Grievance 28 - Harrassment

The U.S. Constitution failed to specifically prohibit all government
interference and direct involvement with non-violent civilian political activity.

The First Amendment prohibited Congress from making any "law" that would
interfere with freedom of the people to speak and assemble, but it did not preclude
"administrative" actions by government agencies that could interfere, nor did it
stipulate that individuals in government were to be held liable for acts contrary to it. Consequently, government agencies were sometimes reprimanded for unconstitutional acts, but individuals perpetrating them in most cases escaped criminal prosecution.

The FBI admitted in 1967 that it had a counter intelligence program
known as "Cointelpro" designed to offensively halt political activism
for change, in apparent disregard for its mandate of investigative
police work involving interstate or federal crimes. The self-assigned
political involvement of Cointelpro was clear;

"...to disrupt, misdirect, isolate and
neutralize..."

There were numerous FBI targets, among which were such non-violent
groups as Earth First, an environmental organization. The agency
compiled the names, addresses, places of employment, physical
descriptions and political relationships of hundreds of people who had
merely received phone calls from the group.

In 1990, Earth First members Judi Bari and Daryl Cherney were driving
through Oakland, California, enroute to recruit people for a campaign to
save the Redwood Forests, when a pipe bomb exploded in their car,
inflicting serious injuries on them. FBI agents told police at the
scene that the couple was dangerous;

"...the types of people who would be
involved in carrying a bomb...these
people in fact qualified as terrorists."

Bari and Cherney claimed the bomb had been planted in their car. Just
one month before the incident, the FBI had conducted a "bomb school" for
law enforcement personnel on the forested land where Earth First members had
earlier chained themselves to trees. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued
a unanimous ruling;

",,,the FBI agents intended to interfere
with Bari and Cherney's First Amendment
rights to demonstate and communicate
their message about the environment."

But the physical injury and constitutional violation had already
occured, and there was no serious investigation by the FBI into the
origin of the bomb, or whether law enforcement agents were involved in
planting it. Compensation for damages is unlikely when law enforcement
agencies don't cooperate in gathering evidence of wrongdoing.

An AUTHENTIC CONSTITUTION in harmony with the natural Cosmic Laws
of the universe, and producing High Moral Values and Democratic Ideals,
prohibits harassment or infringement of non-violent civilian political
activity, and provides for possible prosecution and personal liability
of violators inside government as well as outside.

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