Judi Bari

Wikipedia:

Judi Bari (November 7, 1949 – March 2, 1997) was an American environmentalist and labor leader, a feminist, and the principal organizer of Earth First! campaigns against logging in the ancient redwood forests of Northern California in the 1980s and '90. She also organized efforts through Earth First! - Industrial Workers of the World Local 1 to bring timber workers and environmentalists together in common cause.

Early life

Bari was raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, the daughter of mathematician Ruth Aaronson Bari and Arthur Bari. One of her sisters was New York Times science journalist Gina Kolata; the other is a housewife. Her father was of Italian descent and her mother was Jewish. She had two children, Lisa and Jessica.

The Car Bombing

On May 24, 1990, Bari was severely injured by a pipe bomb which exploded in her car as she and fellow Earth First! member Darryl Cherney traveled through Oakland, California, on their way to Santa Cruz. Bari and Cherney were on an organizing tour for "Redwood Summer", a campaign of nonviolent protests focused on saving redwood forests in Northern California and building connections with loggers through the IWW.

When the Oakland police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) immediately accused Bari and Cherney of knowingly carrying a bomb for use in an act of terrorism, the story made headlines nationwide. Bari's supporters pointed out that the explosive was a pipe bomb packed with nails for shrapnel effect, and that it was equipped with a motion trigger to ensure that it would explode only when the car was driven by Bari. The bomb was also placed directly under the driver's seat, not in the back seat or luggage area as it presumably would have been if Bari had been transporting it knowingly. After seven weeks of continual news stories citing repeated police claims that all evidence pointed to Bari and Cherney as culprits, the District Attorney announced that he would not file any formal charges against the pair due to insufficient evidence against them.

The bomb closely resembled one that had been left outside a Louisiana-Pacific lumber mill office in Cloverdale, California. That bomb included a pipe bomb and a can of gasoline, but it misfired, failing to ignite and doing no damage. Bari denied any connection with the lumber mill bomb, which she suspected was placed specifically to frame her, as it was found next to a homemade sign saying "LP screws millworkers," which was something she would be expected to say.

The bomb in Oakland on May 24 also closely resembled "crime scenes" fabricated by the FBI in a "bomb school" held in redwood country earlier that year. The FBI school was intended to train local and state police officers on how to investigate bomb scenes. The school taught that bomb explosions inside a vehicle were not likely to involve targets of bombing but indicated the knowing, criminal transportation of homemade bombs. This was said to be because it was difficult to break into a locked car to plant a bomb.

Bari had received numerous death threats citing her anti-logging activism in the weeks before the bombing. She had reported them to local police, and after the bombing Bari's attorney turned written threats over to the FBI for investigation. The local police and the FBI never investigated, court evidence later showed.

Just days after the bombing, while Bari was still in hospital, Mike Geniella of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat received a letter claiming responsibility for placing the bomb in Bari's car and at the Cloverdale L-P mill. It was written in a high-flown, biblical style and signed "The Lord's Avenger," who stated further that his or her motivation was Bari's defense of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Ukiah, California, during an anti-abortion protest. The letter also described the construction of the bombs in great detail. Some, including Bari and her friends, suspected at first that The Lord's Avenger was Bill Staley, a mill worker and religiously zealous man who had harassed the director of the Ukiah clinic, allegedly threatening to rape her and to blow up the clinic itself on several occasions. Bari later came to believe, however, that Staley was not responsible for the letter, which she felt was intended to sow confusion and throw people off the track of the true bomber.

In early 2005, a critical biography of Bari titled The Secret Wars of Judi Bari, by Kate Coleman, drew fierce condemnation from Cherney, Bari's estate, and their friends and supporters, who claimed hundreds of factual errors and a bias against Bari and Earth First! They also pointed out that the book was published by Encounter Books, a non-profit publishing house founded by neoconservative Peter Collier and funded primarily by arch-conservative foundations not sympathetic to Bari's causes. Coleman presented speculation that Bari's ex-husband had planted the bomb in hopes of killing her and Cherney. A review of the book in the LA Times by Mark Hertsgaard entitled, Too many rumors, too few facts to examine eco-activism case, said, "the reporting is thin and sloppy, and the humdrum prose is marred by dubious speculation." However, the Times Review was said to contain its own errors.

Civil Rights Trial

A year after the still unsolved bombing, Bari and Cherney filed a federal civil rights suit claiming that the FBI and police officers falsely arrested the pair and attempted to frame them as terrorists so as to discredit their political organizing in defense of the redwood forests.

In 2002, a jury in their federal civil lawsuit found that Bari's and Cherney's civil rights had been violated. As a result of the jury's verdict, three FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers were ordered to pay a total of $4.4 million to Cherney and to Bari's estate. The award was a response to the defendants' violation of the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and for the defendants' various unlawful acts, including unlawful search and seizure in violation of the plaintiff's Fourth Amendment rights. Bari died on March 2, 1997 of breast cancer, five years before the court findings. At trial the FBI and the Oakland Police pointed fingers at each other.

While neither would admit wrongdoing, the jury found both liable finding "both agencies admitted they had amassed intelligence on the couple before the bombing." This evidence supported the jury's finding that both the FBI and the Oakland police persecuted Bari and Cherney for being bombed instead of trying to find the true perpetrators in order to discredit and sabotage Earth First! and the upcoming Redwood Summer, thereby violating their First Amendment rights and justifying the large award. Simply, instead of looking for the actual terrorists, they persecuted the victims of that terror because of their political activism.

The story of the case and the trial inspired an award winning documentary movie, The Forest For The Trees. The film, which aired on PBS and the Sundance Channel, follows the case through the lead attorney, civil rights legend Dennis Cunningham, and is told by his daughter, Bernadine Mellis. Among the awards received was the Grand Prize at the Green Film Festival in Seoul. The late Howard Zinn said, "the film itself is so inspiring I hope it will be seen widely."

Judi Bari Day

On May 20, 2003, the Oakland City Council unanimously voted a resolution saying: "Whereas, Judi Bari was a dedicated activist, who worked for many social and environmental causes, the most prominent being the protection and stewardship of California's ancient redwood forests. ... Now therefore be it resolved that the City of Oakland shall designate May 24 as Judi Bari Day and celebrate and honor the work of Judi Bari in advancing the causes of forest protection, eco-feminism, labor organizing, bridge building between environmentalists and timber workers, and civil rights for political activists; and be it further resolved that the City shall encourage its schools, civic institutions and citizens to memorialize Judi Bari's work through art, media, festivals, school assignments and other creative means."

Bari wrote many essays and articles and gave speeches, some of which she compiled into her book Timber Wars (Common Courage Press, 1994).