January 9, 2003

Developer Serves Suit on Tree Activist

On the day he was supposed to be replaced by another tree-sitter, John Quigley is served with a trespassing suit and barriers are erected near the ancient oak to keep crowds away.

Photos John Quigley (Myung J. Chun / LAT) January 9, 2003 Extended Fence (Myung J. Chun / LAT) January 9, 2003 New Barrier (Myung J. Chun /LAT) January 9, 2003

Los Angeles Times Headlines

SANTA CLARITA OAK JOHN QUIGLEY OLD GLORY

By DAVID PIERSON and STEVE HYMON, Times Staff Writers

A man's Quixotic quest to protect a centuries-old oak tree from development in suburban Los Angeles appeared to be coming to a climax today, after a squadron of police, bulldozers and security guards surrounded him in the early morning hours, chasing away his supporters, confiscating equipment and isolating him far behind a chain-link fence.

John Quigley, a 42-year-old Pacific Palisades resident who was enlisted in November by local environmentalists to squat in the tree outside Santa Clarita, vowed to stay on, saying a trespassing notice that requires him to appear in court next week was "served to the tree," not him.

Quigley's 70-day sojourn in the branches of the massive oak has attracted international media attention as a rare example of a deep-forest fringe protest method in mainstream suburbia. Since it began, school children have decorated a fence around the tree with artwork, while crowds of well-wishers and media have swelled.

The commotion began at about 1:30 this morning, with the arrival of a convoy of trucks and police vehicles. About 30 Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies, five California Highway Patrol officers, and several private security guards accompanied representatives of John Laing Homes, which has been attempting to widen a road required by the county for its nearby developments.

A security guard approached the tree, shouting up at Quigley, "We have an order here saying you're trespassing," and slipped it into a yellow ribbon tied to the base of the tree, about 100 feet below Quigley, said Barbara Wampole, an activist with Friends of the Santa Clara River.

Workers immediately began jackhammering holes into the ground to erect a fence, and put concrete freeway barriers in place.

Within several hours, they had hemmed Quigley in and blocked off access along Pico Canyon Road, about 500 feet from the tree. They also took down the children's artwork, and removed tables, pamphlets, a tent and other equipment, according to witnesses.

The action came as activists were preparing to substitute another sitter for Quigley, who had planned to visit his ailing father back East. The activists suspected for several days that some legal action was imminent, but Quigley said he was disappointed at the methods. "It was like a military invasion," he said.

"I was concerned they were going to drag me out and cut the tree down," he said from his perch on a platform about 100 feet up with an American flag dangling nearby. As the convoy approached and his supporters shouted warnings, Quigley immediately secured himself to the tree with a pipe and lock.

Quigley and activists blamed the crisis on Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who has held fast to plans to remove the tree.

"Really, the failure is on the part of Supervisor Antonovich, the bureaucracy and the inflexibility of the county," Quigley said.

He said he had talked with Laing president Bill Rattazzi, who appeared willing to reach a compromise.

"That's why I'm so surprised by this," Quigley said. "The county is the obstacle here."

A spokesman for Antonovich said the supervisor's offer to move the oak, rejected by activists as potentially fatal to the tree, remained in effect.

"As far as we're concerned the ongoing demonstration was a serious nuisance and hazard to the Stevenson Ranch community, and the property owner's efforts to remove the trespassers is one step toward restoring order to the neighborhood and allowing those residents to get back to their lives," said Tony Bell, a spokesman for Antonovich.

"I would urge John to back the relocation plan, and do it now, and save that tree, and serve the needs of that community," Bell said.

Quigley said he had food for one week, and appeared resolved to stay in the tree early this morning. His supporters said they were planning a midday news conference to discuss their plans.

Rattazzi likewise shifted blame toward the county. "We tried a number of ways to come up with a solution," he said. "We agreed to talk (with the tree sitters) on a number of occasions. We looked at alternative alignments of the road. They weren't capable of being approved by the county."

In the end, safety concerns prompted the siege, Rattazzi said.

"There's been a number of complaints from the community because of the circus-like atmosphere," he said.

"We came to the conclusion we need to get this under control. We'd rather have the courts solve this.

Rattazzi promised 24-hour vigilance from the firm Maxwell Security. "We're serving Mr. Quigley with a notice of trespassing. That will bring it into the courts," he said. "We're not going to do anything tonight. We're not here to antagonize him."

