All language subtitles for The.Animal.People.2019.WE

This is Special Agent
James A. Anderson.

On August 26th
at approximately 10:15,

I'm preparing to report
a telephone conversation.

WOMAN: Hi, is Kevin there?

KEVIN: I was out early
around 7:30 a.m.

And I returned to the home
around 9:30,

and as you're driving
down Home Street
where our house was,

it's a one-way street.

And I noticed,
"Why is the street so packed?"

There're cars!
There's cars everywhere!

And then all of a sudden,

crossing the street
in front of me

was somebody
in an FBI windbreaker.

I immediately looked over
to my house,

saw federal agents
walking in and out,

I looked straight forward

and just kept on driving

making no eye contact
with anybody.

JAKE: When they left,
this guy, like,

took me aside
and got in my face and said,

"Where's Kevin?" I was like,
"I don't know where Kevin is."

And he goes, "Well, you tell
a message that we are after..."

You know, something
ridiculous like that.

I was like, "Okay.
Yeah, I'll get right on that."

I just kind of laughed at him,
and he got really upset.

He was like,

"You think this is funny?"
And blah, blah, blah and...

"You tell Kevin,
we're gonna get him."

"Yeah, okay."

JOSH: We're six activists
who are indicted under

federal terrorism laws.

We didn't break anything,

we didn't burn anything,

we didn't beat anyone,

we didn't even
so much as trespass.

Our crime is doing exactly

what I'm doing right now,

speaking.

NEWS REPORTER:
The target of SHAC was the animal testing company,

Huntingdon Life Sciences,
and companies that did
business with it.

WILL: Huntingdon Life Sciences
was selected

because it's a key player in the animal testing industry.

They have a lot of money,
lot of power,

a lot of resources
and a lot of influence.

MAN: This hearing
is the second hearing
we've had on this subject,

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, a radical animal rights
organization

that relies on a campaign
that feared to convey

their message
of animal liberation.

What we have
is an international conspiracy.

These are not
random isolated acts.

Legitimate business
enterprises are suffering.

WILL: The FBI,
Homeland Security

and the federal government

rallied behind this company

to defend them as this victim

of a protest campaign.

And a victim
that if they allowed

to close and to shut down

that other corporations
will be targeted next.

Corporations get to do
what they want.

That's the rule
in our society... effectively.

We challenged the right
of this corporation to exist.

This is Willie's
favorite treat,
isn't it, honey?

What you doing?

This is Willie.

Willie is the big
Justin Timberlake fan
in the house.

I get picked on for this.
This is my pillow case.

I'm not afraid to admit it.
I'm masculine enough.

Everybody always
made fun of me about it.

Like, "Oh, you like pop music."

And so I have got, like,
Justin Timberlake bobble heads,

somebody gave me
an autographed picture.

Somebody actually made me

a pillow case
with him on it. So...

Growing up
as one of those people

whose conscience wouldn't
let 'em remain silent,

I had to do something.

I was thinking about what career am I gonna pursue.

Because I wanna work
at an NGO or a non-profit.

Some people are passionate
about the law or medicine,

I was passionate
about public policy

and engaging the public
on social issues.

The animal rights issue
always spoke to me

because there was
such a lack of voices

speaking out
on behalf of animals.

I've grown up
with a beagle.

Barney the beagle is my best friend as a little kid.

In most labs,
they use beagles
for experimentation

and it really
hit home to me.

I got involved with
the Student Organization
For Animal Rights.

KATIE: We would do a little bit
of vegan outreach.

We would do a little bit
of anti-vivisection,

a little bit of anti-fur.

It became really focused
under Kevin.

KEVIN: Those meetings
would ramble on for hours.

And at that point in time,
I knew, like, this

feel-good, anarchist,
brand of activism

wasn't a fit for me.

I believe in hierarchy
and leadership.

I believe in authority.

He actually took over
at the U of M SOAR group.

I've never seen anything

like what Kevin
was able to do.

He'd get other people
to rally behind.

KEVIN: We decided
to figure out

what major researchers
at the university

were receiving funding

to do animal research.

Our primary target
was Marilyn Carroll,

who takes
rhesus macaque monkeys

and addicts them
to crack cocaine

and studies
the withdrawal effects.

We made flyers
with her picture on it.

Distributed it to her students,

to her colleagues.

It was at this point of time
that I realized,

you're doing a protest
against a person

who is doing something wrong.

And so we had
to make it personal.

And going to her doorstep
made it very personal.

She went through the roof
as did her husband.

No broken windows, no paint,

just people at her home.

It touched her nerve.

The press never
mentioned Marilyn Carroll

before we started
going to her house.

But then they were
also talking about it

because they had to explain
why we were there,

what Marilyn Carroll was doing
to these primates.

The raid that happened at the University of Minnesota

was at a neurological
research center

and then, was in
a psychology building.

NEWS REPORTER: The vandals
dressed in dark clothing,
and faces covered,

kicked in doors,
tore through labs

and took more than
100 research animals.

The impact of
an act of terrorism

is that it's shocking.

That it shocks people.
It terrorizes.

The break-in
had that impact.

I was out of town
when it happened.

When I got back
into Minnesota,

I couldn't believe something
of this magnitude

had happened at my school.

It felt like
we'd received a visit

from somebody really important.

I see individuals were
putting their lives

and their freedom at risk

to save these animals.

Since I was a student there,

I could be
the campus spokesperson

and try to explain
to the media

why radical
underground activists

would think it's appropriate
to take animals out

and cause damage.

OFFICER:
This is a terrorist act.

Come forward
and admit to who did it,

go to trial and see
what the outcome
of the trial is.

I, myself, and nobody
from the press office

knows who did this

or where you could
contact them.

Maybe it was hubris

and being young
and full of oneself

but I felt like

repercussions weren't
going to be an issue for me.

I got a page, this is back
in the day of pagers,

saying, "Call me. 911.
Call me. 911.

The FBI has just spent the last three and a half hours at our home.

They had guns
and flak jackets.

They tore our place apart.

You need to come home.
You need to come home."

The Nexus would have
been domestic terrorism.

FBI was trying to find out

if there's a relationship

between the people
who are publicly speaking

in theory about
tactics being used

by underground animal
rights activists.

Um, if there is a connection

to the people who are actually
carrying out the crimes.

KEVIN:
Minnesota state legislators
were trying

to introduce legislations
to make what I did illegal,

speaking out on behalf

of a "Terrorist action."

And even tried
to make it retro...

This wasn't about
solving a crime,

this was about
sending a message,

that you better shut up.

NARRATOR: Saturday afternoon
at King's Cross station
in London,

and protesters prepare
for another rally

against vivisection.

Most are regular, but one organizer is a visitor.

KEVIN: We have sheets
right here

on what to do
if you're arrested.

Please take one.

Just details what to do
in the police cell.

What to do for interviews.

England is the mecca
for animal rights activism.

And I always wanted to go there because of that.

I had the intention
of moving there.

Being involved
with some campaigns
on the weekends.

WOMAN: Kevin Kjonass was
the ALF spokesman
in Minnesota.

And has been questioned

as part of the ongoing
FBI investigation
into this raid.

KEVIN: After about a month
of being there,

I just wanted
to campaign full-time

because the success,
the energy,

the momentum
was intoxicating.

There're such
a diversity of people

and they all have
the same common desire

and that's to shut
these places down.

We will overcome
all obstacles
to shut 'em down.

In America, the movement
is much smaller,

and we can't do this
in such a mass scale.

ALL:
Close down HLS!

NARRATOR: Their destination,
Huntingdon Life Sciences.

WOMAN: Huntingdon Life Sciences

is one of the world's
leading contract
research organizations.

We take a holistic approach

to bio-pharmaceutical
drug development

to ensure that customer gets
the best help and support

in developing their products.

We take the care of our animals very seriously.

And our high ethical standards

are core to our
corporate philosophy.

Contact us now to find out

how we can help get
your next product to market.

WILL: Huntingdon Life Sciences
or HLS

is a contract
animal testing company.

They don't engage
in animal testing

like most people would think

of the term as finding
a cure for AIDS or cancer.

HLS will take money

from any private corporation

to carry out product testing.

Tooth paste
or pharmaceuticals,

an adhesive, or a bleach,

or laundry detergent or...
You name it.

I loved it.

It was a good company.
It was looking after us.

It was providing
valuable service

for the research
in drug development.

