By Santa Rosa Earth First! – Country Activist, June 1990
From the beginning of their investigation, the Oakland police and FBI have assumed that Judi and Darryl themselves were responsible for the bombing. After his release from the hospital, Darryl was detained by the police and interrogated for seven hours without being allowed an attorney. After a weekend of investigation which included police searches of Darryl’s van, his home near Garberville, Judi’s home near Ukiah, and the Berkeley Seeds of Peace house, where Darryl was staying, the district attorney decline to file charges against Darryl or Judi for lack of evidence. All the while, the attempted assassins run free while the police refuse to investigate. Before the attempted murder, Judi and Darryl received twenty-five death threats which the police have also declined to investigate.
The charges against Judi and Darryl are ludicrous. The bombing and the police “investigation” is an attempt to keep two of the most effective organizers out of commission for Redwood Summer. Here are the two most visible Earth First! activists in the north coast, traveling around Bay Area colleges to recruit students for nonviolent direct action in the woods, and the police expect us to believe they are carrying a bomb in Judi’s car, behind or under the drivers’ seat. Because Judi and Darryl are highly aware of the potential for violence in the coming confrontations with the timber companies, they have emphasized that Redwood Summer participants must commit to nonviolence. Earth First!ers have been physically attacked several times in the last two years at demonstrations and have always responded with nonviolence. Judi has been instrumental in forging links between environmentalists and forest workers, helped get north coast Earth First! to renounce tree-spiking, and worked to show that “timber companies care as little for the safety of their workers as they care for the forest.”
There has been an outpouring of support for Judi and Darryl. Amnesty International and Greenpeace are lending their support. Greenpeace has hired a private investigator to find the bombers.