FBI files,
substantiates Bari and Cherney’s claim of egregious police abuse.
In
commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the bombing, Redwood Summer Justice
Project is sponsoring a series of events in the Bay Area calling for justice
for Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney.
On
Friday, May 19th, “Targets of COINTELPRO” will bring together activists in social justice movements in the
United States who have been targeted by FBI surveillance and disruption. Geronimo ji jaga Pratt (Black Panther leader
recently released after 27 years of false imprisonment), John Trudell (American
Indian Movement leader), Alicia Rodriguez (recently released Puerto Rican
political prisoner), and Karen Pickett (Earth First!), are among the
speakers.
Date: Friday, May 19, 2000; Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Ashkenaz, Berkeley (San Pablo and Gilman
Streets).
On
Wednesday, May 24th, commemorate the tenth anniversary of the car-bomb
assassination attempt with U. Utah
Phillips, Laurie Lewis, dozens of fiddlers and others will “Fiddle Down the
FBI!”
Date: Wednesday, May 24, 2000; Time: 11:30 am
Location: San Francisco Federal Building, 450 Golden
Gate at Polk, San Francisco
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