Huntingdon was doing
everything right.

Everything.

MAN: Hold on. That's a bad dog.
Look at the shite.

Oh, shut up.

-I haven't got
the patience, today.
-He's not healthy.

-MAN: I really haven't.
-How unsettled they are.

Fucking hell!

I'm really getting
fucking mad with you.

-Every fucking time.

Fucking sit still.

Nobody condones that.

That person
was fired immediately.

His supervisor was fired.

One technician out of
600 slapped a dog, so...

If... If you're running late,
you move faster,

you're rougher
with the animals.

If the animals
are struggling, you're...

The lab workers would

smack them around
the way you smack a computer

that's being sluggish
or slow.

I was in the U.S. lab
when the UK case broke

and the message that came
to the workers

in the U.S. lab was,

"Don't get caught
doing anything like that."

Well, I remember driving
home one night

and shaking my head
and saying to myself,

"It's all through."

The animals
are treated awfully.

There's no regard for them.

Their suffering
doesn't matter at all.

It's just about
the dollar bill.

It's all through.

Huntingdon was enemy number one
for the animal rights world.

KEVIN: SHAC stands for Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty.

WILL: It had its sole purpose

of shutting down
Huntingdon Life Sciences.

ALL:
Close down HLS!

KEVIN: SHAC's approach
was radically different

than prior campaigns

because tertiary targets
were being chosen.

Companies that Huntingdon
needs to survive,

but are companies
that don't need Huntingdon.

WILL: The reason
that was a success

was because they were
following the money.

KEVIN: They started targeting
their financiers,

their shareholders,
their banks.

KEVIN: It was having
an immediate effect.

The share price nosedived.

Huntingdon became a pariah.

BRIAN: Pretty quickly it was impossible for us to get

a bank account
in this country,

or insurance coverage
in this country.

And unfortunately we lost
a lot of shareholders as well.

WILL: They took one hit
after another.

They found their investors
backing out.

Including the most important,
the Royal Bank of Scotland.

NEWS REPORTER:
The year-long protest

against the
laboratory succeeded

in closing it down.

But at the last minute,
an anonymous overseas backer

came up with
a rescue package.

WILL: The only way
that they were saved

was from
a 33 million-dollar bail-out

from a U.S. company.

KEVIN: This is coming
to the U.S.

and everybody's participation
is being sought after.

NEWS REPORTER:
...our viewers that,

we're going to show you
what is unfolding...

NEWS REPORTER 1:
There's the harpoon.
There's the whale.

NEWS REPORTER 2: And there goes
the first gunshot

from the, uh, 5 caliber rifle.

JOSH: And I look over and I...

You're driving, you know,

and I'm seeing them past you.

And they're all up on
the bow of the ship
holding shotguns.

And you just have
that moment of, like,

-how the fuck did we get here?

Like, I'm on the ocean

sabotaging a whale hunt.

NEWS REPORTER:
But they have a target.
The whale's back up.

JAKE: Sure enough,
the guy in the front

of the boat goes up
with his elephant gun

to shoot this whale
in the back.

I just see Josh take out
a flare... a lit flare and...

...throw it over
the bow of the boat

and I'm like,
"Well, fuck it."

Consequences be damned.

Let's get the job done.

JOSH: The sole reason
that I chose

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty

versus the myriad
other groups out there

was the footage.

One of the most
horrifying things for me

was that it featured,

what was supposed
to be a necropsy

on a primate.

The primate was still alive

and was still
clearly breathing.

And...

Under no anesthetics...

And this man
was just callously

cutting open his chest.

And you can see
his heart still beating.

And I hated those fuckers.

KEVIN: Josh Harper, he's got
one of the biggest hearts

of anybody I know.

JOSH: I remember being
14 years old

and getting involved
in punk rock music.

We ain't preaching
but this our opinion,

everybody's got
a right to free speech.

Nazi redneck assholes,
fuck off.

JOSH: Reading the liner notes
of all these albums...

You know,
hearing these lyrics

about what was going on
in the world,

it helped to politicize me.

As I started to dig

more into the history

of how change occurs,

I realized that
at every turn,

every ounce of progress
that we've had,

towards the more just world

has come because

there were people
who were willing to fight

and willing to sacrifice...

and really willing
to suffer.

Not all of them
ended up succeeding
in their struggles.

But there's
something beautiful

about a person

who has a degree
of selflessness

that takes them
from their comfort

and propels them out
into the world

against great odds,

and often ends

in... in tragedy.

WOMAN: Okay. Your turn.

JOSH: At times, these issues
get to be a real abstraction,

500 a day, 70,000 a year,

but we forget that
their lives are very real,

very tangible to them.

And so I wanted to be here,
I wanted to be near the lab,

I wanted to see
where it was all happening.

JOSH: I wanted to send
them a message

that they are not safe
from me anywhere.

JOSH: HLS owed
millions of dollars

and Stephens bought that debt

and we wanted them
to recall it.

KEVIN: We promised
if Stephens divested 'em,

Huntingdon would be no more.

They were the crutch

Huntingdon was leaning
on to survive.

WARREN: If you wanna
sit down and have

a scientific factual debate,

that's fine.

Let's do it.

But they won't do that.

KEVIN: I just simply called

and I asked to speak
to Warren Stephens,

the President and CEO,
he wouldn't take my call.

NEWS REPORTER: Warren Stephens
says his company

will not divest
their holdings in Huntingdon.

You know,
the animals are treated

as humanely
as they possibly can be.

JOSH: My mission was to go
to the south

and let them know

you are going to have to deal
with some consequences

for your dealings with HLS.

NEWS REPORTER:
Hundreds of protesters
are reportedly coming to town

to call attention
to Stephens' investments

in a research company
they say

"Commits horrific acts
to animals."

WOMAN:
Welcome to the beautiful
Little Rock, Arkansas.

JAKE: We were
driving around looking at
potential protest targets.

We drove to the gas station.

I went in to buy something like
orange juice or something

and the woman was freaking out
and she said,

"We're under attack!
We're under attack!"

I was like,
"What are you talking about?"

She's like, "They're dropping
planes on us."

And I was like, "What?"

WILL: After the
September 11th attacks,

it was, you know,
a different environment,

to put it mildly,
and there was
a lot of discussion

of whether the protest
should continue

Little Rock was
October 29th, 2001.

It was just
a month and a half away.

JOSH: There was this
Bush administration campaign

of, you know,
you're with us or against us.

Either you're with us

or you are
with the terrorists.

JOSH: You know,
everyone's gotta
unite behind this cause.

The cause was,

"Shut the fuck up
and consume."

KEVIN: It became apparent
after about a week

when George Bush encouraged
everybody to go shopping,

and football
had to be played,

that protests
had to be held.

We were gonna do
our part too.

USA! USA!

It became very clear
that there is gonna be

some really big changes.

There was also a sense
that hopefully,

law enforcements' focus
was on something else

besides political activists.

But obviously,
it was the opposite.

BUSH: Our war on terror

begins with Al-Qaeda.

-But it does not end there.

MAN: Well, people that have
been in all this crap
that we've been,

collecting their
license plate numbers,

they got it from damn near every state in the Union here.

KEVIN: We thought it was
important to send a message

to Warren Stephens personally,

that we're
gonna come directly
to your goddamn doorstep.

JOSH: I understand why
home demonstrations

and personal targeting
is so controversial.

But when you take a billionaire like Warren Stephens,

he's got this tremendous
amount of comfort,

billions of dollars.

And on the other hand,

there's this group of activists and all they're doing

is passing out leaflets,
and holding signs.

Money wins.
Money wins that situation.

But if you suddenly
start making it clear

that he has
to deal with you.

'Cause every time
he plays golf, there you are.

When he goes out shopping,
there you are.

And when he comes home,
there you are.

WOMAN:
We're everywhere you are

and everywhere
your executives are.

REPORTER: There is concern
that the anger

activists feel towards
Stephens Incorporated

could turn violent.

As the members, um,
the leaders of this gang,

tried to, um, terrori...

I'm sorry, they're trying
to show their threat

that they're going
to do today.

JOSH: This was
a legal demonstration.

We had gotten permits.

When we showed up,

they'd surrounded
the entire area

with this little cage.

We were all supposed to stand
inside of this cage

and protest.

DARIUS: The police had set up
this free speech zone.

Which makes you wonder,
you know,

if this is like,
the free speech zone

then what's everything outside
of the free speech zone?

