CALIFORNIA SCREAMING:
Police Torture of Redwood Crusaders
Sparks National Outrage; 
Headwaters Forest Still Hangs in the Balance
By Bill Weinberg



Pinochet Comes to Humboldt County
    Across the United States, citizens watched in outrage as
television news broadcast video footage of sheriff's deputies in
California's Humboldt County using pepper spray to torture young
activists engaged in non-violent civil disobedience. 
    The incidents took place on September 25 at the Scotia
headquarters of the Pacific Lumber Company (PL), and on October
16 at the Eureka offices of Republican Rep. Frank Riggs, PL's
staunchest beltway ally.
    A third video, taken October 3 on PL land at Bear Creek, is
still missing. "This one is probably the most brutal," says
attorney Mark Harris, who is representing the activists. 
    At Scotia, four young activists were given spray-torture
while their hands were locked. Only one was charged with any
violations. At Riggs' office, another four were similarly
tortured and arrested. They were all charged with trespass,
vandalism and resisting arrest, except one, a sixteen-year-old
girl. 
    At Riggs' office, activists brought in a stump on a dolly and
spread sawdust on the floor before locking their arms together in
metal sleeves called "black bears." When they refused to unlock
themselves, officers pulled back their hair to expose their
faces, pried open their eyelids, and applied Q-tips treated with
the pepper spray directly to their exposed eyes.
    "We don't know of any other case in the country where the
spray has been applied in this manner," says Ed O'Leary, legal
assistant to attorney Mark Harris. "Even the manufacturer
recommends that it be sprayed from no closer than three feet.
When they did spray it on the second round, they sprayed it right
in a girl's face."
    The officers say they were using pain compliance tactics to
get the protestors to unlock themselves. In Scotia, three
unlocked under torture, while four refused to, and were finally
carried out on stretchers. In Eureka, they all finally unlocked.
After they were all applied with spray in the eyes, officers gave
one protestor, Terry Slanetz, a blast directly in the face. She
told her colleagues it was too painful, and they would have to
release.
    On October 3, two young men at Bear Creek faced the same
deputies in the Scotia and Eureka incidents. They were similarly
swabbed in the eyes and sprayed directly in the face while their
hands were locked. Because no charges were filed against the two,
the county refuses to hand over the video.
    "What you see on tape and what is described in the police
report are two totally different things," says Harris. "Reports
describe a quick dose, wiped away. It was repeated doses, and
were not wiped away. The spray is designed to get more painful
the longer it stays in your eye."
    Humboldt County's official line is that this was the least
force that could have been used, and that the use of metal
sleeves leaves no alternative. Sheriff Dennis Lewis backed it up
as an acceptable practice. Only two of the five County
Supervisors came out publicly against it. Stan Dixon called the
spray application "overreaching and embarrassing." Roger Rodoni
also expressed misgivings.
    Altogether, nine activists were sprayed in the three
incidents. All those arrested, except two juveniles, spent five
days in the county jail at Eureka. Four face criminal charges.
Humboldt DA Terry Farmer is even pressing vandalism charges
against one protestor who reportedly wet his pants under torture-
-for pissing on the carpet.
    Attorney Harris demanded the videos, which had been taken by
the deputies for evidence, and released them to the press. Harris
has filed suit on behalf of the activists against the Humboldt
Sheriff's Department, the county, the city of Eureka, the Eureka
police department and the individual officers. "We are seeking
damages as well as a permanent injunction against this kind of
police tactic," he says. "We want the use of pepper spray stopped
against nonviolent protestors."
    Rep. Riggs supported the police action, telling reporters,
"These were not peaceful protestors." He claims that a gang of
masked intruders came in, "ransacking the office and frightening
my staff." He says they even pissed in his office.
    The kids in the video were not masked or violent. "The people
walked in, said good morning to the secretaries and locked
themselves down," says O'Leary. "There were no threats, no
obscene language, no violence. They were saying, `we're not
resisting.' If there was any urination, it was an involuntary
reflex to the pepper spray. But I can't confirm that it even
happened."
