I have a friend who is serving 22 years in prison for her involvement with the Earth Liberation Front http://supportmariemason.org/ . The ELF was a loosely affiliated group of people who engaged in ecotage, sabotage against forces that are understood to be destructive to our planet or the environment. In my friend's case she and her husband at the time, burned down a genetic engineering laboratory. By typical judicial standards 22 years as a harsh sentence for arson, but of course she's not in prison for arson per se, she's doing time for political arson. This type of harsh sentencing is part of what is some times called the green scare.

Now I'm not one to consider the destruction of property to be inherently violent. Yes, if you destroy something that someone else feels a great degree of ownership towards there is a sort of emotional violence. Nonetheless any political act, or action to change anything might be felt as emotional violence. The bigger issue is that fires can be dangerous, sometimes out of control, and even the best laid plans can result in someone getting killed. But no one got hurt, they were careful but they were also lucky.

She was arrested nine years after the fire, they caught her only because her former husband wore a recording device and went to talk to her about the events. He got a nine year sentence. But I just read that his sentence has now been reduced to six years, the article presumes that this was due to further cooperation with the police. http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/Judge-gives-another-break-to-man-tied-to-Michigan-State-University-arson/-/1719418/10573778/-/evn59rz/-/index.html 22 years is for not cooperating.

The system of cooperation and plea bargaining has always upset me. I watched another friend of mine get fingered for dealing drugs many years after he'd gone clean. His arrest and subsequent trial ultimately resulted in two years of probation. These outcomes also killed him. I watched as the stress of this process led him back to drugs, destroyed his marriage, and ultimately resulted in an overdose. The irony is that although he had been involved in consuming drugs with the person who framed him, he had not been a dealer at that time. This kind of plea bargaining encourages you to abandon any sense of loyalty, and even to lie.

I understand why the state has an interest in rewarding dishonesty and disloyalty. Nonetheless it makes me mad. I wish it were my friend who got a few years chopped off of her sentence. Perhaps for maintaining her integrity.