Like, the whole country

is supposed to be
a free speech zone.

You could come in
one at a time

and they insisted
on searching everybody.

MAN 1: These cops
won't even let me
have deodorant.

JOSH: They were turning people
away for things like,

having spikes
on their jackets.

DARIUS: And the police
were just taking
their sweet time.

So, we had hundreds of people
waiting to get in.

JOSH: Pretty quickly
we understood

that this was a tactic

to basically
make this protest impotent.

Somebody came to me
and they were like,

"This is unacceptable."

People started marching out.

We have a right

under the United States
constitution, First Amendment,

and under the Arkansas
constitution, Fifth Article

to peacefully assemble.

JOSH: I remember
actually saying,

"I think this is a bad plan."

But I headed out.

We started marching
around the Stephens building

and eventually came back
and converged there.

There was a group of
maybe about four or five kids

that started shaking
the barricade.

OFFICER: We will use force.

Get away from the barricade.
Get away from the barricade.

OFFICER: Stand back!

JOSH: During the police riot,

I heard a cop say,
"Get Harper."

Which is my name.

I got pepper-sprayed,

and then I got shot
in the face
with a rubber bullet.

After the protest,
the cops were following me.

I was tackled and dragged
into a parking lot

where they punched me
in the head,

knocked my glasses off,

put me in a chokehold
till I couldn't breathe,

handcuffed me

and then carried me down
to a bus

where I was charged
with $11 million in damages.

MAN: Fucking fascists!

LAWYER: Your Honor, I continue
to present Mr. Harper,

plead not guilty.

JOSH: Some of the people
who were arrested

had never been
arrested before.

In some cases, this was
the first demonstration

that they had ever attended.

Many of them were standing
legally on the sidewalk

when the cops rushed in

and just started
snatching people at random.

JILL: A policeman comes
from behind me

and he says,
"Get out of here."

And then another cop
grabs me from behind

and puts the cuffs on me
and tells me I'm under arrest.

And I said, "That policeman
just told me to get out of here

and I'm trying
to follow his instructions."

Didn't matter.

And there's something
very radicalizing about that.

JILL: Honestly, I think
the Little Rock police

are the ones
that put us

on the suspected
terrorist list.

Just for standing
on the street,

they put us on this list.

JOSH: They started going back
to their communities

and they were outraged
and they were angry...

And they were
raring to go.

WILL: Stephens Inc,
from day one

said they were not
gonna bow to pressure.

But a few things
were happening.

One was that,
the SHAC campaign

the lawful, above ground
protest campaign continued.

REPORTER: Police say
they were well-prepared,

but that preparation
came at a cost

of more than $200,000.

JOSH: The cops were going to Warren Stephens and saying,

"Your company makes billions
and now half of our budget

is gone because of
one protest."

At the same time,
the underground covert elements

continued their
illegal activity as well.

KEVIN: They found out
Warren Stephens
personal credit card

charged $100,000 on it,

buying them cappuccino makers
and washing machines.

They also found out where his

eight million dollars
penthouse apartment was.

They threw red paint
all over it

and smashed the front window.

There was
an uncontrollable element

to this movement

that was even beyond SHAC.

That was taking things
to a level

that made it
way too uncomfortable

to stay connected
to Huntingdon.

This combination of relentless,
above-ground organizing

and relentless underground
or illegal activity as well,

all helped to force
the hand of Stephens Inc.

REPORTER:
Stephens sold its stock

in the medical testing lab.

A decision
Stephens officials say

had nothing to do
with this protest.

It was a business decision
that's good for everybody,

Huntingdon, us
and the new entity

that's gonna be
the majority owner.

I felt...

I felt and I feel wonderful
about beating Stephens.

All of the money
and all of the resources
they had,

and to be able
to stare them down

and say, "We won this time.
We won."

KEVIN: It was satisfying
on like, a personal level

because we got mano a mano
with this billionaire brat

who thought he could
stand up to us.

And we won.

It wasn't satisfying in that,

"Oh, finally this place is done
and we can move on."

It didn't pan out that way.

Somebody bought
the damn shares.

KEVIN: We set up a little house
and operated out of there.

The whole top floor
was an office.

When I went to work
in the SHAC office,

I was only supposed to go
for three months.

And I never came back.

MAN: We weren't paid.
We were all broke.

JAKE: I think we just had to
roll a carpet on the floor

that everyone sat on.

MAN: We were able
to raise enough money
through donations

to pay for the rent.

I couldn't believe
that they had sacrificed

and had given up
absolutely everything.

They just had no food

in the house
that they were living in.

They drink fasting tea.

You wake up and your stomach is growling and you're hungry,

and you drink fasting tea.

MAN: We worked, you know,
seven days a week,

sometimes 15, 18 hours a day.

JAKE: This is how I'd go about

working on
some of the projects.

You know, we'd come up
with something very generic

and then I'd maybe
sketch out a few ideas

and then I put it
into action.

KEVIN: We put an
advertisement in for a brick.

You know,

a smashing idea in the war
on vivisection.

After a while, we just
kind of got a reputation

for being smartasses.

Learn to recognize
gang members.

That's good, huh?

SHAC as a campaign,

coordinated national
campaign targets

in the dissemination
of information.

But it was left
up to the local groups

as to how they wanted
to use that information.

ACTIVIST: The website was the
cornerstone of the campaign.

Everything that happened
in the campaign

went up on that website.

It was mobilization,
energy and excitement.

Up to date, minute-by-minute
reports of what
your communities

across the world were doing.

JOSH: And this
was before Facebook.

It was a complete
turning point

in social movement organizing.

LINDSAY: Any time
we read an update,

we really felt like a part of,
like, the bigger campaigns.

Oh, fudge.

All right.

Story of my life.

Always a little bit
out of gas.

We're punk kids,

we don't have money
to be throwing around

to change the world.

I don't keep a gas can
in my car

because I dread that
one day, that like,

the cops pull me over
and then say

I'm in possession of
bomb-making instruments

or some bullshit
like that.

So instead, we just see
the ebb and flow

of where the money is.

Yeah, 40 cents of gas.

And through
our direct actions

we're gonna try to
become part of this process.

You haven't been part
of the corporate world

and you don't know
how they work,

but you can figure
all that stuff out.

JAKE: Then you understand
not only its strengths,

but you understand
its weaknesses.

And then, you can start
picking these places apart.

ANDY: Something like
Huntingdon Life Sciences

needs to be targeted,
financially.

Because they speak
in the language of money.

JAKE: One of us just
called up someone at the SCC

and we pretended that we were college students.

And was like, "Hey,
can you answer some questions

about how financials work
for a corporation?"

And this person was
really excited to tell them.

I think we carried on a relationship with that person

for almost two years
of just being like,

"Hey, it's so-and-so,
doing my papers still.

Like, could you answer
this question for me?

What's a market maker?"

This stuff
is really complicated.

They had to learn about
the pink sheets

and market makers.

And this is not the type
of campaigning

that a lot of people
are willing to do.

It's not glamorous,
it's not fun.

This movement
embraced those tactics

because they realized it had
the potential for change.

There were hundreds
of companies

that were severing themselves
from this laboratory

'cause they didn't want to put up with activist pressure.

So, because I work
for a company?

-Yes.
-Absolutely.

You guys are
interrupting my family.

They just sent me
3,000 e-mails today.

And now they're at my door.

What the fuck?

We'd kinda look at what
other cities were active

and say, "Oh, we're gonna do
a better demonstration
than them.

We're gonna have more people."

Keep any business

from having anything to do
with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

There are no lab coats

because the linen service
is no longer functioning.

Trash is piling up because

the waste removal company
is not working with you.

KEVIN:
Huntingdon's janitors quit,
the cafeteria supplier quit.

Internet companies, auditors.

The idea was, we will
stick with this until we win.

JAKE: Phone blockades,
e-mail blockades.

Denial of service attacks.

No one would participate
on their board anymore.

We love animals too.

We would never hurt
an animal.

-Never.
-WOMAN: But you do!

We started this
protest campaign against
a guy in Pakistan.

He called up and said,
"I don't want to deal

with you people anymore.
I'm quitting."

The largest accounting firm
in the world, just backed up
within 24 hours.

After looking
at the SHAC website,

they do not
want to be part of this.

KEVIN: The world's biggest
financial corporation,

Citibank, Merrill Lynch,
Charles Schwab,

they realized one thing,
that it wasn't worth it.

