Ecoterrorist released from 'hole' in prison defiant as ever (We don't want this guy out early.)

freefreenow.org ^ | September 2003 | Jeffrey Luers

[bicycle thug]

Hello everyone. I have good news to share. On 9/10 I was released from segregation. I have not had an opportunity to speak with my attorney so I'm not sure what I can share. However, I would like to extend my deepest thanks to Lauren Regan, AAL and her legal assistant, Misha Dunlap for their awesome help. They put in a lot of time into getting me out of the hole-taking time from their busy lives to come visit and talk strategy with me. Thank you.

As of right now, I?ve been out for 5 days. I have been given my job back on the yard and I?m working on getting my old housing back in the worker?s housing which gives me a bigger cell.

Yesterday, I had an interesting conversation with a prison friend. He told me that I need to mellow out and just do my time-that I can?t win against these people. I get that a lot from folks-even from supporters on the outs.

Revolution is a way of life. It is not one act of resistance. Who we are, how we live-will decide the future. I play many roles in my life. I am a son, a brother, an uncle, a best friend and a prisoner. But before every one of those, I am a warrior. I live my entire life in resistance to the mindless destruction of this society.

Because in every role we play, we must be revolutionary. How can we change things if we do not change ourselves? We must rid ourselves of the oppressor within and that starts with our personal relationships. It starts with how we choose to live.

I came to prison for the way I lived my life. I challenged the system and its allies in every fashion-from dialogue to action. It is who I am. I will not cower before repression; I will not leave the side of our animal relations. I will not be silenced in my defense of Mother Earth. I am alive and strong and I will fight because the spirit is with me.

I did not leave this at the prison gates. My spirit is as strong and defiant as ever. I will always struggle with every means available to me-as all we must. And with my dying breath, I will cry for freedom if I must.

It is our warrior spirit that makes us strong. It is our willingness to struggle to the end, never giving up that will see us through. Against all odds, we must stand strong and united, courageous with the belief that our spirits can not be broken. We stand with the strength of Mother Earth, with the strength of all our animal brothers and sisters and the web of life. We stand with the strength and warrior spirit of our ancestors who fought against oppression and for their sacred lands. We are all descendents of ancient cultures that live in harmony and balance with the Earth.

Thousands of years of genocide and assimilation have brought us to where we are, It is time each of us remembers our collective pas. It is time each of us renew our oath to the web of life. We must rekindle the flames of our warrior spirit.

Each generation has a responsibility to make things better for the next. My sisters and brothers, it is time to unite. It is time to rise. It is time to fight like we?ve never fought before .We must challenge this system and all its sickness on every front.

Against all odds we must win, Jeff (Free) Luers

Letter from the Eugene Human Rights Commission Regarding Jeffrey Luers

To Whom It May Concern:

Whereas all citizens of our city are deserving of equal treatment before the law, it is within the scope of the Human Rights Commission to review any possible discrimination against individuals, based on their political affiliation, source of income, or other significant factor, when an issue has been brought before us. Eugene is working toward a tradition of tolerance. During these difficult times, we must work diligently to ensure that the basic civil rights of all of our fellow citizens are equally protected and upheld.

Jeffrey "Free" Luers admits to having committed a property crime within the city limits for political reasons. He was duly prosecuted and sentenced. We found that similar crimes have not been met with such harsh sentences, and we are concerned about the length of Mr. Luers' sentence. In researching other cases of arson in Lane County, where homes and churches have been damaged, the sentencing has been less severe than that applied to Mr. Luers, in many cases ranging from 50 months to 96 months. Even many people convicted of violent personal crimes have received significantly less time than 23 years.

Although we recognize that we are only a symbolic entity, we are charged to function as a "conscience" in the arena of human rights. This being the case, we therefore urge Mr. Luers to use his appeal process in the hope that a review of his sentence will lead to a reduction in time served and with the expectation that the length of his sentence would not be based on his political beliefs.

Any questions or comments may be forwarded to Sara Rich, Human Rights Commissioner, at 541-682-5177.

Signed, James Dean, Chair On behalf of the Human Rights Commission

[bicycle thug]

Free is the focus of a large activist community to reduce his 22 year and several month sentence. The Eugene Human Rights Commission in fact has taken the position that this should be done. (Note letter posted under Luers' comments from prison.)

If you think he should serve every day of this sentence for his SUV arson, a crime that has sparked many copy cats - in Eugene and L.A., contact:

Mr. Hardy Myers, Attorney General-State of Oregon
400 Justice Building
Salem, Oregon 97310

Re: Jeffrey Luers, Appellate Case #A115208

Terrorism should not be rewarded, and those contemplating further crimes of this sort need deterence. If enough people 'FReep' the Oregon Attorney General, it should weaken the currency of the stream of letters from those who would see an early release to someone who obviously still aches to resume his ELF work.

