Eco-terrorism or Eco-tage: An Argument for the Proper Frame

Abstract

Between 1996 and 2001, a group of radical environmentalists called “the Family” committed several acts of arson, sabotage, and other destruction in the name of the Earth Liberation Front. As the New York Times reported, these activists burned or vandalized “an electrical transmission tower; timber research centers; a Eugene police station; a ski resort in Vail, Colo.; and other sites in five Western states that they had viewed as threats to the environment or their mission” (Yardley 1). Three members of “the Family” were arrested in 2005, and in May 2007, Chelsea D. Gerlach, Stanislas G. Meyeroff, and Kevin Tubbs were all sentenced not merely as arsonists or vandals but as terrorists. In each case, Judge Ann L. Aiken used the “terrorism enhancement” classification to significantly extend the sentence. The three activists received 34 years and 7 months of prison time between them for “ecoterrorism.” On the morning of April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh parked a rental truck filled with racing fuel and fertilizer in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Okla. Just as the building opened for the day's business, McVeigh lit two timed fuses and abandoned the truck. At 9:02 a.m. the truck exploded as he'd planned, killing 168 people, including 19 children. McVeigh was labeled a domestic terrorist. On September 11, 2001, nineteen hijackers boarded four commercial airplanes. Two of those planes crashed into the World Trade Center's North and South Towers in New York City. The third