ACTIVIST: Their share price
dropped from like

$30 to a few pennies.

KEVIN: Try suing us,
it doesn't work!

Try the FBI,
try police beatings.

We don't fucking care!

We're never going away

and we always win.

We really felt unstoppable
at that point.

REPORTER: This week
activists vomited

on an HLS display table
at a pharmacological
conference

in San Francisco, on Monday,

and then
turned over tables yesterday.

We're gonna be a royal
pain in the ass

and then a rude embarrassment

to any company

that is connected
to Huntingdon.

Ah, well, first of all,

I'd like to thank
all the federal agents

and informants
who made it out tonight.

It's always special
to see you.

You know, I don't know
if there would've been
a campaign without hubris.

You have to have a degree
of arrogance

to think you can take on
multinational corporations

and win.

But then I think,
underestimating

the connections
of those individuals

and how far that they were
willing to go to push back.

They started out small
by watching us.

There was this sedan.

There were these two guys
that were clearly agents.

You knock on the window
and they go,

"Yeah, I'm gonna leave now.
I'm gonna go to the store,

I'm gonna go to
the video store,
maybe get a movie or something.

You guys ready? You ready?"

They're like, "Yeah."

Since that failed,

they started
searching our trashes.

Here is these two
well-dressed men,

they're rifling
through my garbage.

Uh, so we started
coming out here all the time

with all
the cat litter boxes

and dumping it
all over our garbage.

Anybody who has studied

resistance movements
in this country

understands that the FBI

has always been an enemy

to people who are attempting
to create change.

And then here, it bears out,
how I also feel about the FBI,

that I hate them.

I think they're perverse,
pathetic bullies.

MAN: People
are back here demonstrating

in front of Harper's house.

They have picketers,
they got bullhorns.

They're here to harass
these people.

We have an injunction
against them.

The law has been something
where I've said, "This is
what I was made to do."

Some people
are good at sports,

I'm good at the law,

including following it,
I might point out.

Um, you know...

some would disagree.

WILL: Protests
at individuals' homes

is certainly controversial,

but it's also
constitutionally protected.

Sometimes there are
local ordinances

or some kind of injunction
that comes into play,

attempting to rewrite that
First Amendment protection.

KEVIN: You can't
do demonstrations

unless it's between
4:00 and 6:00,

and you can't have
a bullhorn,

and there can
only be ten people

and you have to give
72 hours' notice.

Well, fine. We'd follow
those instructions to a T,

but we wouldn't stop going.

LAUREN: Your neighbors
don't like us here.

We're not going away
until your company severs ties

with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

LAUREN: I received
an indictment in the mail,

charging me with,

I believe, threats,
extortion and conspiracy
to commit both,

and I was facing 20 years
in prison.

I read the complaint,
and I got very nervous.

I thought to myself,

"Hmm, everything they've said
in here is true."

OREN: They're chanting,
"Burn this house
to the ground."

That's unacceptable.

That's just not what we do
in this country

to get things done.

There were attempts
by Marsh using that example,

raising the spectra
that they might actually

burn this house
to the ground.

JAKE: The SHAC, uh, matches.

One of those things we probably
should've thought through

a little more
before actually doing.

Yeah, they have a little, like,
ALF guy on the cover

and that says, "Smash HLS,"

and the back says,
"Strike a match."

And the inside,
Huntingdon Life Sciences'
address.

Not that
we're inciting anything,

but just in case
people need 'em.

WILL: They knew
the ins and outs

of civil rights campaigning,

and decisions like
NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware.

The scope to which you're able
to engage,

in not just
controversial speech,

but really bold,
ambitious speech

that in a lot
of other countries
would be over the line.

But the First Amendment case
law in the United States

has defended all of it.

The First Amendment
protects advocacy.

Including advocacy
of illegal actions

unless it meets
the incitement test.

It's not enough to have
outrageous speech.

That speech has to result in

what's called imminent
and lawless action.

Remember, Arthur,
get him alive if you can!

-But get him!

It has to set fire to reason.

ALL:
White lives matter!
White lives matter!

HEIDI: We will
tolerate a wide range

of impassion,
even threatening speech,

as long as it doesn't target
a specific individual

for imminent harm.

Imminence is the key,

and it really is interpreted
to mean immediate.

I don't think that that chant was my most flattering moment.

But I think it's pretty clear
I wasn't inciting a mob.

We weren't carrying torches.

There were police,
private investigators there

who seemed unconcerned.

I didn't really want
the man's house
to burn down.

My attorney argued that the speech was protected.

And the court agreed
and dismissed the case.

That was a really powerful
thing for the campaign,

to understand what it was
about the law

that protected
what we were doing.

JOSH: You know
what people care about?

People care about winning.
They care about victory,

and that's the most
beautiful thing

about the Huntingdon
Life Sciences campaign.

We're not here
to tell you how to behave.

What we're here
to convince you to do

is to take
the personal initiative

to shut
this fucking lab down.

WOMAN: Hey, Marsh!

What do you say?
500 animals died today.

Tell your employer to stop
insuring HLS.

KEVIN:
When a corporation thought

that with all their money
and political clout,

they could silence us,

the more recalcitrant
and stubborn we became.

Tell your employer
this is what happens

when you insure
animal cruelty

for your own...

Fuck off my fucking...

WOMAN: Did you tape that?
There's a camera.

I don't give a shit.
This is my house.

Go ahead and call the cops.

KEVIN: Hey, that's assault,
man, sir.

WOMAN: You're fucking...

We encourage anybody
no matter where you come from

to get involved.

You can do whatever
you feel comfortable doing,

whether that be
writing a letter,

making a phone call,
going on a demonstration,

throwing a brick
through the window

or breaking into Huntingdon

and getting
all those animals out.

Whatever you do,
we will support.

NEWS REPORTER:
An act of domestic terrorism,

that's what police
are calling two attacks
in downtown Seattle.

A military-style
smoke grenade
flooded offices--

-NEWS REPORTER 1: Within hours,
suspicion focused...

on an animal rights
organization known as

"Stop Huntingdon
Animal Cruelty."

SHAC praised the attacks
targeting Marsh Ltd.

Oh, my fucking God.

I'm the public face
of this campaign in this city.

And this is something
I do not wanna be blamed for.

And I'm not even sure

if I wanna be seen as...
supporting it.

Our organization
does not take responsibility,

does not elicit
and does not participate

in the underground illegal
direct action campaigns.

We support it enthusiastically,
but that is not us.

JOSH: I was thinking
about the thousands of people

in those buildings
who don't know
what's going on,

who are panicked.

I didn't know
that it was going to

do a whole hell of a lot
to help animals

inside of
Huntingdon Life Sciences.

JAKE: On occasion,
there were things

that people
went out and did

we disagreed with
tactically or ethically.

And ultimately,
we decided that this webpage,

this campaign, this movement
belonged to all of us.

And we could all participate
in a way that we wanted,

and you can do that
without being censored.

MAN: The defendants had a policy with the organization,

that every communique

and message
they received anonymously,

it was related
to the campaign,

any tactic,
they would post
on the website.

We get a purchase report,

cut and paste,
put it on the website.

JAKE: I mean,
we've got thousands

and thousands of reports
over the years,

and it was difficult.

A number of times,

we would spend, sometimes days, going for walks in the woods,

and having these really, like,
tough discussions about, like,

"We want this
to be open to everyone.

We want people
to try new things.

We want people
to succeed and fail.

And we want people
to feel empowered

to do what they think
is best."

But at the same time,

what are we promoting,

and what are we putting
on our webpage?

Some of the things
that I really despise

about the campaign...

I wanna make it clear
that I love the people

who undertook these actions.

I can see how that would be...
totally despicable

to somebody watching this.

How could I love somebody
in Dallas

who went to the wrong home

and smashed up the home
of somebody

who had nothing to do
with Huntingdon Life Sciences?

Some of these heinous things
that occurred, um,

were committed by people
with the best of intentions.

Does that mean

that I forgive
them responsibility?

No, um,

but it does mean
that I appreciate

that they were taking
those risks,

and that they so sincerely
wanted to create change.

People need
to develop the skills

to resist these
multi-national corporations.

People have to take risks.

And they have to learn
by trial and error.

Social change always happens

through a wide variety
of forces.

It's always pluralistic.

And people wanna
revise history.

They wanna say,
"Well, Gandhi won

the Indian independence
movement alone."

