Environmental extremists with teh Earth Liberation Front have been torching homes in Michigan, claiming as many as six homes under construction that burned down under suspicious circumstances from August 2002 through March 2003.
When police and fire officials arrived at the scene of a March 21 fire, they found the words “E.L.F., no sprawl” spray painted onto a garage next to one of the burned houses. The ELF took credit for that fire through a communique posted on the ELF web site.
As with all such acts of terrorism, the goal is to intimidate and people in the area are living in fear of the next arson. Superior Township Fire Marshal Wayne Dickinson told The Detroit Free Press,
All of the builders are on pins and needles. They are getting security dogs and hiring people to sit in their houses because of what’s going on.
Some builders have gone as far as to hire a security guard to watch the homes under construction during the night.
The FBI, the Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Michigan State Fire Marshal are all involved in investigating the string of fires, which the FBI is treating as an act of domestic terrorism. They are also looking at a possible link between these fires and an arson at Michigan State University in 2000 that targeted a researcher working on genetically modified crops.
For me, this was an interesting firsthand look at the effects that such terrorism has. I live in Michigan and I have relatives who personally know some of the folks who were targeted in this attack. What is interesting is that most people in the area had never heard of environmental terrorism before this and such acts do not win people over to those arguments to say the least. In fact, as the Detroit Free Press noted, many of these homes were built in an area where a lot of effort has been expended to maintain the rural nature of the area. These fires, if anything, threaten to undermine such efforts and, ironically, bring about exactly what the arsonists nominally oppose.
Source:
Militants linked to torched houses. Maryanne George, Detroit Free Press, May 27, 2003.