    Riggs has publicly called for making possession of black
bears a felony. "When drainpipes are outlawed only outlaws will
have drainpipes," quipped one Earth First!er to the Santa Rosa
Press-Democrat. 
    The press has generally been outraged. The San Francisco
Examiner editorial was titled "Justifying Torture." Only the
Eureka Times-Standard backs up the Sheriff's Department.
    "We are horrified that Sheriff Dennis Lewis has resorted to
such draconian tactics to silence peaceful protesters," says Paul
Mason, president of Garberville's Environmental Protection
Information Center (EPIC), the group at the forefront of the
struggle to save the Headwaters redwood forest.  
    Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Dan Lungren, who
helped legalize pepper spray in the state of California, refused
initially to move on the case, deferring to the FBI, which has
opened an investigation. He has since called the Humboldt torture
an "unprecedented" use of pepper spray.
    The activists' case, Headwaters Forest Defense, et al v.
County of Humboldt, et al, is being heard in a San Francisco
federal court. Judge Vaugn Walker has thus far refused to issue
an injunction.
    The activists experienced vision problems and pain for
several days following the incident, and are currently seeing
physicians and psychologists.
    "This is a real high-caliber group," says attorney Harris of
the young activists he is representing. He says Lisa
Sanderson-Fox, facing charges from the Eureka bust, is a Berkeley
Free Clinic volunteer. Nole Tendick, who was dragged handcuffed
through mud by the hood of his sweatshirt after being tortured at
Bear Creek, started an Amnesty International chapter at Half Moon
Bay high school, and worked as a domestic violence counselor in
San Mateo after his graduation.
    "I could go on. A phenomenal group of kids. They are the
leaders of their age bracket. And look at the message they're
getting back from the authorities."

Redwood Crusaders to Beltway Brokers: "No Deal!"
    This is the latest skirmish in the ongoing battle over PL's
Headwaters Forest, which includes America's last unprotected
ancient redwood groves. The Fortune 500 Maxxam company of Texas
magnate Charles Hurwitz bought out PL in a hostile take-over
funded by dirt-cheap, high-return "junk-bonds" in 1985. Maxxam
immediately began cutting the 2,000-year-old trees at nearly
three times the rate of PL's old owners, a local Humboldt family.
Hurwitz also raided the loggers' pension fund to pay back the
astronomical junk-bond debt.
    Last year, Rep. Riggs, Sen. Diane Feinstein and the Interior
Department worked out a deal with Hurwitz to "save" Headwaters.
But EPIC says the deal would only protect a fraction of the
60,000-acre Headwaters Forest. It would reward corporate raider
Hurwitz with an exorbitant $380 million for only 7,500 acres of
Headwaters, and only two of the six ancient groves. They also say
it does not guarantee habitat protection for endangered species
like the marbled murrelet and the coho salmon.
    The deal is also contingent on a Habitat Conservation Plan
which would allow PL to "incidentally" kill endangered species on
their property. The HCP would also be subject to a "no surprises"
policy, which could lock in the plan for decades, despite any new
information about the viability of fish and wildlife populations.
    Despite opposition from environmentalists, President Clinton
signed the Interior Appropriations bill on November 14. The bill
appropriates $250 million toward the federal share of the flawed
Headwaters Forest agreement. 
    The last-minute agreement between Clinton and Congressional
leaders averted a showdown over the $14 billion Interior
appropriations bill the president had threatened to veto, which
could have triggered a partial government shut-down.
    The bill puts up $250 million from Interior to buy
Headwaters, with California picking up the remaining $130
million. Humboldt County also gets $10 million to offset lost
timber revenues and the costs of law enforcement at protests over
the Headwaters Forest. Funds were also made available to purchase
a controversial mine outside Yellowstone National Park. Riders to
the bill also opened 30,000 acres in Alaska's Lake Clark National
Park to timber exploitation, increased National Forest Service
logging target figures in the Pacific Northwest and suspended
scientific review of National Forest management plans nationwide.