Sorry, Gandhi didn't
win it alone.

There were forces

that were violently
attacking the British,

and that helped pressure
the British to leave India.

Dr. Martin Luther King
did not win

the Civil Rights Act
of 1964 by himself.

Standing behind him
was Malcolm X.

It wasn't hippies
that stopped the Vietnam War.

It was the Vietnamese peasantry

that kicked
the American army's ass.

Violence and sabotage,
and property destruction,

threats of violence
and coercive change,

uh, of various kinds
is what moves history.

DARIUS: We have this
really rosy picture

of our history, you know,
where we talk about
women suffrage,

we don't talk about arson.

We don't talk about random
property destruction.

America was founded
on agitation,

throwing crates at sea
into the Boston Harbor

because they were gonna
protest the tea tax.

That was economic sabotage.
That was direct action.

That's not terrorism.
That's American.

The moment Marsh pulled,

that was a big victory.

Because everyone thought
there's a chance

that HLS might not open
the next day.

Marsh pulled out,

cut ties
with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

It was another major victory
in the campaign,

but it was one
that was fairly short-lived.

KEVIN: The UK government
was stepping in

to provide Huntingdon
with insurance services

so they could continue
their operations,

and stealing the victory
we'd earned.

WILL: The legal efforts
that Marsh had undertaken

through the restraining orders and the injunctions

and the public
relations campaign,

that army
and that mentality continued.

And it was really rolled in
to the criminal investigation

of Stop Huntingdon
Animal Cruelty.

The scope of
this investigation included

more than 100 FBI agents.

There were more
wiretaps used

against people associated
with this movement

than any other counterterrorism investigation in US history.

LAUREN: Marsh is out, baby.

Clearly, we're planning
illegal activities,

and it's just
a matter of time

before they hear us doing it.

Either they're really,
really terrible at their jobs

or they just...

we weren't doing what
they thought we were doing.

JOHN: We're currently
seeing a significant amount

of direct action activity

that we are unable
to effectively address

given the federal statutes
we have to work with.

JAMES: There is a need
for a tighter legislation

to curb
this criminal activity

that up to date
has been impervious

to law enforcement
authorities.

We're committed to working
with our partners

to disrupt and dismantle
these movements,

to protect
our fellow citizens

and to bring the justice
to those who commit crime

and terrorism in the name
of animal rights.

WILL: The single
most powerful word

in our language right now
is "Terrorism."

JAMES: This level
of violence and propensity

for harm has led the FBI
to include SHAC

as the most serious domestic
terrorist threat today.

MAN: There is
a congressional hearing

attempting to label activists
as eco-terrorists.

It's a call
for new legislation,

and to expand the concept
of terrorism.

It was clearly
the senate judiciary
committee meeting

to decide what they could do
to stop us.

The department
supports amending

Title 18, United States Code,
Section 43,

to include,
among other things,

economic disruption
to animal enterprises.

WILL:
Members of the Congress

on the Democratic side said,

"Hey, we gotta have a witness.
One opposition witness."

Our final witness today,
Mr. William Potter.

Mr. Potter is a reporter.

WILL: This was
all political theater.

I was told by Democrats
on the committee that,

"It's okay if you raise
some minor objections.

Just keep in mind that
all the Democrats
on that committee

support the Animal
Enterprise Terrorism Act."

The bill criminalizes
any activity

against an animal enterprise,

or any company tangential
to an animal enterprise

that causes
economic damage.

The fine is including
the loss of profits.

That's not terrorism.
That's effective activism.

The point of this activity,
very successfully executed

in recent cases,
I might add,

is to force business owners

to sever ties
with a principle target.

An act that
disrupts business,

one that can inflict
serious economic damage.

HEIDI: They have
pinpointed boycotts

and traditional forms of
protest, and criminalized it,

so that any threat

to cause a loss of profit
to a corporation

is now considered
an act of terrorism.

WILL: The pharmaceutical,
agriculture,

animal entertainment,
pet food industries,

these are all the industries
that were rallying

behind the Animal
Enterprise Terrorism Act

behind the scenes.

Last month, HLS was to be

listed off New York
Stock Exchange.

And the exchange
refused to go through
the scheduled listing

because of threats from SHAC.

JAKE: When you let
a bunch of grassroots,
obnoxious kids,

running around
in bandanas and masks,

determining who gets to trade
and not trade

on the New York Stock Exchange,

that makes people really,
really nervous,

the government really nervous, corporations really nervous.

And they wanted
something done.

WILL: The senate
passed the legislation

in the middle of the night, it was by a unanimous consent,

which means we have no idea
who actually voted for

or against the piece
of legislation.

On the House side,

it was passed
by an obscure
procedure called

"Suspension of the rules."

They decided
to use this procedure

to pass the terrorism law

because they could
usher it through quickly.

There were only
four or five law makers

in the room at the time.

KEVIN: The fear in the industry
that if Huntingdon fell,

any company could be next.

That was a legitimate fear
for them.

If we don't stop
this social movement,

who's gonna be next?

What will happen
when the activist move

to the timber industry
or the defense industry?

If this continues, the animal
extremists will have won

and the loser
will be humanity.

WILL: That is
the precise strategy

of these corporations
and industry groups,

to redirect the nature
of the conversation.

I never... imagined

that people would actually
be fearful for their lives.

And I think that
why they might have
felt that way

is because
of what the government
was whispering in their ears,

or what corporations
were telling them.

There were actually people that
were knocking on the doors,

telling people what to expect

when the Animal Rights
people come.

The Department of Justice
had a handout

that they gave
to companies targeted by SHAC.

It suggested that
we are capable of anything,

even shooting people.

"Had car windows broken."
That is not true.

"Tires are slashed."
That is true.

"Houses spray-painted."
That is correct.

"His wife is reportedly
on the brink
of a nervous breakdown..."

Let's get right to it.

The FBI says we've gotta
go after a domestic terrorist.

They say he's crossed the line from being a protester...

to being a terrorist.

Surveillance cameras caught

a shadowy figure approaching
Chiron's headquarters.

Cops say he was delivering
two bombs.

Luckily, no one was injured
in the blast.

ANDREA: A few days later,

a communique came out

written by an organization
called the Revolutionary Cells
taking credit

for the explosion at Chiron,

and accrediting it
to Chiron's involvement

and Huntingdon Life Sciences.

People breaking windows
wasn't something new.

But people placing bombs
under windows was something

that I don't think any of us
would have expected
at the time.

No, property destruction
is not violence.

It's sabotage.

I think
it's enormously important

to make a distinction
between damaged property

and damage to people
and animals.

The harm is just
not the same.

It's just not the same kind
of harm to break a window

as it is to break an arm.

WILL: This was a bombing.
Someone could have died.

Someone could've been hurt.

Law enforcement was using
those talking points

to elevate the nature
of the perceived threat.

Today, we're announcing
the addition

Daniel Andreas San Diego

to the FBI's
Most Wanted Terrorists list.

San Diego is involved

with the Stop Huntingdon
Animal Cruelty campaign.

WILL:
Daniel Andreas San Diego

was the first
domestic terrorist

to appear on this list
of FBI's Most Wanted

alongside Osama bin Laden
and others.

These are serious crimes,
but to put them on par

with the most deadly terrorist
attack in U.S. history,

I think, would be shocking
to a lot of people.

So this is the building
where I was living...

when I got arrested
by Homeland Security.

At 6:00 a.m., the phone rang

and it was my friend,
Aaron, on the line

and he said, "Hey,
don't panic."

"But there's been a couple
of arrests

around the country
this morning."

I woke up to hear
my mother yelling.

And I couldn't figure out
what was going on.

Few minutes later, there was
a pounding at my door.

I assumed it was the police
from the get-go

with someone knocking
like that.

20, 30 guys come through
the door

with guns and a helicopter.

And this is the hallway
where they all came in.

The thing that I remember
most distinctly
is an FBI agent,

uh, holding a gun
in my face, a big gun.

I had to hold Buddy's collar

with one hand and open
the door with the other,

and they're screaming
at me to put my hands up.

And to shut that...
that damn dog up

or they would shoot him.

They have, like, one FBI guy,
one ATF guy, one US Marshal.

Vests, face masks,
and a battering ram.

It was sort of impressive,

but it was also kind of,
like, shocking

that, "Really? That's how
important you think we are?"

"We have a warrant
for your arrest."

"On what charge?"

