Myth Busters Gives a Home To Judi Bari Bombing Conspirator
May 26, 2013 6:45 AM Subscribe
Judi Bari was an environmental activist who fought against the clear cutting of California Redwoods in the 1980s and 1990s. She was severely injured in a bomb blast that destroyed the car she was driving in along with Darryl Cherney but was arrested by the Oakland police and FBI for the bombing within minutes of their arriving at the scene. It turned out to be a conspiracy to silence protesters going up against Pacific Lumber. This resulted in a civil rights lawsuit and a $4.4M award to Bari and Cherney.
Now Myth Busters has decided to hire Frank Doyle, the FBI bomb expert who "led" the forensic examination that concluded the bomb was of Bari and Cherney's own making despite strong evidence that it was planted under the driver's seat, not behind it as Doyle had claimed.
(Previously and a tribute song by Utah Phillips to Judi Bari)
This post was deleted for the following reason: There may be a good post lurking here, and you're welcome to try again, but it's a bit misleading (Doyle has been working with Mythbusters for a while), and it's not clear why this is framed as a "calling out Mythbusters" thing. Maybe make a post about the actual incident and people involved rather than Mythbusters OUTRAGE? -- taz
Conspiracy to silence protestors? Bah, conspiracies don't exist! Especially with police or the government!
posted by OwlBoy at 7:12 AM on May 26, 2013
posted by OwlBoy at 7:12 AM on May 26, 2013
Yeah, but this goes beyond "somebody someone doesn't like" and into "a man who participated in a terrorist conspiracy to silence protestors on behalf of private capital". Doyle isn't just somebody some people don't like- he's a bonafide monster who cheerfully conspired to violate the human rights of people for no reason other than that they were inconvenient to capital.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:14 AM on May 26, 2013 [9 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:14 AM on May 26, 2013 [9 favorites]
"Perceived politics", "bad things happen"? This isn't just some government employee who made inappropriate comments. This is a person whose employer was issued a $4+ million dollar fine because his actions violated a crime victim's civil rights. This as a cop so dirty he stains anything he touches.
There's no reason at all that filth like this should given a public forum on a regular basis, no reason his surviving victims need to turn the TV and see their their government oppressor chatting merrily about the delights of making things explode. I sure can't support the organization which allows that to happen, which is too bad. Up 'til now I really liked Mythbusters.
posted by CHoldredge at 7:16 AM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
There's no reason at all that filth like this should given a public forum on a regular basis, no reason his surviving victims need to turn the TV and see their their government oppressor chatting merrily about the delights of making things explode. I sure can't support the organization which allows that to happen, which is too bad. Up 'til now I really liked Mythbusters.
posted by CHoldredge at 7:16 AM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
"He may be a bastard but he's our bastard" - FDR.
posted by lalochezia at 7:19 AM on May 26, 2013
posted by lalochezia at 7:19 AM on May 26, 2013
"Perceived politics", "bad things happen"? This isn't just some government employee who made inappropriate comments. This is a person whose employer was issued a $4+ million dollar fine because his actions violated a crime victim's civil rights. This as a cop so dirty he stains anything he touches.
he's a bonafide monster who cheerfully conspired to violate the human rights of people for no reason other than that they were inconvenient to capital.
There's no reason at all that filth like this should given a public forum on a regular basis
Yes, and maybe Discovery and the Mythbusters team should fire him. I seriously doubt they hired him because he bragged about this on his CV, though.
posted by Dumsnill at 7:31 AM on May 26, 2013
he's a bonafide monster who cheerfully conspired to violate the human rights of people for no reason other than that they were inconvenient to capital.
There's no reason at all that filth like this should given a public forum on a regular basis
Yes, and maybe Discovery and the Mythbusters team should fire him. I seriously doubt they hired him because he bragged about this on his CV, though.
posted by Dumsnill at 7:31 AM on May 26, 2013
I wish there were some..non activisty sources in this FPP. From what I see, it looks like they're claiming the FBI planted the bomb, and claiming there's lots of proof because the civil rights lawsuit went their way, but the civil rights lawsuit wasn't about the bomb, but about illegal search and a "rush to judgment" in thinking the activists were responsible for the bombing.
The jurors in the civil suit also sound like idiots, even on the text on the activist site itself.
posted by corb at 7:35 AM on May 26, 2013
The jurors in the civil suit also sound like idiots, even on the text on the activist site itself.
"We didn't know anything about timber issues, or what was really going on with the redwoods. But we all had an understanding of the intensity surrounding such issues as abortion, so we figured things had to be somewhere along those lines," the juror said.The worst that can be said about these guys is that they acted like hotheads, and so people want to call out MythBusters for hiring this one guy 15 years later? Ugh.
posted by corb at 7:35 AM on May 26, 2013
And I say this as a protester whose friend was shot by the FBI in the seventies. If the feds were going to start bombing people, it wouldn't be these guys.
posted by corb at 7:37 AM on May 26, 2013
posted by corb at 7:37 AM on May 26, 2013
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posted by rebent at 7:09 AM on May 26, 2013