Mon, Jul 06, 2009

Tucson Region

Opinion by Ernesto Portillo Jr. : Sheriff says terrorists abound in our midst

Opinion by Ernesto Portillo Jr.
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.19.2007
Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik wants us to keep an eye out for domestic terrorists.
You know the post 9/11 drill: Report any suspicious activity.
If you see someone who looks like what an American-born terrorist is supposed to look like — or even someone you are absolutely sure doesn't look like they belong in the neighborhood and are likely up to no good — call the hotline for Paranoids Anonymous.
What exactly does an all-American terrorist look like? They look like environmentalists, pro-abortion and animal-rights folks, according to a Sheriff's Department newsletter.
"Eco-friendly, abortion-rights and animal-rights activists are among the most active groups that have committed acts of terror in the name of their cause," reads the December issue of "Community Connection," a newsletter published by the department.
That description includes doctors, teachers, Republican and Democrat politicians, housewives, junior high school students, and just about anyone active in environmental, pro-abortion and animal-rights groups.
Dupnik's newsletter warning excludes a few potential domestic terrorists. There's no mention of racist skinheads, gay-bashing homophobes and anti-abortion activists who have been known to kill a doctor or two and burn down clinics.
"The sheriff's unsubstantiated claim comes from D.C. and the Bush/Cheney 'war on terror' bag of fear-mongering tricks. It is very offensive to most people in Pima County, who consider themselves eco-friendly," environmentalist Daniel Patterson wrote me in an e-mail.
The listing of domestic terrorists was not intended to be limited to environmentalists, abortion and animal-rights activists, said sheriff's Lt. James Berry, head of the community services section.
The newsletter item was an attempt to generically identify some individuals with groups known to be involved in violent acts, he said.
The watch list should have been more inclusive.
Several skinhead and neo-Nazi groups operate in Arizona, says the Southern Poverty Law Center of Alabama, which monitors hate groups.
Last week in Utah, a third white supremacist was sentenced to federal prison for nearly five years for his role in the April beatings of two Hispanic and Native American men in Salt Lake City. The three white supremacists wanted to start a "race war," according to the Deseret Morning News.
Two weeks ago arsonists torched an Albuquerque abortion clinic, reported the Albuquerque Tribune. Fortunately no one was injured in the fire.
Some people would say the cases I cited reflect people who are on the fringe, taking their belief in causes to the extreme. The same can be said of the people identified as the activists/potential terror suspects in the Sheriff's Department newsletter.
Rodney Coronado, a Tucson animal-rights and environmental activist, pleaded guilty last Friday in San Diego federal court to a charge that he instructed others on how to make a bomb for use in a violent crime, reported the San Diego Union-Tribune. Coronado previously was convicted in Tucson in 2005 on a felony and two misdemeanors for disrupting a mountain-lion hunt in Sabino Canyon.
There are other cases involving environmental and animal-rights individuals who have vandalized or destroyed property.
But it's a stretch to equate pro-choicers as domestic terrorists.
Eric Rudolph, who was sentenced in 2005 to a life in prison with no chance of parole, killed two people, including an off-duty police officer, during his two-year anti-abortion and anti-homosexual rampage. He also injured more than 110 people.
Now that's a domestic terrorist.
● Contact columnist Ernesto Portillo Jr. at 573-4242 or eportillo@azstarnet.com. His blog is at go.azstarnet.com/blogs.