Jane Magazine's One-Sided Terror Tale

In the latest issue of Jane, we are offered a break from the typical "how to please your man" tripe that passes for serious journalism in a women's magazine and presented with the harrowing tale of one Lauren Gazzola, a member of Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty (SHAC) currently in prison for her actions with that group. The "government out of control" piece, written from the first person perspective, is titled "I'm in Prison for Being a Terrorist-And I Literally Wouldn't Hurt a Fly." (I cannot find a link to the story, but you can find Gazzola's website [here].)

To hear Gazzola tell it, all she ever did was allegedly run SHAC's website. And while that website might have contained accounts of illegal activity done in SHAC's name, Gazzola insists that all she and her cohorts ever did was write about illegal activity, not condone it.

"What's crazy, though, is that when I stood in the courtroom pleading not guilty. neither I nor any of my friends had been charged with participating in window smashing, tire slashing or paint throwing. We were on trial for writing about it," writes Gazzola.

Whatever you think of animal testing, there is more to the Gazzola story than she is letting on. Rather than take one side of any story at face value, this might be a good time to look at just what exactly the Department of Justice accused Gazzola and her fellow SHACers of doing. Here are some highlights from the DOJ [press release]:

“Testimony from victims revealed that SHAC and its organizers routinely posted personal information on their websites…Other information published on the Internet included names of employees' spouses; the names and ages of their children and where the children attended school, even in some instances teachers' names; license plate numbers and churches attended by employees and their families and more.”

“Part of the stated mission of SHAC was to "operate outside the confines of the legal system," according to their website. SHAC encouraged "direct actions" against HLS, other companies and employees that included its "top 20 terror tactics" to intimidate and harass and to destroy personal and real property, as described on its websites.”

“The "top 20 terror tactics" implicitly encouraged the invading of offices, vandalizing property and stealing documents; physical assault, including spraying cleaning fluid into someone's eyes; smashing windows of a target's home or flooding the home while the individual was away; vandalizing or firebombing cars and bomb hoaxes; and threatening telephone calls or letters, including threats to kill or injure someone's partner or children.”

All of this sounds terrible, but none of it explicitly implicates Gazzola in any of the criminal activity. Except that the DOJ caught Gazzola on tape making a not-so-veiled threat of future action on the group's behalf. Quote:

"Video recordings by SHAC members at one protest outside a victim's residence in Boston showed Gazzola yelling into a bullhorn, with Boston Police standing nearby, saying:

'Where were the police when an HLS worker's car got flipped over in his driveway? Where were the police when a Marsh executive had all his windows smashed in and his house covered in red paint in Chicago?....And where were the police when your house was covered in red paint a few weeks ago? They can't protect you. Your (court) injunctions can't stop us. We will always find a way around whatever you throw at us.'"

Of course, this information is just as biased as Gazzola's first-person narrative. But it might be worth taking into account, rather than blindly believing that Gazzola is the semi-naive girl scout she purports to be in Jane.