BEYOND BARS
A Conference on the Politics of the Prison Industrial Complex

by Christina McLean

Eco-terrorism and Increasing Amount of Environmental Prisoners

Intro: On Saturday, December 3 rd , 2005 close to two hundred people attended "Beyond Bars", a conference exploring the politics of the prison industrial complex. One woman who spoke that day was Christina McLean, a friend and supporter of eco prisoner, Chris McIntosh. Fortunately for us Christina agreed to allow us to re-publish what she about that day. Here are some intimate thoughts from Chris "Dirt" McIntosh on his love for the earth and her animals and what it is like serving time in prison.

Christina McLean

Our wish at the Abolitionist is that every reader will get behind and support Chris while he is incarcerated. His birthday is the 17 July and he'll be 24 years old.

We ask you to send him a letter and/or card as a show of support and love from around the world. Chris's Supporters run the www.SupportChris.org website, there you can find more information on McIntosh's wish list.

I stand here today as though I am a sort of authority figure on prisoner support, when in fact Chris McIntosh is the first person I've known in jail. Before he was arrested in February this year, I hardly thought about the prison system at all. And now, I can't wait for it to collapse.

Chris McIntosh is just one of many animal rights activists being arrested today. The federal government has designated animal rights groups as domestic terrorists.

The following is from a statement, you can find online, from John E. Lewis of the counter terrorism division of the FBI on May 18, 2005. He states "Investigating and preventing animal rights extremism and eco-terrorism is one of the FBI's highest domestic terrorism priorities."

The FBI agent working on a McDonald's arson, followed my friend, Chris McIntosh around for 2 years. Two years for $5000 estimated worth of property damage. (I spoke to Jeff, a manager at the McDonalds during my Seattle trip, he said there was a burn mark on the roof and nothing was replaced. doesn't sound like $5000 damage to me) No one was injured.

Have any of you heard the name Chris McIntosh before this conference?

Have any of you written to him?

Ok, I'm going to tell you about him. I want you to feel like you know him personally, so you will want to write a letter to him, you will be passionate about attending his sentencing on December 16 th at 1:30pm at the Seattle Federal Courthouse. So, you will support him by wearing an "I heart Chris McIntosh" shirt to his sentencing and making him smile.

Mostly so Chris won't just be 30512-013, another number in the system. I hope to reveal his soul and spirit to you by quoting him directly from letters he's written to me.

Facts about case

The following information comes from the affidavit written by Brian Carnell, Special Agent with the FBI assigned to the Domestic Terrorism Squad in Seattle . He investigates cases involving crimes committed by groups known as the ALF & ELF.

On Jan 20 th 2003 around 1am, Chris McIntosh maliciously damaged, and attempted to damage and destroy, by means of fire and explosive materials, a McDonalds restaurant at 222 5 th Ave North in Seattle near the space needle, used in interstate commerce.

The next morning at 10:39am, the Seattle arson tip line received a voicemail stating that the McDonalds fire was claimed by the ELF & ALF.

Over the next two years, evidence revealed that prints on a can of spray paint and DNA on sunglasses found on the roof matched that of Chris McIntosh.

One witness at the scene gave a description of a man climbing off the roof. An ex-girlfriend stated that she was Chris' lookout during the arson and present during the phone call. A second ex-girlfriend stated that Chris had told her about the arson one month afterwards.

A warrant for Chris' arrest was issued shortly after this affidavit was written on Jan 24 th 2005.

Chris McIntosh was arrested on Feb 16 th in Philadelphia and transferred to FDC SeaTac in Seattle in March.

When threatened with a minimum sentence of 30 years for eco-terrorism, Chris signed a plea agreement on September 26 th . Please bare with the legalize of this.

Excerpt from Chris' Plea agreement detailing the threat of a terrorist enhancement.

"The parties recognize that Section 3A1.4 of the Sentencing Guidelines provides dramatic increases in sentencing ranges for "federal crimes of terrorism" and supports the applicability of upward departures in the case of offenses intended to coerce governments or civilian populations. In addition, Defendant acknowledges that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has determined that Defendant used a destructive device in connection with the arson. Although Defendant disputes the factual basis for this conclusion, and denies that he used a destructive device, in the event a jury were to find that Defendant did so, Defendant would be subject to a 30 year mandatory minimum sentence for using a destructive device in a crime of violence under 18 USC 924(c)."

From anti-defamation league's website (adl.org) section on 'extremism in America ', an article entitled "Ecoterrorism: Extremism in the Animal Rights and Environmentalist Movements" states:

"no one has yet been injured in a domestic ecoterror attack" and "Acts of property destruction are considered by ELF to be non-violent because no human being or animals are targeted."

