DeChristopher leaves isolation after outcry
Tim DeChristopher, an environmental activist currently serving a two-year prison term for disrupting a federal land auction in Utah, was recently released from an "isolation unit" (essentially, solitary confinement), in which he had been held for 20 days. He was returned to the minimum security facility where he had originally been held. Authorities placed DeChristopher in solitary because an email he had sent contained a "threat" — specifically, a threat to return a $25,000 donation to his legal fund, because the donor's business practices were at odds with DeChristopher's principles.
It is ridiculous to think that our legal system would punish a man for threatening to give someone his money back, but given the history of this particular case, it is not surprising. A lawyer for DeChristopher has compared his client's ordeal to Franz Kafka's novel "The Trial." That's an exaggeration, perhaps, but it's not off base.
DeChristopher's story begins near the end of 2008, during the last days of George W. Bush's presidency, when that administration decided to sell the oil and gas drilling rights to a large number of parcels of federal land without a proper review of the potential environmental impact. DeChristopher, worried about the impact of fossil fuel use on the planet's climate, attended a protest of that auction; during the protest, he went inside, was handed a bidding paddle and started bidding.
Bidding on federal land rights without any intention of paying is, of course, illegal. DeChristopher knew that, and he was prepared to accept the consequences of his actions in the name of raising awareness of environmental issues. However, the government's treatment of him since his arrest has been nothing short of shameful. At trial, the judge barred his defense from discussing his motives or mentioning to the jury that the auction itself had been ruled illegal. Since the auctions, 77 of the leases sold have been voided.
After his conviction, DeChristopher made public statements extolling the virtue of civil disobedience and calling for continued action in the fight against climate change. When Judge Dee Benson sentenced DeChristopher to two years in prison, he commented that "the offense itself ... wasn't that bad," and pointed to the activist's "continuing trail of statements" as the reason for the harsh sentence.
The judge openly admitted that DeChristopher was not being jailed for his crime but for his speech.
Our society faces no more pressing challenge than climate change. Everything else that we argue about in our political discourse is irrelevant if we continue to drive our whole civilization toward a cliff. Ordinary politics has failed to address this threat. One party talks about the importance of dealing with climate change, but doesn't put those words into practice, while the other denies that climate change is even happening at all. We have no choice anymore but direct action and civil disobedience. Tim DeChristopher should be an example to us all.
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