"Animal enterprise terrorism."

So, the FBI busts a militant
animal rights organization.

DOUG: Again,
it's all contained here

in this federal indictment.

Today, U.S. attorneys called
it a campaign of terrorism.

And their business,
quite frankly,

is thuggery and intimidation.

They advocate
physical assaults,

they advocate smashing windows
of people's homes,

specifically,
when they are at home.

WILL: Chris Christie
was relatively unknown,

he was trying to make
this bid for power.

This is still just
a couple of years
after September 11th.

If you wanna get ahead,
you need to show

that you're cracking down
on terrorism.

I'm in the process right now
of hiring eight new

assistant United States
attorneys who'll work
on terrorism.

The Justice Department
gave us one of
the largest allocations

of new terrorism Assistant
United States Attorneys

to be able to work
just on terrorism.

After that big
show of force,

all those agents,
all those guns,

all that energy,
all those resources,

and by noon, we were home.

The judge could
pretty clearly see

that I wasn't a danger
to the community or anything.

But these people
had just heard
the word, "Terrorism"

shouted over and over.

And they're retreating
into their apartments

and I could feel,
like, the fear.

What're we being arrested on?

Like, you know, this fear
that we were gonna get

the indictment, and read it,
and be like, "Oh, shit."

But instead,
I read the indictment

and I was relieved.

I was like,
"This is their case, really?"

Their case is, "You posted
this on the Internet,"
which we knew.

KEVIN: We started learning
that our search warrant

for our home,
the wire intercepts

for our telephone were signed

by a judge in Minnesota?

Why was a judge in Minnesota,
an agent in Minnesota

in charge
of running this case?

If I had a tribute

why that SHAC case
became so important,

I think it's the Nexus

that was made to the break-in
and animal release at the U.

Operation Trailmix was a plan

to break
the animal rights movement.

And they went about it
any way they could.

WILL: Operation Trailmix,
which was the code name

of what ultimately
became the SHAC investigation.

All has roots in trying

to go after the more covert
illegal elements

of animal rights movement,

after failing
to actually catch the people

that are responsible
for some of those crimes.

The FBI then changed
its focus again,

with the influence

of corporations
and cooperate lobbying.

They started focusing
on the above-ground elements

of the SHAC campaign.

RYAN:
The FBI established a plan

targeting the above ground
in order to eliminate

both the above
and underground.

JOSH: If you get
Kevin Kjonaas' head

up on a pike,
everyone knows
what that means.

They know who that is.

These are the same assholes

who raided my apartment
because I had the temerity

to speak up
in support of people

that would break the law
to help animals.

It's the same people,
it never stopped.

MAN: Because they are not
concerned with rights,

they are concerned
with the bottom line.

WILL: As an author
and a storyteller,

I had to be in awe
of the skill of the prosecution

in weaving this narrative
in front of the courtroom.

I can already tell,
this is gonna make me angry.

All right.

The court says,
"Counsel are ready

for opening statements,
Mr. McKenna."

LAUREN: "If it pleases
the court, Your Honor

Counsel, ladies and gentlemen
of the jury. On a summer day

in suburban Dallas..."

Sorry.

ANDY: "On a summer day
in suburban Dallas, Texas,

Sally Dillenback, an employee
with Marsh Incorporated,

was home with her young son."

"...of the house
to answer the door."

"When she got to the door,
she saw her young son

cowering behind the door
with a kitchen knife.

He was cowering
behind the door that day,

ladies and gentlemen
of the jury,

because he thought
that the animal people

were coming to get him."

LAUREN: "Because you see,
the animal people had been in his house before."

"They had plastered his house

with pictures
of mutilated puppies

and they had been found
on his property at night

and they held rallies
outside his house

where they shouted
through bullhorns

that his mother
was a puppy killer."

"So when the doorbell
rang that day,

the little boy was scared."

"And when his mother saw

her son that way,
she was scared too."

"The animal people
were coming."

I can't read this out loud.
I can't. It disgusts me.

MAN: Why?

Because it's all
smoke and mirrors.

I didn't know of the story,
but once he told the story,

I was like,
"This is pretty terrible."

And I can only imagine
that the jury thinks
it's terrible too.

Obviously, I don't want
a child to be scared.

I don't want a child
to be at a point

where he's cowering
behind the door with a knife.

Um, neither myself or any
of my co-defendants

had ever protested
at Sally Dillenback's house.

This was the first
of a long line of examples

of us being put on trial
for other people's actions.

Actions which we had
no foreknowledge of,

and no part
in the planning of.

ANDY: A lot of these new
activist movements

are totally decentralized.

There is no leader
to go after.

That structure is something

that doesn't make any sense
to the government.

They can't really step inside
someone's head and understand

that some of these issues
tear them up at night.

And they don't feel good
about themselves,

unless they go
and do something.

JAKE: They just can't accept
that idea

of people
working autonomously,

and I think
that blows their mind

if there's not someone
in control or in charge.

"Be careful
because while the defendants

were at some
of the demonstrations,

they weren't always
at all of them."

The prosecutor's argument
is that our speeches

essentially amount
to incitement.

And that our speeches
are part of this conspiracy,

perhaps with people
we don't know,

to get them
to do our bidding
of illegal activities.

"Bad things happen,
ladies and gentlemen.

Bad things happen."

No one disputes that.

The question is,
why are the people

who didn't commit
the bad things on trial?

WILL: Right out of the gate,
the fact that the prosecution

put Brian Cass on the stand
and were talking

about violence against
Huntingdon Life Sciences

in the UK and trying to bring
that into a U.S. courtroom

was the signal of where
everything was gonna go.

KEVIN: As the managing director
of the lab,

somebody in England had beat
him up on his doorstep.

JOSH: Three people
assaulted him

and he was hit in the head
with a stick.

His experience happened
on another continent

at the time that the supposed
United States conspiracy

hadn't even began.

What possible relevance
could his testimony have?

He was put on the stand
to ... the trial

to hurt the defendants.

I mean,
if I was the prosecutor,

I'd say "I would've
put him on first."

JOSH: We have a prosecutor
who wants to fight dirty,

who's not going to run a case
based on the legality

of the Huntingdon
Life Sciences campaign,

but instead is going
to just attempt

to prejudice the jury
against us.

LAUREN: The prosecution
strategy was primarily

to put people on the stand

to read printouts
of our website

and then say,
"I was so scared."

WILL: They were brilliant
in using the witnesses

to concoct a story

that wasn't true to reality.

I think that there were a lot
of people who got up there

during that, you know,
"parade of victims"

that weren't
entirely sincere.

Come on, show us.
Show yourself!

Come outside!

LAUREN:
You fucking coward!

Get out of my...
Get out of my house!

MAN: You are moving out
of our neighborhood!
That's what.

This is not
your neighborhood!

-This is our
fucking neighborhood!
-Where do you live?

JAKE: They got kinda rowdy.
Eventually, the cops came

and they arrested them
for trespassing,

which rightfully so,
if they were trespassing,

they should be arrested
for it.

But she gets up on the stand
during the trial

and she gets up there
all teary eyed.

"These people came and I was
at home with my child.

He was upstairs taking
a nap, home from school."

And they show the video,
and there's Miss...

and she's laughing
and joking

and then her son,
who's home from school,

he's like a 19-year-old kid
that's home from college.

It's the way that
they kinda took this
and misconstrued it

to make it seem, like,
we're these thugs out there

trying to, like, you know,
kill little kids.

When really, it's just...
It just wasn't the case.

ATTORNEY: And you have
how many children?

-Three.
-What are their names?

I'm not gonna provide
that information.

Are you instructing her
not to answer that question?

I'm not answering
that question.

ATTORNEY: She does not want
her children threatened

and if she is reluctant
to provide that information,

I certainly understand why

and I think the court
will agree.

KEVIN: People really honed in
on that.

Now I'm not saying
that's something

I'm personally proud of
or I would participate in

or at the time, I thought
was a good idea. But again...

it wasn't that the kid
was a target at the campaign.

Maybe that kind of stuff
should be censored,

but at the time, everything
was just put up automatically.

OREN: "We know
where your kids live,
we know their names."

That is extreme.
Uh, I don't think

that people are debating
whether that's extreme rhetoric
or not.

Whether it's protected speech,
whether that's legal.

We have not had very restful
nights' sleep.

We don't know
who might be lurking out

somewhere in our yard.

It's caused mental anguish
with my children

who don't sleep well
through the night.

