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From an official statement by the Cascadia Forest Alliance: "About a month before the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force (PJTTF) is scheduled to expire (pending reauthorization by the Portland City Council) it has indicted four people for damaging three log trucks more than a year ago. Under pressure to produce 'results' to justify its continued existence, the suspicious timing of these indictments appears to be politically motivated. Police and PJTTF refused to reveal even general information about the evidence they are using to justify the indictments. They also refused to answer questions from the media about how much money has been spent on this investigation." "[T]he PJTTF has amassed a consistent record of spying on and harrassing citizens engaged in legal, non-violent protests. Three of the four people indicted have been active with social justice issues through Portland State University. The fourth person indicted, Tre Arrow, has a history of very public nonviolent civil disobedience and ran against congressional representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore) on the Green Party ticket, receiving 15,000 votes." "The PJTTF has made no meaningful arrests, or progress towards enhancing public safety during its existence. Its focus seems to be 'investigating' lawful nonviolent political groups and property crimes, not violent crimes against persons. This tactic appears to have little to do with protecting the public from terrorism, and points toward the PJTTF's true intent: Defending big timber, biotech, and multinational corporations from the protests of outraged citizens." [ Read full statement ] [ Cascadia Forest Alliance | portland indymedia's forest activism page | pdx indy - past PJTTF features ]
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