Who Bombed Judi Bari?
by Robert Meeropol
Rosenberg Fund for Children
April 05, 2012
http://www.rfc.org/blog/article/1124

I first met Judi Bari in November 1991, just a little
over a year after I founded the RFC. We both attended a
conference held at the Highlander Center at which 30
environmental and civil rights activists shared their
experiences and alarm at the escalating campaign of what
we dubbed "corporate harassment."

These attacks were being directed at activists who had
been forming coalitions with labor unions seeking to
protect their members and livelihood, and with poor and
third world communities whose neighborhoods were being
inundated with toxic waste.

Judi was a remarkably dynamic person. She was a union
organizer, carpenter, musical performer and
environmental firebrand who led Earth First's efforts to
save Northern California old growth Redwoods from
corporate clear cutting in the late 1980's. Judi was
blown up in her car in Oakland, California in May 1990
while she was in the midst of organizing Earth First's
"Redwood Summer Campaign," a daring plan to bring
thousands of young people into the forests to disrupt
the summer logging efforts. The bomb, planted under the
driver's seat, shattered Judi's pelvis and crushed her
backbone, but she survived.

Despite evidence that right-wing forces were behind this
attempt on Judi's life, the FBI with the aid of the
Oakland Police arrested Judi in her hospital bed. They
charged her and her partner Darryl Cherney with being
"eco-terrorists" and alleged they were transporting
explosives that went off accidently in the car's
backseat. This effort to blame the victims was exposed
once photographs surfaced showing a giant hole directly
under the driver's seat of the car. The RFC came to
Judi's aid (she was now dependent on meager disability
payments), providing grants for her two daughters, then
aged seven and 11, starting in 1991 and continuing until
they reached adulthood.

Judi and Darryl fought the charges, which were dismissed
in 1991. Then they fought back by suing the FBI and the
Oakland police for false arrest and violations of their
constitutional rights and doggedly pursuing their legal
action despite Judi's battle with breast cancer. Judi
even provided a video deposition from her deathbed in
1997. The case finally came to trial in 2002. Judi was
posthumously vindicated by the $4.4 million verdict
against the Oakland Police and the FBI that the jury
awarded Darryl Cherney and Judi's estate. This remains
the only court-adjudicated financial victory ever won by
private citizens against the FBI in our nation's
history.

But the question of who perpetrated this terrorist
attack was never resolved. In fact, the FBI never
subjected the remains of the bomb to any forensic tests.
Evidently intent on continuing its cover-up, the Bureau
notified the court in 2010 of its intention to destroy
the evidence. Darryl Cherney, in the midst of producing
a documentary, Who Bombed Judi Bari?, resisted this
effort and obtained a court order in 2011 commanding the
FBI to turn the evidence over to a laboratory for
independent testing. In what Darryl's attorney called an
"historic and momentous development," a federal court
judge upheld that decision in another order released on
April 2, 2012.

In the meantime, Who Bombed Judi Bari? has finally come
to the big screen. As reported in the Los Angeles Times:
"Cherney hopes the movie will help finally solve that
mystery - and inspire a new generation of activism by
highlighting the victories Bari and her cohorts won."

I am proud to have known Judi and treasure the brief
time we spent together at the Highlander Conference.
Although she was in constant pain, her presence at that
event was electrifying and served as an inspiration to
us all. And I am so proud of the lengthy and in-depth
relationship the Rosenberg Fund for Children was able to
forge with Judi and her family. I urge all in our
community to see "Who Bombed Judi Bari?" and to take
whatever action you can to bring it to a theater near
you.

[moderator: find out more about the Who Bombed Judi Bari?
including movie times and places at -
http://whobombedjudibari.com/]

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