Chris will be sentenced to 8-10 years based on the plea agreement on Dec 16th at 1:30pm at the Federal Courthouse in Seattle .

My view of Chris and Our Meeting

In May 2003, I opened a retail store in Southern NJ , selling fair trade and environmentally friendly products. Chris & I first met in the store, when he was visiting his family in April 2004. We hung out, ate a mango and talked about books and traveling. And then he rode away on his bike.

A few months later, in July, Chris was skateboarding across the street from the store. We called him over to do some tricks. At that point, he reminded me that we had previously met. He stayed at my house for a couple of weeks, attended a family wedding and left for California .

Our next short meeting was in December, one year ago and the last time I saw him, when he returned for the holidays. After that, we spoke on the phone once in January. On Feb 16 th he was arrested in Philly on South St , a popular shopping district and hang out.

When I heard that he was arrested, I found news articles and the affidavit about the allegations, and I recalled what he had told me in July. Chris had mentioned that the FBI was following him and that they had searched his parents' house.

Chris McIntosh was born in 1982 and was adopted with his brother as a baby into the McIntosh family in southern New Jersey . When he was 16, he left home to travel the country for the next 6 years. He turned 23 this July, 2005 while in jail in Seattle .

Chris is a son, a brother, an uncle, a brother-in-law, an activist, a lover, a fighter, a sensitive, open-minded, energetic, hard-worker.

He describes himself in a letter to his supporters last April (4 th) :

"I'm an anarchist, squatter, crusty punk. I have been an anarchist since I was 14; hit the road when I was 16 traveling around the country. I'm a solitary person so not many people know me well. I love animals and mother earth. Never owned a car, never drove one, never had a license. I've hitched the entire country. I believe that it's time to take the concept of class war, earth and animal conservation to the next level, no more talk, and a lot more action. I'm trying to live a life with as little impact on mother earth as possible. I'm not saying I don't fuck up. I'm by no means perfect, but in a society so fucked up as this, it's hard not to be a hypocrite in some aspects. I like the earth and animals much more than I like humans. I'm anti-government, anti-nazi, anti-racist, anti-homophobic, and anti-sexist."

Chris loves to read and listen to punk & reggae music. With donations from supporters, he was able to purchase a radio. In August, he wrote (8/8)

"At least I have my radio and my books. I've been reading a lot. Reading is something I didn't get to do a lot of when I was outside because I'm always on the go."

He is a burgeoning illustrator and writer. He is strong in his beliefs and has a gentle soul at the same time. He has written a short piece about racism inside that you can read at the table. In an early letter last March (23 rd ), Chris wrote:

"It sucks being locked up. There's so much prejudice inside. You have to hang out with the whites, but I'm still keeping to my beliefs."

And in April (4 th ), I asked him to describe what prison is like

"You have a bunch of criminals and killers and you put them all together. Now keep in mind this is an all male society, so everyone basically has an enormous ego. You have to be hard all the time or someone will take advantage of you. You have to be ready to fight at all times. And only a few white dudes aren't racist which is hard on me, but I hang out with people no matter what race, as long as they are cool."

More recently at the end of October, Chris said (10/29)

"This place is emotionally draining. Sometimes it's just so hard to keep focus and it takes awhile to get back mentally."

Chris feels a deep spiritual connection to his Celtic pagan heritage, the earth and all animals, especially birds . (5/4) "Sometimes I can see birds from my window, I think birds have always been my favorite animals. Maybe they are my spirit animal. They fly here and they fly there. And they come back to where they started, which for me is always Philly. I know that those good times aren't over and that I will one day have them again."

(10/29) "It's interesting that we can be a part of nature wherever we are, as long as we remain open to it. We can still see that the elements and beings of nature pervade everything civilized and non-civilized. If we remain open to mother earth, we'll never be deserted."

After Hurricane Katrina hit, Chris wrote ( 10/8) "People have lost respect for what the earth is capable of when they throw it off balance." I'm sure many of us have felt the way Chris has, when our emotions rise up in us, thinking about the damage our society is doing to the living planet and all creatures.

Chris expresses his frustration about being locked up, but remains optimistic:

(10/29) "I find it really hard to understand how one animal can do this to another. Everyone here is separated from everything that matters in their life. We have to dismantle all this. How can it be this way? How has it come this far? How was it allowed? I dream of the day we can sit and smell the wood smoke of fire, in a camp by a creek, whose sweet water gurgles, over lichen covered stones, under the watchful gaze of snow capped mountains."

