Color me surprised this hasn't been diaried yet because it's one of those benchmarks to tell us how bad things have gotten.
Six Convicted for Protesting Animal Cruelty by Huntington Labs
I'm not an animal rights activist myself, and I don't expect people to be outraged that people who firebomb things go to jail, but these six didn't firebomb anything. In fact, there's really no evidence they ever lifted a finger to do anything or help anyone who did. Why are they going to jail then? Because they ran a website that some people happened to use to plan parts of illegal actions.
What are they really charged with? Hurting company profits.
The Original Indictment
The good stuff starts on page 5, which is where the government lays into the charges. Reading the charges, it's clear this isn't about anything but political, and thus protected, speech.
It was the object of the conspiracy to physically disrupt the operations of HLS and drive it out of business either by: (a) directly disrupting the business of HLS or (b) disrupting the business of companies that either provided services to, or purchased services from, HLS, thereby forcing those businesses to cease doing business with HLS and make it impossible for HLS to conduct its business.
Under this definition, what else is now illegal? Bus boycott? That's a pretty direct disruption of business, especially if you took the crazy step to have someone stand by a bus stop to tell people to join the boycott. Strikes? What do you think a picket line is? Protests against any corporation? If you're trying to get them to spend more on safety and less on profits, you clearly hate America.
Forgive the hyperbole, but I'm not extrapolating into possible future outcomes here. Kevin Kjonnas and his co-defendants have just been convicted of what you'd think was protected by Brandenburg v Ohio; that's the USSC case that struck down laws that punished you for advocating illegal action. You can't be punished for what you say and someone else does ... until now.
The animal rights movement might not be the friendliest or cuddliest (ironic, yes, since they tend to only protect the friendly and cuddly animals) movement to come to the defense of, but when they lose their right to free speech so do we all. This isn't about defending the illegal acts, it's about defending the ability of people to speak freely about political beliefs, possible actions, and not be charged with things they didn't do.
Consider the numerous arrests made during any protest in recent memory (Cindy Sheehan at the UN, for instance). If that act is illegal, is it also illegal to talk about going to the UN and lying in front of the door yourself? Is that a conspiracy to make a spectacle of yourself? Or let's say you're protesting a company's poor safety record (at a coal mine, for instance). Not only is that illegal (trying to disrupt their business), but now talking about it on the internet is illegal too.
Again, not extrapolation, that's what really happened. For real. In America. So watch your backs, and watch your friend's backs too, because as alarmist as this might sound, I sure don't feel comfortable speaking freely about anywhere any more.