(Material gleaned from FreeFreeNow.Org)

[bicycle thug]

Ping

[So Cal Rocket]

In June 2000, Jeff Luers and Craig Marshall went to a Chevrolet dealership in Oregon and set three pickups on fire, causing an estimated $40,000 in damage. Almost a year later, on June 11, 2001, the 22-year old activist was sentenced to 22 years in jail for those acts of arson and related crimes. A large portion of that sentence does not carry any parole option, so Luers will likely spend close to 15 years in jail. Good for him.

The facts behind Luers' case show that whatever else he is, he is not very bright. Luers had been just released from jail on a disorderly conduct charge. Plainclothes police were tailing him but lost him near the car dealership. He was arrested 10 minutes after the fire by another office on a traffic violation!

Luers received a 22-year sentence for two reasons. First, unlike Marshall, he refused to plea bargain. Marshall plead to lesser charges and received 5 1/2 years. As one newspaper account put it, Luers chose to roll the dice on a trial and lost big time. Second, Luers was also convicted of trying to ignite a gasoline tanker at Eugene's Tyree Oil Co. in May 2000. The judge apparently decided that based on those two incidents, Luers was a serial arsonist and gave him a stiff sentence in response.

Of course animal rights and environmental extremists see Luers as a victim due to his long sentence. They seem to think that Luers and the right to commit arson because his conscience told him it was the right thing to do, but society does not have the right to protect itself against arsonists such as Luers.

[bicycle thug]

Good post. There was a second SUV fire on the eve of Luer's sentencing that distroyed a large number of SUVs in the same lot he had set his fires. This incredibly stupid act of difiance helped insure he had a long sentence. I see no need for sympathy at his blight.

If we are to deter these and other ELFers, there has to be teeth in the reaction to ecologically based motives to commit crimes of life endangerment and distruction.

[VeniVidiVici]

23 years!! LOL!! Yeah, that's the ticket!

[bicycle thug]

Ping

[STONEWALLS]

"I came to prison for the way I lived my life. I challenged the system and its allies in every fashion-from dialogue to action. It is who I am. I will not cower before repression; I will not leave the side of our animal relations. I will not be silenced in my defense of Mother Earth. I am alive and strong and I will fight because the spirit is with me."

.....what a pant load this guy is.....he thinks he's writing an epic statement.......he's lucky he's in jail....if he tried to burn down my car dealership I would have shot him clean out of his socks.....ordinary citizens don't have to wait for the FBI to handle cases like this....they have every right to defend themselves against arson by the use of deadly force.

[bicycle thug]

He has always been a legend in his own mind. Bombastic, hair triggered, and very much the aggressive Los Angeles transplant who worked to stir it up in Eugene.

I often wonder if any of those burning things up down there know him as he hails from SoCal originally. One thing's for certain, he's not saying.

[blackie]

Hang 'Em High!

[dennisw]

Breaking rocks in the hot sun ...

He fought the law and the law won.

[sergeantdave]

This guy has been chomping too many peyote buttons. He actually thinks he's a warrior. He wouldn't last a day in a warrior society, be it the Rangers, Marines, Special Forces or the Anishinabe nation.

The role of a warrior is to protect his family, his community and his nation. That entails an understanding of duty, honor and responsibility. He knows none of that.

He is a destroyer of family, community and nation. He is the enemy. He's fortunate that he didn't meet a warrior in some private place while he was making his rounds of destruction. If he did he'd have discovered that he's a coward. And that would have been too late for him.

[bicycle thug]

He was convicted as well for the atempted arson at Tyree Oil a stone's throw from many occupied homes. Fortunately it was unusually cold that night. The containers of fuel failed to vaporize enough to be sparked off by the lit candles next to them.

He had been seeking advice on how to build detonators and mix stronger cocktails of fuel from former military people who resoundly refused to give this information to him.

He should have first learned how to write up an operations order and how to rehearse. And seeing how they matched fuels from Tyree and Joe Romania to liquids in his digs, he had no working knowlege of operational security.

You are right he is no soldier risking his life to protect and defend others. He was a walking agenda out mainly to serve his own inflated self importance and notoriety.

Terrorists usually think of themselves as warriors. So I am not surprised by the puffery in his writing above.

[WorkingClassFilth]

This boy needs to do a long, long stretch.

[blackie]

Words and actions to live by. :)

[Clinging Bitterly]

Kind of late chiming in here. I read up on him more after the HRC's idiocy on his behalf a couple months ago, and said a few things about the issue here then.

He received a fair sentence, IMO. He has 20 years, more or less, to learn a thing or two. Hopefully he doesn't waste it as he has his time inside so far.