We all have our problems in life and I'm not going to cover up Chris' imperfections. He is known to have had substance abuse issues in the past. Recently, Chris has shown sincere willingness to grow past this by looking into joining a 9 month drug program. For this he would get one year knocked off the sentence and 6 months in a halfway house.

He says in letters from October,

(10/8) "It's pretty bittersweet that I've had to make all my realizations on life in a fucking prison cell. Well, destiny is destiny and this isn't for the rest of my life."

(10/8) "So much is different for me now. I'm really healthy now because I haven't smoked or drank since Feb 14 th , which is good, I feel great. I enjoy working out. I don't plan to drink or smoke when I get out. I don't really like drinking but so much in my life just fucked up my outlook and booze fucked everything I've done."

(10/29) "I think I'm going to do the straightedge thing. You may not think that's much in here but you can get anything you want really in jail and prison. There's booze, pills and everything. I'm just not gonna hide behind it anymore, I'm tired of hiding behind it, I'm tired of feeling like shit."

The time inside since Feb and the support Chris has received has given him hope and motivated him to examine his life in a positive manner. Perhaps some good can come out of this supposed extremist act of ecoterrorism. Prisoners are given time and isn't that what all of us want? More time?

From a book that prisoners have been able to get for free since it was first published in 1984 called "We're all doing time" by Bo Lozoff (p.12) "Prisoners get the chance to work out karma and build strength in a period of months that might have taken 50 years on the streets" Time inside can be used to meditate on their journey of self-discovery. Where we can say we are too busy with work and family and various projects, to focus on ourselves, prisoners have fewer excuses. In a poem, Chris calls jail "his forced monastery". Also from the book (p.17) "A mind which is open, free of fear, free from unwanted thoughts, will be clear & powerful enough to deal with anything." Chris wrote last May (5/4) "It seems to me like Bush should be here instead of me; he burns things all over the world with so many people dying. Life is full of choices leading to different realities, sometimes the right choice is the roughest road"

Here's one of Chris' examinations on life & death from September:

(9/18) "you never know when it's your turn to die, so live as much as you can. I don't think death is so bad if you lived your life for you and didn't sell most of your time to the system. Life and energy recycle one way or another.. energy carries on. the whole earth being a web of life and energy. Our body's die and return to dirt. Death is beautiful in the anticipation of new life, like winter and spring. So many people fear death because they haven't ever lived for themselves. The saddest thing about death in the face of civilization is watching people get old clinging to their 401Ks and their dreams of retirement, that's not living. "life starts at 50" You've heard that phrase before, that's what I shed a tear for."

Chris considers himself a green anarchist or primitivist, but he stated in October

( 10/8) "What needs to happen, if a total dissolution of civilization isn't going to happen yet, is that businesses have to localize so that it is possible to walk to where you need to go. We need to dissolve corporations and bring communities tighter and closer, so that you don't have to drive everywhere. Tighter communities are healthier communities."

In September, after months of eating unflavored soy pellets the size of erasers and buying most of his food from the commissary, Chris went on a hunger strike to demand:

(9/3) "soymilk, fresh vegetables, alternative to eggs, tofu or tempeh as an alternative to soy pellets, national recognition of this tray by the BOP (borough of prisons) and an open minded approach to the nutritional demands of veg/vegan prisoners." "This is not just for me, this is for everyone and their right to a nutritional diet based on their religious/moral needs."

He had to break his fast after 5 days because of a quick force-feed policy at SeaTac.

In October, he came up with a new strategy,

(10/5) "I've been getting into Jodo Shinshu - Japanese Buddhism, going slow but very interesting stuff. Also I'm supposed to meet with a Buddhist religious advisor soon. Hopefully, she'll be able to help me on my diet issues."

Chris wrote this Statement for me to read today:

In the wake of this rising empire and its imperialistic overtures, this decades' political climate has become ever more repressive. We have seen the rebirth of programs targeted against anyone with a dissenting opinion. The label of "terrorist" is now applied liberally, even to actions that only threaten profits, called "interfering with interstate commerce". We have long known that a loss of profits terrorizes the system more than the loss of human lives. Humans are merely a tool with which to reap those profits, we are easily replaceable. In light of this, we need to make choices in our daily lives, to free ourselves, first in our hearts and minds, and then looking outward at what we can each do daily in the physical realm. In this way we've risen in solidarity to become an obvious threat to the power structure.

When they start putting the heat on, it means something's going right. Sometimes it may not seem that way, and the effects may hurt us. No one likes prison, no one wants to lose their life or live under the constant hammering of police repression but I ask those of you who crave freedom, do we have a choice?

