(en) US, WSA, Ideas & Action - Property Before People By Mike Kolhoff

"Government has no other end, but the preservation of property." - John Locke ---- The 
granting of corporations the status and protections usually reserved for individuals has 
hammered home a simple message: property is more important than people. Nowhere has this 
been more apparent than in the repression of the radical ecology movement known as the 
"Green Scare"; in every prosecution for civil disobedience or sabotage, the "rights" of 
private property have consistently been demonstrated as superior to those of individual 
human protesters freedom to act on their beliefs. ---- The leveling of felony charges 
against protestors during the Occupy movement and in previous summit protests has been out 
of all proportion to the supposed crimes committed, making it clear that such egregious 
prosecution can only be understood as an act of intimidation.

In the recent trial of three women for blockading the Endridge Pipeline in Michigan, the 
judge, William Collette, announced in a pre-trial hearing:

""I am tired of people coming in here seeking publicity for themselves...I'm ready to try 
these cases. ... I'm tired of it, and it's going to go to trial...I am unsympathetic to 
people who try to use this courtroom as some place to make a statement about your problems."

He was tired of protestors and civil disobedience. With such a judge, the outcome of the 
trial was a foregone conclusion.

"The trial of peaceful activists ended today with the jury finding Vicci Hamlin, Lisa 
Leggio, and Barb Carter guilty of both charges brought against them: trespassing and 
resisting and obstructing an officer. Supporters are deeply saddened that after 
deliberation for over 10 hours the verdict returned was guilty of all counts. The jury was 
split most of this time, returning to the courtroom several times for clarification. 
Sentencing was scheduled for March 5th and the defendants' bail was revoked and they were 
immediately taken into custody."

Along with ecological dissidents, animal rights activists have also been specifically 
targeted for suppression: "Bills that criminalize whistleblowing on farms have passed in 
over a dozen states so far. Often referred to as "Ag-Gag" bills, they prohibit taking 
pictures or filming on a farm without permission to prevent whistleblowers from exposing 
animal cruelty. Many of the bills are based on ALEC's model legislation, "The Animal and 
Ecological Terrorism Act." The ALEC model bill not only bans taking pictures or video on 
farms, but would also place violators on a "terrorist registry." 
(http://frackthemedia.com/surveillance-political-dissent-part-ii-criminalizing-dissent/)

The price of peaceful protest has been increased exponentially, or rather, the price of 
effectively expressing dissent has increased. Participation in ineffective expressions of 
dissent is still okay, such as participating in elections. With the electoral system owned 
completely by the capitalists, all electoral politics are ineffective politics.

Using the legal system as a stick to beat dissidents with isn't a new development of 
course. You would need to go no further back than the trials of the protesters of the 
Vietnam era to find people being prosecuted not for actual crimes, but for their 
opposition to the status quo. The thing that's hard to digest is that twenty years ago the 
majority of people would have readily agreed that such prosecutions are contrary to the 
spirit of free speech within an open society. Now, if people actually do think this way 
they seem content to be silent on the subject.