tdaxp

"California Student Gets 8 Years for SUV Vandalism," Reuters, 18 April 2005, http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=8218186&src=rss/domesticNews (from Democratic Underground).

A stupid move gets a would-be scholar up to eight years in federal prison

An aspiring physicist was sentenced to more than eight years in prison on Monday and ordered to pay $3.5 million for his role in a spree of arson and vandalism that targeted gas-guzzling Hummers and other sports utility vehicles.

Rejecting pleas for clemency from William Cottrell, a 24-year-old doctoral candidate in physics at the California Institute of Technology, U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner added more time to the sentence after finding that Cottrell was trying to sway consumers with his anti-SUV message.

The slogans Cottrell spray-painted onto vehicles included "Fat Lazy Americans," "No Respect for Earth" and "SUV = Terrorism."

Except as a conduit or false-flag for other anti-American groups, ecoterrorism does not seriously threaten the United States. No coherent political message combined with no plan to actually win means they will just destroy property and occasionally (accidentally or no) kill people. "Hate crimes" of the lowest order.