Tim DeChristopher posed as a bidder at a Bureau of Land Management auction, “purchasing” 22,000 acres of beautiful Utah land to protect it from oil and gas companies. He now faces a stiff prison sentence. You’ll find his story here, including his discussion with Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow (plus statement by Robert Redford).
Erich, thanks for the post. I think this guy is a new hero for me. I always thought if I had more/enough money I would buy up all the abandoned gas stations, defunct strip malls and city parcels and then bulldoze and plant trees. I hope Tim DeChristopher really does get a jury of his true peers.
Tim DeChristopher discusses what was going through his mind at the auction on the radio show of Reverend Billy (go to the 12 min mark to hear Tim).
DeChristopher’s sentence was recently posted on Common Dreams:
“Tim DeChristopher, who was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison and a $10,000 fine for ‘disrupting’ a Bureau of Land Management auction in 2008, had an opportunity to address the court and the judge immediately before his sentence was announced.”
This same site offers a written statement by Tim.
Here’s Tim DeChristopher’s enter statement to the Court just prior to being sentenced to two years in federal prison. https://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/26-13
This is his closing:
I’m not saying any of this to ask you for mercy, but to ask you to join me. If you side with Mr Huber and believe that your role is to discourage citizens from holding their government accountable, then you should follow his recommendations and lock me away. I certainly don’t want that. I have no desire to go to prison, and any assertion that I want to be even a temporary martyr is false. I want you to join me in standing up for the right and responsibility of citizens to challenge their government. I want you to join me in valuing this country’s rich history of nonviolent civil disobedience. If you share those values but think my tactics are mistaken, you have the power to redirect them. You can sentence me to a wide range of community service efforts that would point my commitment to a healthy and just world down a different path. You can have me work with troubled teens, as I spent most of my career doing. You can have me help disadvantaged communities or even just pull weeds for the BLM. You can steer that commitment if you agree with it, but you can’t kill it. This is not going away. At this point of unimaginable threats on the horizon, this is what hope looks like. In these times of a morally bankrupt government that has sold out its principles, this is what patriotism looks like. With countless lives on the line, this is what love looks like, and it will only grow. The choice you are making today is what side are you on.
I’ve seen murderers go free for giving testimony on behalf of the government. This prosecution and sentence are dispicable!