My boss knows the US's top eco-terrorist!

[Samurai_Writer]

I'm sure you guys have read/heard the news about the FBI capturing Michael Scarpitti, a member of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). He basically bombed a bunch of logging equipment and buildings a couple of years ago, disappeared 2 years ago, and was caught this past weekend.

So, I'm talking to my boss, and he gets a phone call from a reporter asking him about Michael Scarpitti, whom he went to high school and college with. My boss is telling the reporter what a 'regular guy' Scarpitti was, played sports, was a good student, was popular, etc.

Now, my boss is 29. He's only been out of college about 6-7 years. So my question is this -- how does a guy who seems like an all-american boy turn out to become an environmental fanatic in the span of only a few years? Did he graduate from college and say, 'Hey, I think I'm going to go sit in trees and bomb logging equipment for a living'?

I'm not completely familiar with ELF or this guy's history, but I just thought it was wierd that someone could change so completely in such a short amount of time.

[liberalhistorian]

1. Maybe he always had the potential

for being like that, it just took something to set him off and make it come out. That's usually the way those things work, which is why they don't often give much indication of who they really are to those who know them.

[absyntheNsugar]

2. Michael Scarpitti is NOT a terrorist!

A lot of the media descriptions are spinnning his antics to be that of a terrorist. I'm no supporter of the ELF's methods, but they are clearly vandals not terrorists. Know any vandals in High School who were normal kids? Me too.

The media needs to get this right...

[stopthegop]

4. one man's terrorist is another man's vandal...

unless the vandal burns down a house and kills someone..then it gets tricky...

[Robb]

5. IMO I think the vandal line

...is somewhere around a half-stick of dynamite. After that... well, terrorist is still a little strong I guess. :shrug:

[absyntheNsugar]

6. To me...

A vandal destroys property. A terrorist takes a human life. To this day, the ELF has not taken a single human life.

[THUNDER HANDS]

8. yet

All it takes is for them to forget to check out a newly built home they plan to firebomb.

or burn down a cornfield and have the fire spread out of control.

If it's not your property, you shouldn't be destroying it. ELF people are terrorists, even if they don't intentionally try to harm people.

They try to 'terrorize' those who they disagree with.

[absyntheNsugar]

15. Please don't misunderstand me

What they are doing is wrong, and it makes all of us in the environmental protection movement look bad.

However, there is a big difference between detonating a car bomb in a populated place, and torching empty homes. That is the difference between vandalism and terrorism.

16. yet

maybe they are terrorists, but you're playing pretty fast and loose with the definition of terrorist.
Is someone who breaks a window in a storefront after a football game a terrorist? It's not their property and they're destroying it.

Don't let your emotions lead you into intellectual laziness.

[jmowreader]

17. Terrorism doesn't have to take lives

If an action generates fear in the populace, it's terrorism--whether lives were taken or not.

One of the ELF's lovelier little tricks is "spiking" trees. They go to a hardware store, buy some 10-inch spikes, sometimes temper them (easy to do with an oxyacetylene torch and a couple gallons of motor oil--heat the nails to red hot then drop them in the oil to cool) then drive them into trees.

When a sawblade at a mill or a chain saw chain hits a spike, it explodes.

http://www.nationalcenter.org/dos7129.htm

"Among the sabotage techniques outlined in Ecodefense is "tree spiking" -- the act of inserting long nails into trees to deter loggers from cutting them down. This sabotage technique can prove lethal to timber industry workers who encounter it: In 1984, for example, logger George Alexander was almost killed when his chainsaw hit a spike and a fragment from his saw blade severed one of his carotid arteries. These arteries supply blood for both external and internal parts of the head, including the brain."

These people are no vandals.

[eyesroll]

3. Happens

I was friends with this couple in college. They were your typical 1990s college students, except they were married at 19. Politically centrist (but they seemed reactionary at my liberal school), with a libertarian streak (she was president of the marijuana-legalization club, and she did partake). He painted, she edited the newspaper with me.

For all I know, they're still politically centrist/libertarian streak. They're in Texas, still married (going on a decade). He's still an artist. BUT: He paints Christian paintings. His Web site is dedicated to Jesus. She's the communications director for one of those big fundie megachurches. I hear they have kids now.

Not equating environmental extremists with fundamentalism, but it's still a pretty quick-yet-radical transition.

[bubblesby2002]

7. Just want to correct an incorrect assumption......

The FBI did NOT catch Scarpitti. He was picked up by a security guard at a Canadian Tire store in little old Victoria, BC for allegedly shoplifting a pair of bolt cutters. Then he was turned over to the FBI. And as long as no one is hurt what the f**k is the problem with blowing up a few precious items from corporate America or Canada? There are other way more dangerous people out there. IMO.

[stopthegop]

9. really?...

then what the f**k would be wrong with someone blowing up some of your stuff? or is that different? your statement is moral lunacy...

[bubblesby2002]

10. "stuff" can always be replaced, people can't

For someone who has never hurt anyone why is he called a terrorist? And why is he on the FBI's Most Wanted list? Aren't there worse criminals out there? People who have actually murdered or harmed humans? And you know what - you don't know me, nor do you know my beliefs.

[stopthegop]

11. you asked a question...I just asked if the same logic

applied to you....

[bubblesby2002]

12. Yes it does as a matter of fact

I've lost all kinds of things and had to start all over again. But when I lost my husband to cancer, I realized that all that stuff doesn't really matter.

[stopthegop]

13. fair enough....goose=gander

sorry about your husband...I hope you're recovering from the loss...that's a tough one..

[bubblesby2002]

14. Thanks

:) Some days are tougher than others.