We probably didn't realize
what the impact

of this train of individuals
was gonna have on the jury.

They saw this conduct
that to them was intolerable.

Criminal or not, I'm not sure
they cared, it was intolerable.

The jury felt the need
for someone to be prosecuted

for what was happening
around the country

and we were the only people
the government was providing.

KEVIN: I'm here
with Josh Harper,

co-defendant extraordinaire.

And he's off
to the bathroom.

Josh spends a lot of time
in the bathroom.

Here's the support group
for the SHAC seven.

-Minus the olive oil.

You know, I don't know
how much money

I'm gonna have
to spend in therapy
in the years to come.

Or how many AA meetings
I'm gonna have to go to,

because by the time
this case is done,

I will be
a full-fledged alcoholic.

-MAN: I understand.
-Yeah.

AARON: The last
two days in court

have been pretty grueling.

The whole Chiron incident
was brought up.

SHAC is basically, kind of,
being, uh, charged,

I guess you could say,
with this.

You know, I feel like...

I... I had a part

in having this brought up
in trial in such a big way.

REPORTER: The main suspect
in the Chiron bombing,

Daniel San Diego
was still at large,

but the FBI says
it was a link between Kjonaas

that assisted
in the investigation.

The FBI made a claim
that there was a phone call

from Kevin to Andreas the day
of the Chiron incident.

WILL: They took whatever little bits of information they could,

such as the phone call
registers

between the SHAC house
and a phone number

they had connected
to Daniel Andreas San Diego.

We do have evidence

that Mr. San Diego
and Mr. Kjonaas

were in communication
with one another.

I made that phone call.

I made a call
to half a dozen people

in the Bay Area that day
asking them to record
the news.

Somebody said,
"Call Andreas."

Andreas answered the phone,
I talked to him

and I asked him
to record the news.

That's the content
of that phone call.

Here we are,

basically nine days
into the case and, uh,

the prosecution rests and, uh, now it's the defense's turn.

So, uh, let's hope
for a good defense strategy.

That's it.

JOSH: This was a case
that the prosecution

had been immersed in
for years and years.

And they knew every detail
and how to bend every detail.

Um, and meanwhile,
our attorneys
didn't even know

the names of some
of the major players.

At one point
during opening statements,

I looked over at my attorney
and he's scribbling
these notes.

And I leaned over
and I was like,

"Jim, you're not writing
your opening right now,
are you?"

And he looked at me
and he said,
"It's only an opening."

You have this naive faith
in the system of justice,

it doesn't exist.
It's so set
against the defense

and some favor
of the prosecution.

Judge Thompson granted
the prosecution's request

that we couldn't talk

about what happened
inside of Huntingdon.

"That might prejudice
the jury."

For most people,
standing outside

of someone's home
in the middle of the night,

yelling and screaming
and holding placards,

it seems
pretty unreasonable.

I think if people got
that full narrative,

they'd understand
that what's going on there,

it needs to be challenged.

And that, it needs
to be challenged with force.

JOSH: The reason
that we would fight so hard

for a being that has nothing
to do with you,

a beagle or a cat
or a horse

or a cow
that you've never met,

that in some cases,
you've never seen

and never will, um...

you've got to have
an awful lot of heart.

Myself and my co-defendants

were intelligent,
caring people,

um, who had been
so distraught

over what they'd seen
happening inside

of Huntingdon Life Sciences,

that they had been moved
to take action.

The prosecution was able
to talk about animal testing

and they used phrases like,
"Life-saving research."

"Huntingdon Life Sciences
is saving children's lives."

There's no evidence
that's allowed to refute that.

We'll fight this
and we'll make this case

as much about Huntingdon
and animal cruelty

as it is about
the First Amendment.

JOSH: Every step of the way,

the judge refused to allow it
in the courtroom.

And our case is just
about a bunch of unruly kids

who for some reason or another,
the jury doesn't know

because we can't tell them,

are running around
neighborhoods with signs

and blowhorns,
and being belligerent.

There's no context
to anything.

You'd think this isn't about
a political movement at all.

It's just a bunch of kids
with nothing better to do.

'Cause the jury will never hear
why we did it.

MAN: Open your mouth.

You wanna play?
Let's fucking play.

Let's fucking dance, bitch.

WOMAN: God, there's, like,
no skin here...

-MAN: All I could give you.
-WOMAN: I know.

JOSH: The phrase
that I always use is that,

"You see the train coming,
but it hits you anyway."

Judge asked if they had
their verdict.

JOSH: They just went down
the list and it was,

"Guilty as charged."
"Guilty as charged."

"Guilty as charged."

Every defendant, every count.

"Guilty, guilty."

"How do you find
the defendants?" "Guilty."

"How do you find
the defendants?"

"Guilty, guilty, guilty."

Like, "Holy crap."

I remember my lawyer
put his hand on my shoulder

and he said, "You can still go
to law school."

And I wasn't
crying over that,
I was so...

stunned. I didn't know
what else to do

other than cry.
I was just floored.

I was always get emotionally
committed to my clients.

Um...

Andy, I guess
a little more so.

It hurt everybody
to see these kids
be prosecuted.

CHRISTOPHER: In my seven years
as United States Attorney,

we were equal opportunity
prosecutors.

Believe me, I know how to
hold people accountable.

BOB: Putting these people
in jail

was not what the case
was all about.

It was about

appeasing the appropriate
business interests

and making a statement.

It sent a very clear
message to, uh,

the pharmaceutical
and biomedical industry

of having their back
and earning their support.

I, enthusiastically,

declare my candidacy

for governor of the state
of New Jersey.

WILL: The rhetoric
from prosecutors
during the trial

was that, this was
a campaign of lawlessness

and the reality
was very far from that.

There was no direct evidence

of any unlawful conduct.

So, now you're in the area

of either inciting
unlawful conduct,

or conspiring to commit
unlawful conduct.

When you mix that stew up

and you have
a zealous prosecution,

you have created
a time bomb

as far as the punishment

of First Amendment
activity is concerned.

PAUL: This was a prosecution

of a political movement,

simply by using the charge
of conspiracy,

that envelops both criminal
and protected activity.

A lot of the speech
that ends up being protected
takes place in the abstract.

People advocate something.
Nothing happens.

The question is,
can the First Amendment
really do its job

when you're engaging
an effective advocacy,

and, I mean, effective
in a very particular way,

which is, I am advocating
that something should happen,

and then, someone agrees
with me and makes it happen.

I mean, can the First Amendment
handle that?

Your gut responds to speech.

Look at all these
fucking police

that you need
to protect you
from this campaign.

That gut feeling that,
"Oh, God,

this is not okay."

That's not the measure
of First Amendment protection,

that's what the First Amendment
is protecting against.

MAN: The appeal focused on
the right of the defendants

to say what they said.

On paper,

the case was so strong.

The government's argumentation
was so weak,

this might turn around.

In the courtroom
during the appeal,

it quickly appeared that

things were gonna be
much the same

as they were
at the trial level.

Defense tried to talk about

the true nature
of the campaign

and the judges
would interrupt.

This was outlandish talk,
but it's just talk.

And then, the judges
would interrupt.

One of the judges
of the Third Circuit,

sort of, angrily, like, got up
out of his chair...

"Do you have children, sir?
Do you have children?"

"Yes, Your Honor.
I do have children.

I don't think that's relevant
to the issue here."

They already know
how they're gonna decide.

The opinion itself
just reeked of prejudice.

MATTHEW:
They write, quote...

First off, the bombing
was a smoke bomb.

Certainly still illegal,
but a smoke bomb.

Per personal participation
that they quote,

was heard calling
into a radio station.

That's not really the kind
of personal involvement

in a bombing
that is illegal.

In fact, it's the kind of
personal involvement

in a bombing, that's protected
by the First Amendment.

MATTHEW: Mr. Harper,
and now quoting,

"Coordinated the SHAC campaign
in Seattle.

Gave speeches advocating

electronic civil
disobedience."

"He visited
a Deloitte & Touche office

during which, it appears,
he did nothing illegal."

MATTHEW:
"Called Kjonaas to express
his surprise and pleasure

with SHAC's successes."

"He wrote an editorial."

"Harper's personal conduct

does not cross the line
of illegality.

To punish him simply
on the basis
of his political speeches

would run afoul
of the constitution."

The analysis
should've ended there.

