Buckle Up for Terrorism: Multi-agency sweep results in major arrests . . . for not wearing seatbelts
by Nick Schou, OC Weekly

(From Orange County Weekly, California (includes  photo of dangerous terrorist) May 29, 2004

Over the May 15 and 16 weekend, a multi-agency surveillance operation
involving the FBI and the Costa Mesa Police Department successfully
prevented a group of radical animal-rights activists from staging a picnic at an Orange County park. In the process, several Costa Mesa police officers captured a car full of teenagers and charged them with a most heinous crime: conspiring to flout our nation's seatbelt laws.

Take that, al-Qaeda!

The anti-terror operation focused on Liberation Weekend, which included a
conference at the University of West Los Angeles School of Law that drew
anarchists and environmental activists from around the state. In Riverside, FBI agents
arrested Robert Middaugh, an anarchist who goes by the nickname "Ruckus," as he drove to the conference with a tape recorder. Another activist, Nick Hensey, also missed the conference while being detained for several hours after police pulled over his car in Hollywood.

On May 16, the day after the conference, several activists drove to Hart
Park in Orange, where they intended to have a picnic and play soccer. But
upon arrival, a group of them discovered police had blocked off all entrances to the park. So
activists decided to regroup at the Native Foods eatery in Costa Mesa.

Melissa Rodriguez, a 23-year-old activist from Anaheim who helped found an
Earth First chapter in Orange County several months ago, said FBI agents
followed her and other activists all weekend. "There were two undercover agents inside the
restaurant," she said. While there, the group decided to cancel further
events, and Rodriguez offered to drive several teenage activists to their homes.

But several minutes later, Costa Mesa police swooped down on Rodriguez at a
nearby Chevron gas station. After ordering the occupants out of her car and
confiscating a guitar case, the officers arrested three underage passengers for not
wearing their seatbelts, two others for sharing a seatbelt. Police also
cited Rodriguez for not wearing her seatbelt, unsafely loading her vehicle and failing to notify the
Department of Motor Vehicles of a home-address change.

Technically, they were arrested," said Lt. John Fitzpatrick, a media
relations officer with the Costa Mesa PD. "But the only reason they were
taken into custody is that they didn't have identification. Once their parents were notified, we released
them."

"It looked like a car full of hippies," said a waitress at a local bar who
witnessed the arrests. "All these 16-year-old kids got of the car, and the
police made them sit on the curb. One cop was screaming at the kids, yelling at them. It was
ridiculous." The waitress said police handcuffed five of the passengers and
put them in separate squad cars.

"There were seven or eight cop cars there, and we heard a helicopter
above," she said. "It was like the police had caught a mass murderer or
something. But when people found out they arrested these kids for not wearing their seatbelts, they
were mocking the cops because they were acting like such fools. A couple of
guys in the bar went outside and [sarcastically] started clapping for the cops, saying, 'Good
job, officers!'"

According to Rodriguez, because some teen passengers were not carrying
identification, police took them to the Costa Mesa police station, where
they were held for several hours. Once they were released, she offered a ride home to five
activists, while Jerry Friedman, a law student who helped organize the
event, drove two others back to Los Angeles. After dropping off one activist in Antelope Valley,
Rodriguez says she was on her way up to Crestline when she noticed seven
cars were following her.

"We were almost to the top of the mountain, and they were really close to
my car," she said. "Finally, they put on their red lights, and I heard,
'Melissa Rodriguez-pull over!' So I pulled off into a parking lot, and they surrounded my car."

When two FBI agents knocked on her window, she demanded to see their badges.

"They said they'd been following me all day and asked me why I was driving
all over. I asked if I was being detained, and he said, 'No, but if you
leave, we're following you.' They lived up to that promise and followed me all the way back to
Jerry's house in Hawthorne and camped out there for the rest of the night."

Following the events of Sept. 11, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft
announced the War on Terror would extend to all groups that advocate
violence, foreign or domestic, including animal-rights organizations perceived to be radical. A
press relations official with the FBI's field office in Los Angeles refused
to comment for this story, citing the agency's policy of not commenting on investigative
activities.

"Everything amounts to an FBI conspiracy to suppress political activists,
but we don't know that yet," said Friedman, who added that he is not a
member of the animal-rights movement. "I don't find it surprising for the FBI and police to
conduct surveillance. If they want to send agents to the conference, that's
fine. But when they harass
and arrest aboveground activists, that's going over the line. The FBI
followed Melissa all night and interrogated her at 2 a.m. That would scare
anybody."

Rodriguez said she believes the Costa Mesa arrests and the FBI tails were
part of an ongoing effort to harass animal-rights activists that began last
September, when the FBI arrested former Brea resident Josh Connole-and then released him
without charges-in connection with an Earth Liberation Front arson of a
local Humvee dealership. Although Rodriguez said she and other Earth First activists sympathize with
whoever torched the auto dealership, they aren't personally involved in
violent action.

"Those of us in the aboveground movement think the underground movement is
helping realize our goals," she said. "We are definitely not critical of
them, but none of us are engaged in anything like that. It would be so stupid because we're
under so much surveillance. It is clear from the repression we witnessed
during Liberation Weekend that the FBI wants to make it as difficult as possible for legitimate
activists to organize for social change."

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