March 19 marked the 10-year anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The day after the war began, massive protests swept the globe, including demonstrations in dozens of cities across the U.S. Many who attended woke up on March 21, ten years ago today, in jail.
One clear example of the targeting of animal activists is the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) which was passed by Congress and signed into law in 2006. The AETA amended and expanded the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (AEPA). The AETA makes “damaging or interfering with the operations of an animal enterprise” or “intentionally plac[ing] a person in fear of death or serious bodily injury” federal crimes of terrorism.
On January 11, 2003, the world watched as Illinois Governor George Ryan, days before leaving office, granted clemencies to all 163 men and women on death row in his state, reducing their sentences to life without parole. The previous day he had pardoned four death row prisoners—Madison Hobley, Aaron Patterson, Leroy Orange and Stanley Howard—all of whom had been tortured into giving false confessions by police officers working under notorious Chicago police commander Jon Burge.
Earlier this year Vodak v. City of Chicago, a class action lawsuit resulting from false arrests at a 2003 anti-war protest, settled for $6.2 Million.
After nine years of litigation, attorneys from the Chicago Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild scored a significant victory by settling the suit. The case is a class action on behalf of over 700 protestors who were falsely arrested or detained by Chicago police during an anti-war demonstration in 2003.
