News Brief New Standard

by Al Vick (bio)

Jan 22 - Five privately-owned Hummer sports utility vehicles (SUVs) have reportedly been vandalized in recent weeks by an active cell connected to the internationally-known radical environmental group, Earth Liberation Front (ELF), causing thousands of dollars of damage.

According to a story reported by local ABC affiliate KHBS-KHOG 40/29 News, each of the SUVs suffered similar damage: slashed tires, broken windows, dents and the letters ELF spray painted somewhere on the vehicle. One angry owner of a vandalized Hummer, Richard Coger of Fayetteville, explained to the press that perpetrators had also stuffed a sandwich into his gas tank.

The Earth Liberation Front, by it?s own definition, is an international underground movement consisting of autonomous groups of people who carry out direct action according to ELF guidelines, which include: inflicting economic damage upon those profiting from the destruction and the exploitation of the natural environment, revealing to and educating the public on the atrocities committed against the Earth and all species that populate it, and the taking of all necessary precautions against harming any animal, human and non-human during targeted actions.

In recent months, Hummers and other SUVs have become frequent targets of the group?s activities because of their extremely poor fuel efficiency. Additionally, the environmental advocacy group, Sierra Club says Hummers produce at least twice the amount of pollutants as most smaller vehicles and get half the gas mileage. Last year, the ELF took responsibility for setting a fire at a Hummer dealership in California, which destroyed some 40 vehicles. On their official website, the group lists some 75 illegal direct actions taken during 2003 alone, with just under 50 percent of these having been carried out by its sister group, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).

The direct actions taken in and around Fayetteville are the first of their kind for the Northwest Arkansas area, and while the legal and above-ground ELF Press Office has not claimed any official responsibility for the Northwest Arkansas-based vandalism, the KHBS/KHOG news story now appears on their website. At the present time, area police have reported no arrests related to the incidents.