    The so-called Clinton-Hurwitz deal is still contingent on
approval by US Fish & Wildlife, California Fish & Game and the
California Department of Forestry. It calls for the purchase of
7,500 acres by the feds, to be incorporated into Six Rivers
National Forest, or perhaps a new national park.
    "Under the Clinton-Hurwitz deal you have a chunk of forest
that's going to look good but it'll just be a museum piece," says
Cecilia Lanman of EPIC. "It will be meaningless for the survival
of the marbled murrelet."
    Locals along Humboldt Bay are actively opposing the
complicated Clinton- Hurwitz deal because it calls for
compensating PL for Headwaters with local Elk River Timber
Company lands, with Elk River in turn being reimbursed by the
feds. Residents assume Maxxam would dramatically escalate the
rate of logging on the Elk River lands.
    Kevin Bundy of EPIC told reporters, "political horse-trading
has completely eclipsed sound science, ecology and local
concerns." 
    "Biology, not politics," has become a slogan of the
Headwaters campaign.

Trees Versus Sleaze
    EPIC supports a "Headwaters Forest Stewardship Plan" drawn up
by Humboldt's Trees Foundation as an alternative to the
Clinton-Hurwtiz plan. The Stewardship Plan covers 60,000 acres of
PL's total 200,000. It protects core areas, including all six of
the ancient groves: Headwaters Grove, Elk Head Springs, Shaw,
Allen, All-Species and Owl Creek. Buffers surround the core
areas, and corridors connect them. It proposes logging 13.4
million board-feet annually (eventually increasing to 20
million), a rate they say would provide long-term protection. PL
now takes out an annual 300 million board-feet.
    The plan is very similar to the old pre-Maxxam PL operation,
except it calls for cutting no old-growth, which is mostly gone
already. It also explores gathering of "non-timber forest
products" like berries, mushrooms and wild flowers.
    The Trees Foundation calls the Stewardship Plan "a vision for
the permanent protection of Headwaters Forest and the workers who
depend on it for their livelihood." The Stewardship Plan (which
takes no position on the ownership of the forest) would still
allow for $3.7 million in timber profits. The plan would create
new jobs in restoration forestry to replace logging jobs. It
argues that Maxxam's breakneck exploitation, with workers coming
in from around the state and the mills running around the clock,
is an artificial boom certain to be followed by bust.
    Cecilia Lanman believes "Hurwitz owes Headwaters to the
American people." Both the FDIC and the Treasury Department's
Office of Thrift Supervision have claims against Maxxam. A
federal administrative court in Houston is now hearing the OTS
case.
    In July, thirteen congressmen led by California's Pete Stark
petitioned the SEC to launch an action forcing Hurwitz to
"disgorge" PL profits to reimburse the taxpayers for his $1.6
billion S&L bailout. Hurwitz is accused of using his United
Savings Association of Texas to buy junk bonds from broker
Michael Milkin (since busted by the feds for "insider trading")
in return for the junk-bond king's help in the Maxxam takeovers
of PL and Kaiser Aluminum.
    Former PL stockholders in 1995 won a $150 settlement in a
fraud suit against Hurwitz and Maxxam, alleging that they skirted
SEC rules on the PL merger.
    Earth First!'s Karen Pickett says the $318 million deal is a
swindle. "Hurwitz arrived at that price based on being able to
cut everything--which he would not be able to do legally. He
bought the company for $900 million when it included a San
Francisco office building and a welding division which he
divested. He made out like a bandit."
    She's got her own slogan: "Debt for Nature, Jail for
Hurwitz!"

