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First known house raid in connection with last summer’s Animal Liberation Front fur farm campaign.
The following is a report of a house that was raided this week in San Diego, apparently in connection with the recent wave of mink releases.
Since July, anonymous activists have raided 10 fur farms in Idaho, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Montana. In every instance, the raids followed the classic Animal Liberation Front model of releasing (wild) animals from their cages directly into their native habitat. (Read a recent New York Times article on this campaign here.)
From what can be gleaned from this report, the woman targeted seemed to do the correct thing and did not speak to the FBI.
Also of note: The FBI used a classic “divide and conquer” tactic by attempting to entice cooperation through spreading disinformation (in this instance, telling a target that a person they have an involvement with is “seeing other women.”) While this tactic is almost cliche in the FBI’s attempt to create divides in movements, they wouldn’t use it if it didn’t (occasionally) work.
I am posting the report in full. Note: I took the liberty of adding paragraph breaks to the original post where it seemed appropriate.
“My name is Nicole and my house was raided By the FBI, JTTF, and local sheriffs.
The agents shouted FBI opened up we have a search warrant, as we (my mom and I) got pulled outside they stormed the house, we also have three companion animals, luckily the dogs were with us, but the cat was upstairs. As soon as we got back inside I said I want to see the warrant, one agent told me that I would have it momentarily.
The two main agents that I could tell, were agent Debbie Fry and agent Kyle Bremersiemeu. Those were the first two agents that talked to me and said they wanted to talk to me. Before we went upstairs I again asked to see the warrant and they again said I would have it momentarily. They introduced themselves and then said that they were both from the FBI offices in San Francisco. I told them as soon as they started talking that I would not answer any questions without my lawyer present.
They started with Nicole we’ve been following you for a little while now, showing me pictures of myself getting gas. She told me that she knew I moved to Portland with another friend that they have been keeping an eye on.
She showed me pictures of different incidents and told me that it was me. She showed me a picture from a surveillance camera of a car that looked like mine and said that it was mine. She said that yes these are just surveillance camera pictures but the FBI has better pictures of the incidents and can tell that its my car. Then she showed me another picture of two people in black and she told me that one of them was me.
I was not being responsive and kept looking at the ground. Than agent Debbie said you and this other persyn have been going on a lot of trips and when you were back in Oakland, we searched your car. She showed me pictures of what she told me were bolt cutters, and muriatic acid found in my car. She also said she had attained mink hair found in my car and brought up two animal activist that were recently arrested in Illinois. I kept looking outside and agent Kyle and Debbie kept bringing up the other persyn.
They told me that when said persyn was still with me that they were seeing other womyn behind my back. Agent Kyle
noticed I kept looking outside and said why are you looking outside, you cant runaway now.
Finally they stopped and we were taken back downstairs. While downstairs I asked to see the warrant again and again they told me I would see it momentarily. So we sat in the living room while they conducted the search.
Then they told me I also had a warrant for my finger prints and my DNA. I told them I didn’t want to do that and then one agent womyn told me that she would force me to do so because it was ordered by a judge.
So they finally left my house around 12:45 pm and upon leaving I asked for the agents cards and they ignored me and kept talking to my mom. I said again I wanted their names and they told me they would write it on the back of a card.
IN Solidarity with everyone of us that they are trying to silence.
Nicole
The warrant was for anything relating to businesses of animal industries, mink, clothes, books/ zines pertaining to mink, bobcat, and animal rights, maps, and for my car.”
