Despite the freaking out about right-wing violence that hardly exists, it’s the Left that has plenty of activists more than willing to break the law. In particular, eco-terrorists have been some of the more prolific domestic terrorists through the years.
Emily Johnston, an editor and a poet from Seattle, joined several other activists from Seattle and across the West to shut-off valves on a pair of oil pipelines Canadian energy company, Enbridge, owns and operates.
“I’m not courageous or brave,” Johnston told a crowd at a progressive church in Oregon shortly after getting bailed out following her sabotage efforts. “I’m just more afraid of climate change than I am of prison.”
That, my friends, is the mentality we’re trying to combat here. It’s not just Johnson. Not by a long shot.
That line of thinking is prevalent throughout the Left these days. It’s how they can justify all manner of crimes. In this case, they’re justifying eco-terrorism because they believe the stakes are so high.
So in order to combat it, we need to raise the stakes. We need to make them more afraid of the repercussions of their actions. The fear of prison is what keeps many people honest. For most of us, we do what’s right because it’s right, but sometimes what we feel is right is also illegal. That threat of prison keeps us from doing something stupid.
But for people like Johnston and her fellow travelers, it’s clearly not enough. That means penalties for such behavior are insufficient right now.
There are several alternatives worth considering. Domestic eco-terrorists could be treated like other terrorists, and sent to Gitmo. A more politically palatable alternative would be to simply restructure the penalties for domestic terrorism to dissuade this kind of behavior. Perhaps mandatory sentences in a Supermax prison.
There’s a saying: “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” We clearly need to make it so no one will want to do the time.
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