The Plunder Continues
    Meanwhile, the ancient trees keep falling. There were
"salvage" ops when marbled murrelet mating season ended in Fall
1996 in four of the six old-growth groves, taking out fallen
trees. This logging was done under no Timber Harvest Plan, as
generally required by the California Department of Forestry, but
under an "exemption" for an emergency situation--Hurwitz claimed
that an insect infestation needed to be contained. However, they
didn't touch the two groves proposed for preservation under the
Clinton-Hurwitz deal, Headwaters Grove and Elk Head Springs.
There has not yet been any logging in the six groves this year.
    "Residuals"--ancient trees left standing in areas already
logged--are still being cut. And Earth First!ers still maintain
ongoing actions. They even erected "tree villages" of platforms
connected by catwalks to maintain an ongoing occupation of the
canopy. The one in Owl Creek Grove is named Ewok Village, after
the guerilla teddy-bears of Return of the Jedi.
    While Earth First!ers put their bodies on the line to slow
the plunder, EPIC's legal efforts grind on. "We've taken it as
far it can go with habitat protection to save ancient forests--
all the way to the Supreme Court," says Cecilia Lanman.
    A 1988 EPIC case stopped Maxxam from clear-cutting in the
virgin old- growth groves, but the corporation is still doing
"residual" logging of old growth.
    "They are doing this illegally in our opinion," charges
Lanman. "And they are doing it as close as they can to the
old-growth groves to try to destroy their integrity." There were
over 40,000 acres of residual old growth when Maxxam came in.
Most of it is now gone. Maxxam is also still clearcutting in
second- growth. The logged land is often sprayed with an
herbicide-diesel mixture to control undergrowth, contaminating
watersheds.
    In February 1997, the Supreme Court declined to hear Pacific
Lumber v. Marbled Murrelet, letting stand lower court rulings
that barred cutting living trees in the old-growth groves.
    This victory was followed by a setback. In June 1997, federal
courts granted PL a "summary judgement" on EPIC's claims that
salvage logging in Headwaters was likely to cause a "take"
(death) of marbled murrelets, allowing PL to continue with
"exemption" logging.
    Simultaneously, a bill was approved by Sacramento, gutting
the California Endangered Species Act, authorizing "incidental"
and "accidental" takes in the course of "ongoing activities."
    By only protecting two ancient groves, and allowing an
"incidental take permit," the Clinton-Hurwitz deal compounds the
impact of these developments.
    "They shouldn't be messing around with policy. They're
violating the law by having a Congressionally-mandated management
plan, instead of going through Fish & Wildlife and the
appropriate agencies," says Lanman.
    Maxxam has a friend in Rep. Riggs, who even introduced a
rider to a previous Interior appropriations bill which would have
overturned 30,000 of 40,000 designated acres of critical marbled
murrelet habitat mostly in Headwaters. The rider was defeated.
Riggs' earlier Maxxam-friendly plan to save Headwaters called for
granting PL logging rights in the Smith River Recreation Area of
the Six Rivers National Forest, north of Humboldt in Del Norte
County. The plan went nowhere due to complete lack of
environmentalist support. "It involved trading old growth for old
growth. It would have shifted the problem, not solved it," says
EPIC's Paul Mason.
    Hurwitz had previously demanded Alcatraz and Treasure Island
in the San Francisco Bay in return for Headwaters, and promised
to keep cutting the old growth till the government met his price.
    Riggs is now a foremost proponent of the $318 million
Clinton-Hurwitz deal. The $318 million is more than twice what
the government spent on acquiring parkland nationwide last year.
PL is a top Riggs campaign contributor and the largest employer
in Humboldt County, a significant chunk of Riggs' district. 

Humboldt Cops Squelch Free Speech
    At the September 15, 1997 rally to save Headwaters, held at
Stafford, police closed the US 101 off-ramps to the Stafford road
to keep folks away, ostensibly due to insufficient parking. The
sheriff's department vowed that anyone arrested would face felony
charges. Protestors were kept away from the PL property line to
prevent civil disobedience actions. "We weren't allowed on to the
public easement on the road along PL's property," says Cecilia
Lanman, calling it "prior restraint on our ability to have free
speech." Police were brought in from as far as Alameda County.