But the Third Circuit
then went on

to say that that conduct

showed that he was part
of the conspiracy.

How do you, on the one hand,
say, outright,

"That speech
is constitutionally protected."

And then, at the very next
sentence say,

"That speech is enough
to get you convicted
for terrorism."

-Oh, yeah.

I'm not taking anything more
than two sweatshirts...

five pairs
of white underwear.

Pack 'em all in
under my jeans tomorrow.

But aside from that,
I'm not taking anything else.

WOMAN: Your name?

My name is Jake Conroy.

And?

-That's my whole name.

Um, tell us what you are
accused of.

LAUREN: When you believe
the First Amendment
protects your speech,

you're believing in a rule.

But if the law
is an instrument of power,

it doesn't really matter
what the rules say.

I never would've
expected this.

It's pretty devastating.

KEVIN:
Evidence against Dari was,

he called me to talk about

when there was
gonna be a protest.

And he was gonna go
to jail for that.

Metaphorical
fingerprints are...

metaphorical fingerprints.
What does that even mean?

What did he do?

What did he do?

Were there actual
fingerprints anywhere?

That would be actual evidence

of engaging
in an illegal activity.

MAN: What do you think
they mean?

I think they mean
he was a leader.

We should bring
that tape thing.

I don't know if
my mom's car has a tape
player though.

MAN: Is it a CD?

I believe so. Cars aren't made
with tape players anymore.

Yeah.

Do we have any good CDs
that we wanna take?

I don't remember
having any CDs anymore.

But I really wanna make sure
it really gets picked up.

MAN: I wanna
be there, like...

I can be
one of your first visits,

and, like, you know,
get there immediately.

Put money
on your books and...

-That's nice.
-You know?

Just make sure my mom
does pick up Willie.

No, I know she does.
I mean,

she loves Willie
and there's no question
about that

and Willie will definitely
be happy with her.

-Yeah.
-So...

KEVIN:
I need to touch the piggy.

Do you wanna say
anything else?

Uh...

-It's kind of all been said--
-It sucks.

It's kinda all been said
at this point, huh?

Well, not really,
under the camera.

-Yeah.
-But, um...

You know, it sucks.

You live in America
and you don't have any rights.

Yeah.

So I'm done with it.

I'm all done.

I'm just gonna dedicate myself
to Willie now.

You're getting a lot
of attention there, huh?

That's it.

WILL: When I first
began investigating this,
I thought

the explanation of why
this is happening.

It's the same explanation
you see so many times

on Washington and any

seat of government power,
and it's money.

JAKE: You can point fingers
at Huntingdon and Brian Cass,

Charlie McKenna
and Chris Christie and

all these people.

Are they the symptom
of a bigger problem?

Probably, yeah.

If we really wanna, like,

stop picking away leaves
and branches off this tree,

and dig up, like, the roots
of the issues,

we're not gonna find
Chris Christie down there.

Or, you know, Brian Cass.

We're gonna find
capitalism and

quest for absolute power.

WILL: There clearly is
a very well-articulated fear

that if these beliefs
and these values take hold

across a broader segment

of American society,

they'll be a threat to

the entire American
way of life,

of how we view our place
in the world

as human beings.

Hello. My name's Brian Cass.

I'm the CEO of Envigo.

Anybody heard of Envigo?

Prior to Monday of this week,

you would know us
as Huntingdon Life Sciences.

I just wanna welcome you
to tonight's festivities.

An evening of gambling
and drinking,

which I think
is a great beginning

for our new company.

I'm not sure that
the SHAC strategy
is a winning strategy.

Because we didn't win.

We didn't win.

We didn't close the lab.

There was mass mobilization

which, I think,
is spectacular.

I'm not sure
how useful it was,

to mobilize

around a target,

that we framed as being

somehow extraordinary.

Because it's not extraordinary.

Huntingdon is not
extraordinary.

There's nothing
happening at HLS

that isn't happening
all around the world...

in hundreds of different

contract research
organizations.

Or for that matter,

in thousands of universities.

The suffering
that people saw

in that undercover video...

As someone who has worked
in that industry,

it was not shocking.

It is typical.

That is a normal day.

This lab and other labs
and other...

institutions of violence
against animals

will close when that sort
of violence becomes...

unacceptable.

Becomes something that we,

as a society, don't want.

KEVIN: Junior and I
have this special bond

with each other because

he spent the last
four-and-a-half years

in an animal testing lab,

in a cage.

And I spent the last
four-and-a-half years
in a prison.

And now that I'm free,

I'm restarting life
with a partner,

who is the embodiment

of everything I gave up

those last five years for.

Thank you. Wow.

-It's good to be back.

So let's just address
that elephant in the room.

Yes. Lauren and I
and a few other people

ran the "Stop Huntingdon
Animal Cruelty" campaign.

And yup, I got a six-year
prison sentence

of which I did four years,
nine months and twelve days.

That chapter

is mine alone.

I survived it with the help
of my family,

my friends,

Aaron.

KEVIN: These two guys came from
a rescue organization

called "Beagle
Freedom Project."

They're from
research laboratories.

MAN: Oh, really?

Yeah, they were tested on,
both of them,

-for a couple of years each.
-Oh, no.

My beagle, Junior,

came to me as a scared,

confused and fragile
little survivor.

And his body
bore the marks...

His scars where
incisions were made.

Notches on his floppy ears
that are missing.

I watched as that first night,

he cautiously
jumped into our bed,

his bed,

for the first time,

and he decided,
bravely enough

that he was gonna try again
with our species.

If Junior wasn't gonna be
defeated by animal testing,

why the hell would I?

One of the things I learned
about myself

from the SHAC campaign,

is, I'm highly competitive

and very stubborn,
and I don't like losing.

And so, when I start a fight
with, uh, somebody,

an industry or an issue,

I'm in it for the long haul.

Beagle Freedom Project
existed for five years,

and we rescued well over
a thousand animals

from laboratories.

Gave them a second chance
at life.

Just this week,

New Jersey,
Assembly member there,

introduced our signature
piece of legislation,

the Beagle Freedom Bill.

Already a law
in five other states

that mandates
any tax payer-funded

research laboratory

must give the dogs
and cats up

for public adoption
when the research is done.

The industry hates us,

because they complain that

we're using "their dogs"
in propaganda

against them
quite effectively.

And for that...

Yeah, we are.

God bless you.
You're really doing,
uh, work.

-So thank you.
-I appreciate it.

-Thanks for having us on.
-Thanks, Kevin.

Just like 15 years ago,

when I stood before you

and I gave you a speech,

free of fear

without regard
to consequences.

I do it again tonight,

because I know what
those consequences are.

I survived them
and so can you.

ANDY: Oh, it's here.

It's here.

It's kind of got a little bit
of flood damage on it.

You know, someone wrote
for theFinancial Times
of London...

about the campaign,

to have the premiere paper

for the world's
capital markets,

have a line in it
that said

that these individuals
are succeeding with

fighting capitalism
where Karl Marx

and the Red Brigades failed.

It was, kind of,
a really serious...

serious, uh,
statement to read.

And so when I read that,
I was like...

Feel like I'm part of history,
being part of this.

MAN: These tactics worked then

and they'll work again.

JOSH:
Although I'm most certainly

not the same person

that I was when
I walked into prison,

the difference is
then it removed from me

the most valuable parts
of who I am.

All the things that I had
gone to prison

for fighting for

still matter to me.

And in many ways
seem more urgent

to me now
than they did then.

None of us do have
the magic solution.

Revolution is not really
a science.

I think that revolution is
a little bit more
like surfing.

There's a wave coming at you.

You don't really know
what it's gonna bring,

or when it's gonna stop,

or how it's gonna drop out.

But you've
gotta ride it anyway.

Right now,
I really do believe

there's a new wave coming.

People's anger and passion,
compassion

will only stay suppressed
for so long.

JAKE: It's not just about
Earth liberation.

It's not just about
human liberation.

It's not just about
animal liberation.

It's about
collective liberation.

The liberation of everyone.

Because at the end
of the day,

like, we all want to be free.

And if we start
picking and choosing

who gets to be free,

we're never
gonna get anywhere.

JOSH:
As frightening as it is

to talk about the need
for confrontation

after I'd gone to prison

for talking about that need,

I can't in good conscience

turn my back on

what history has told me.

And that is that,

without struggle,
there is not progress.

And that unless
you are willing

to rise up and to fight
with your hands...

nothing changes.