While I miss loving touch and good times on the outs, the truth is: the whole system has become or rather has always been a prison. It will be like this until the last vestiges of civilization have been dismantled. We've come to a point where we really don't have any time left. In that spirit I made my choice, just one in a larger project. My heart goes out to my brothers and sisters who have made similar choices and find themselves incarcerated in 2006. I give my thanks to those who are supporting us.

Finally, I do not regret my decision. I regret that our species has sunk to caging fellow animals, human and non-human, and destroying the earth, making those decisions necessary. I will do my best to continue the struggle from wherever I am. I thank you all.

For earth and animal freedom,

Chris "Dirt Blackcrow" McIntosh

Support Campaign

When I found out that he was arrested, my first thought was to write him a letter. I had never known anyone in jail before and knew nothing about the prison system really. So, the first obstacle was to find out where he was and what the address was there.

Here, the Internet became my main tool. This is when I discovered the Bureau Of Prisons website and typed his name into the database. BOP.gov gave me his location, info about what could be mailed, visiting regulations, and contact information for the jail.

Around this same time, someone had suggested that I check out PACER , a court database. I signed up for this system which charges 8cents per page to view, but only actually charges your credit card when your account reaches $10. Here was all the information and documents about Chris' case. This is the place to find the lawyers contact info, results of hearings, signed pdf documents and charges made.

For about a month after he was arrested, I was typing his name into search engines every day to see what I could learn, what I could do to help. At some point, I found the Earth Liberation Prisoner Support Network in the UK . I emailed the contact to say that I was a friend of Chris McIntosh and asked them for advice. After a few emails back and forth, they asked if I would be interested in starting a support campaign for Chris. I responded and asked them what that meant. They said they would help me. First we would ask Chris if he wanted support and what his goals would be for a campaign. We could set up an email list and a website and a way to collect anonymous donations. That week, I went out and bought a po box, opened a bank account, purchased a domain name, searched for a server to host the site. Started a collection box in the store. As someone new to the prison system and court system, I had many questions that ELPSN helped to answer.

All of a sudden, there was a group of people willing to help me out and that cared about Chris' situation without ever having met the guy!

Who has experience with support campaigns?

Chris has been in jail for about 10 months. He felt lost, alone, isolated, and unimportant in April when he stated (4/4) "I'm a solitary person so not many people know me well" "I like the earth and animals much more than I like humans." But with our support, he has felt more self-worth, responsibility to live up to new expectations and to not disappoint many new friends on the outside.

Chris has been in jail before. This is the first time he has felt support from the general human community. Perhaps this support is what he needed for spiritual growth and personal change. He's had depressed moments in jail. He's felt encouraged to continue improving his illustration skills. His writing has developed. He seems to feel better overall about himself and feels more connection to others that he hasn't even met yet. He puts on a tough exterior but through the support campaign we have touched his soul deeply.

Chris says (11/23) "My support campaign has been a great source of strength to me. It's been noticed by the SeaTac administration and so it has helped me because they know I'm not alone. I've received a large amount of mail as a result of the campaign, which makes a difference in each and every day. I have deep gratitude to those helping me out."

We need to conserve and sustain our energy when supporting prisoners. This is a long-term project throughout their sentences. It's important for us to focus on ways to reduce our stress and frustrations as well as theirs. Some ideas such as Meditation and self-defense training can help us feel more balanced mentally and physically.

Conclusion

Other examples of American environmental prisoner sentences:

Peter Young - serving 2 years for releasing hundreds of mink and foxes from various fur farms

Josh Demmitt - Serving 30 months for arson on a University animal testing facility.

John Wade and Aaron Linas - sentenced to over 3 years each for actions against McDonalds and other targets

Jeff "Free" Luers - Serving 22 years & 8 months for arson on a car dealership & attempted arson of an oil truck

From anti-defamation league's website section on extremism in America , an article entitled " Ecoterrorism: Extremism in the Animal Rights and Environmentalist Movements " states "Despite a few successes by law enforcement in capturing those responsible for ecoterror-related crimes, most acts remain unsolved. Ecoterror cells remain extremely difficult to identify and infiltrate, and it is unlikely that this rapidly growing movement will disappear soon."

Sentencing details
Dec 16 th 1:30pm Federal Courthouse Seattle 7 th & Stewart Judge Zilly

Contact info
Tabling, shirts & zines, website, email, cell phone

Hold hands, thumbs left, Close eyes, 2 deep breaths, think of our comrades inside, meditate for a minute. Send vibrations of loving energy to our comrades inside, they made be your friends or family or someone you've heard about today.

(Pass around paper) Please write a short note with your name & address. I'll mail them to Chris and he'll get them before his sentencing.

Questions?

Click Here to read more about Chris McIntosh

Click Here to read some of Chris's Letters to Abolitionist Online