    The September 1996 rally, scheduled to correspond with the
end of marbled murrelet mating season, was attended by 4,000 with
1,000 arrests. The September 1997 rally brought out 6,000, but
with only two arrests. Among those in attendance were actor Woody
Harrelson, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, blues artist Bonnie
Raitt and former California Governor Jerry Brown.
    CHP and sheriff's department roadblocks and ID checks also
went up that day in Carlotta, where the rally was held in 1996,
apparently just in case any activists turned up there.

Protecting the Watersheds
    Instead of getting arrested after the rally, protestors
including Jerry Brown and Bonnie Raitt helped sandbag a house
where PL is logging 1,400 feet up a steep slope. The house had
already been severely damaged by a mudslide the owner says was
caused by PL's deforestation of the slope.
    By 1993, most of the trees above him had been cut. "I can't
rent it, I can't sell it, but I still have to pay taxes on it," 
says homeowner Mike O'Neal.
    Lanman anticipates a shift in the legal strategy against PL.
"The next ten years will be about watershed protection," she
says. "They have to go higher and higher to get the remaining
trees." She says the erosion of the local watersheds is already
taking a cataclysmic toll. 
    Stafford residents whose houses were wiped out by the
mudslide last winter are suing Maxxam. Seven homes were lost.
O'Neal's had to be dug out, and the foundation was damaged. It
was sandbagged in anticipation of next slide, which will almost
certainly destroy the house. He is living elsewhere. He says it
cost him almost $3,000 to move his trucking business out. "Maxxam
reneged every time we tried to settle with them."
    The California Department of Forestry approved the logging
above the Stafford homes.
    Degradation of the watershed from PL's logging is also
leading to sedimentation of the Eel River, impacting coho and
steelhead salmon populations.
    But the threat to local homeowners may make Maxxam the most
enemies. "We have property rights too," says Mike O'Neal.

Timber Workers Break Ranks With Maxxam
    PL employees are also starting to break ranks with Maxxam.
Third generation PL employee Stan Chandler filed suit against the
company in June, claiming he was unfairly fired for objecting to
unsafe working conditions. He says corner-cutting, such as
fellers being sent out alone instead of in crews, became routine
after the Maxxam take-over. He also says he was instructed to cut
old- growth trees outside the Timber Harvest Plan boundaries, in
endangered species habitat, and within Indian archeological
sites.

Judi Bari Case Proceeds
    In related news, Bari versus Held, the federal suit filed by
redwood crusader Judi Bari against the FBI, continues despite
Bari's death from cancer in November 1996. Judi was disabled for
life when a bomb placed in her car exploded on an Oakland street
in 1990, in the midst of the Redwood Summer campaign she was
organizing. The FBI initially arrested Judi for the bombing, then
failed to press the charges--while the real perpetrator went
free. Judi and Darryl Cherney, also injured in the bombing,
sought damages for FBI denial of their civil rights.
    In October 1997, Federal Judge Claudia Wilkin issued a mixed
ruling. She dismissed San Francisco FBI boss Richard W. Held as a
defendant in the case, citing "lack of evidence" and his
"qualified immunity" as a government official. But the case will
continue against six other FBI agents, the FBI, the Oakland
Police Department and three Oakland officers.
    Ironically, the ruling came just as Geronimo Pratt, the Black
Panther leader reportedly framed for murder by Richard W. Held in
1972, was released after 25 years in San Quentin prison. Pratt
was ordered released after Orange County Superior Court Judge
Everett W. Dickey granted him a new trial, ruling that the 1972
conviction was heavily influenced by the testimony of an
informant whose infiltration of the Black Panther party was
unknown at the time of Pratt's trial.