Jury convicts activist of posting false bids in public-lands auction - Wire - Lifestyle - bellinghamherald.com This was an act of civil disobedience. No one got hurt. Nothing got damaged. Nothing was stolen. Maybe a few energy companies were inconvenienced by having their leases of land delayed, but 10 years? Come on, you can scream bloody murder that a soldier's funeral and claim that he deserved to die, but you can't mess up a land lease auction one time?
Fairly simple distinction here burritos. One instance is free speech, the other is commiting fraud. Nothing was stopping the guy from standing out front of the auction with signs that read "You deserve to die Exxon!"
That's true. But 10 years(not guaranteed) is ridiculous, from a justice, fiscal, practical, and safety point of view. It's just malicious. My opinion. I'm serving federal duty in 3 weeks. He would have gotten off if I were on the panel.
One is destructive attention-seeking behaviour, which pays quite well, and the other is thumbing your nose at the corporate overlords - soon to be punishable by death.
let us know what the sentance is. 10 years would be crazy. maybe 30 days, x hours of public service and probation.
THIS IS what happens when you get juiced up by reading Ed Abbey, but not quite ready to do direct physical harm to, um, anybody. Unf I can't open the Bellingham link to see how long the serious bidders were inconvenienced by this. It sorta matters. If it's a short time, says me, who cares? If a long time, one might well ask why it took folks in charge (what, years?) to discern that DeChristopher did not have 1.8 large? Are they smokin dweeb like everybody else in Bellingham (hey I been there) I have also been in Cnylands and Arches, and that region would not be my personal choice for the next big drill. Maybe something nearer to Inhofe's house in OK? But hey nobody asked me. I think this is modern civil disobedience and we should be talking about book deal and not hard time. But hey nobody asked me.
I remember reading the article when he committed the fraud bid. It was a day or two after the auction was done and everyone knew his bids were a sham. I wouldn't be surprised if there were new drills on the leased lands as we speak.
