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ELF in Long Island The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) has been busy in Long Island, New York, over the past few months. Both urban sprawl and genetic engineering have been targeted. With nine acts of economic sabotage taken against luxury homes under construction, the ELF is sending a clear message to developers. “If you build it, we will burn it” was left on one of the Long Island homes during a December 2000 action. The first action occurred on July 7. The group evaded security and destroyed two acres of genetically modified corn and several greenhouses worth of seedlings at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. Several trucks were also monkeywrenched, and anti-genetic messages were spray painted everywhere. It is estimated that two years worth of genetic experiments were destroyed with this action. The ELF then focused on urban sprawl. The first action against over development occurred sometime prior to November 11, 2000, at construction sites along Whiskey Road in Coram, Long Island. Urban sprawl has altered nearly 90 percent of Long Island’s habitats, either by physically removing them, paving them or polluting them with toxic human-made materials making them either undesirable or unsustainable for most species. Wildlife extinction rates are increasing exponentially as urban sprawl drives species from their homes. The Whiskey Road area, once state-protected land, has now fallen into the hands of money-driven developers. Roughly 500 acres have been clearcut. The second and third actions against urban sprawl on Long Island occurred on September 26, 2000, and November 11, 2000. Both took place at construction sites along Whiskey Road and involved monkeywrenching vehicles, pulling up survey stakes, smashing windows and leaving spray painted messages. The momentum continued as over 17 windows were smashed, slogans were left and bulldozers were decommissioned during the fourth action on November 24, 2000. This again took place at construction sites along Whiskey Road and in the Miller Place suburb. The tactics were again stepped up as the ELF claimed responsibility for destroying 12 vehicles and over 200 windows at a construction site in Middle Island, Long Island. According to the communiqué issued by the ELF describing the action: “These luxury homes are being built precariously close to the 320-acre Cathedral Pines County Park. Long Island has the second largest pine barren ecosystem in the world. Our greedy and corrupt politicians are more than willing to provide subsidies and allow construction in any area not under current protection by the Long Island Pine Barren Protection Plan. Our forests also lay on top of our aquifer which provides a large expanse of drinking water that is easily contaminated by pollutants and runoff. We will not stand by idly while our Earth is butchered for the monetary gain and the luxury of the wealthy elite. As long as our planet continues to be raped, we will be out there. We are everywhere.” On December 7, the ELF and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) claimed joint credit for sabotaging McDonald’s corporate offices on Long Island. The communiqué sent by the ELF and ALF stated: “At roughly 1:30 a.m. Friday, December 7, members of the ALF and ELF descended upon McDonald’s corporate offices in Haupauge. Here we smashed over 10 windows and spray painted anti-meat slogans against environmental destruction. We will not be stopped.” Two days later, on December 9, the ELF increased its pressure by burning one two-story condo and damaging three others at the Spring Lake housing development in Middle Island. This action caused over $200,000 in damages. A communiqué issued by the ELF said: “The Earth Liberation Front claims responsibility for the fires that ravaged the Birchwood at Spring Lake housing development in Middle Island, Long Island. During the night of December 9, members of the ELF crept into the construction site and placed incendiaries in four rows of condominiums. The structures were checked thoroughly for the presence of any occupants (human or animal) before being set. All of the incendiaries ignited successfully and the resulting fires gutted almost 16 nearly completed luxury homes, which were to be sold at several hundred thousand dollars each. Messages denouncing urban sprawl were scrawled on many of the remaining future dens of the wealthy elite. Survey stakes were also pulled up to prevent the planned expansion of the housing development along the border of a New York State Conservation Area. The actions of those who orchestrated the construction are absolutely intolerable, so we are now declaring an unbounded war on urban sprawl. As the stakes of the struggle continue to expand so will our methods and tactics. Window breaking and disabling vehicles can only do so much, and in a battle with our Earth in the balance we cannot hold back or go soft on those pillaging the planet for profit. Hopefully, the several million dollars in destruction will provide an unmistakable message to developers that their land rape will now be more costly than ever before.” Long Island authorities and mainstream media claimed there was $200,000 in damages compared to the several million claimed by the ELF. Authorities claim that some of the incendiaries failed but there has been no confirmation of this by neutral interests. The ELF struck again on December 19, by torching a home under construction in Miller Place, Long Island. The communiqué from the ELF stated in part: “...accelerants were poured over the house and lighted. Let there be no mistake that this was a nonviolent action, and the house was searched for any living thing before being set alight. This is the latest in a string of actions in the war against urban sprawl. “ Forests, farms and wetlands are being replaced with a sea of houses, green chemical lawns, blacktop, and roadkill. Farmland is being bought out by land developers because of their inability to compete with cheap, corporate, genetically engineered, pesticide-saturated food. The time has come to decide what is more important: the planet and the health of its population or the profits of those who destroy it.” The ELF took mre action on Long Island on December 29 by burning four new luxury homes under construction. A communiqué claiming responsibility for this action sent by the ELF appeared as follows: As an early New Year’s gift to Long Island’s environment destroyers, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) visited a construction site on December 29 and set fire to four unsold luxury houses nearly completed at island Estates in Mount Sinai, Long Island. Hopefully, this caused nearly $2 million in damage. This hopefully provided a firm message that we will not tolerate the destruction of our Island. Recently, hundreds of houses have been built over much of Mount Sinai’s picturesque landscape, and developers now plan to build an additional 189 luxury houses over the farms and forests adjacent to Island Estates. This action was done in solidarity with Josh Harper, Craig Rosebraugh, Jeffrey “Free” Luers and Craig “Critter” Marshall, Andrew Stepanian, Jeremy Parkin and the countless other known and unknown activists who suffer persecution, interrogation, police brutality and crappy jail conditions, yet stand strong. Whether it’s denying a prisoner vegetarian or vegan food or phone calls (which is a right), or inflicting even the terrorism of the grand jury, they stand strong. Oppression of our brothers and sisters will only make us uproot our tactics, by means, frequency and cost. The more brutality you give our brothers and sisters, the more money we cause the oppressors. Our hearts go out to all of them. Keep up the fight. Never give in.” The group left its mark on Long Island for the eleventh time in recent months on January 14, burning an articulated loader and a pickup truck at Melo's Construction Corporation in Miller Place. A communiqué stated in part: "...This action was done in solidarity with Long Island's Andrew Stepanian. Stepanian is a very prominent member of the Animal Defense League and is now serving jail time for a crime he did not commit. This is a pristine example of how law enforcement agents are unable to catch the real perpetrators and instead target vocal, above-ground activists." It is clear that the ELF is growing not only on Long Island but
in the United States as a whole, due in part to the realization
that
state-sanctioned means of protest on their own are not protecting
life on this planet. We at the North American Earth Liberation
Front Press Office congratulate the individuals involved in the
ELF for
their bravery, their increasing perseverance, and their efforts
to protect all that is natural and real on this planet. You are
an inspiration.
Keep it up. |