The county has required Rattazzi to widen Pico Canyon Road as a condition for approving his development in the area. He said he was shocked at the attention the sitter has attracted - with coverage from as far away as Japan and Australia.

Since the crisis was provoked by local environmentalists, who enlisted Quigley to sit in the tree, Antonovich has had little to say and held no community meetings or visited the site, Quigley said.

Jeff Johnson, a 36-year-old carpenter who was supposed to substitute for Quigley, said he was disappointed with the turn of events. "It's a change of plans for John," he said. "He was supposed to head East, but they pulled a fast one on us in the middle of the night."

Despite today's actions, the same colorful and eclectic group of activists pressed to the new fence, singing "America the Beautiful" and shouting encouragement.

Rodolfo Aguilar, 43, of Inglewood, brought a 3-foot-long male iguana, and held it up as another supporter shouted to Quigley, "John, we have a huge iguana here to bring you love!"

Nearby, Fred Starner, 65, of Canoga Park, plucked his banjo and sang songs he had penned about Quigley and the tree.

"He is going to come down a hero and Mr. Antonovich is going to look very silly," Starner said between ditties.

-- George W. Bush threatens to kill us all -- for oil http://www.gwbush.com/ http://www.bushwatch.net/ Soon to come: http://www.notserver.com/

From: FRice@SkepticTank.ORG (Rev. Fredric L. Rice)
Subject: Re: On site report of the John Quigley take down
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 05:35:16 GMT
Organization: The Skeptic Tank
Message-ID: <v21vmfbbhha6fd@corp.supernews.com>

Xenu allowed barb <bwarr1@cox.net> to write:

>"Rev. Fredric L. Rice" wrote:
>> On site report of the John Quigley take down
>> 10/Jan/2003, Fredric L. Rice
>> FRice@SkepticTank.ORG

>All that effort spent for one lousy tree. It's a damn shame those people
>don't take on a meaningful cause. You sure don't see a turnout like that
>for ANY picket of Scientology...but then, trees don't hire PIs, dig
>through your trash, or make false complaints to the police.

That's not very fair, though. Environmental activists have adopted a venue of activism that's every bit as legitimate as the people who criticize and work to expose Scientology's crime racketeering. You yourself have put in as much time, energy, and committment working to expose and/or stop Scientology's some times deadly and always dangerous "NarCONon" quack medical frauds. Said environmentalists might well consider such efforts to halt Scientology's abuses to be a meaningless cause.

The Old Glory effort isn't "just one tree." The L. A. Times this morning -- page one photograph, no less -- called the effort a symbol of what's taking place in Southern California over the past couple of decades. There's deeper meaning in opposing unchecked expansion of the human species at the cost of uprooting trees that were here before the European invasion. That "one tree" is a line that was drawn by some people who have honest and legitimate concerns about our future and our quality of life in Southern California and the large numbers of people who came out day by day reflects what I think is growing unease at our growing population and what that means.

Critics, human rights, free speech rights, or whatever you want to call us activists who work to reform or halt Scientology's abuses and crimes are just as Quixotic, just as doomed to failure, in my opinion.

We've kept a lot of people from being swindled and quite possibly killed by the criminal enterprise, but nothing we've ever done or will ever be able to do will stop the criminal enterprise completely.

It's up to the FBI and BATF to take out organized crime and we all know that the right people are being paid the right amount of money to make sure that never happens. Well, Quigley was a speed bump that halted another kind of abuse which effects other people in other ways, and in the end he's just as doomed to failure as we all are since his problem, too, is insurmountable because the right people are getting paid the right amounts of money.

These environmentalist extremists are alike in many ways to the extremists that oppose Scientology's abuses. I don't see how you could consider their effort meaningless without also considering or own efforts to be meaningless.

-- George W. Bush threatens to kill us all -- for oil http://www.gwbush.com/ http://www.bushwatch.net/ Soon to come: http://www.notserver.com/

From: FRice@SkepticTank.ORG (Rev. Fredric L. Rice)
Subject: Extremist activism and "one lousy tree." (Was On site report of the John Quigley take down)
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 05:53:52 GMT
Organization: The Skeptic Tank
Message-ID: <v220pbcbrm0i6e@corp.supernews.com>

Xenu allowed "Android Cat" <androidcat99@hotmail.com> to write:

>"barb" <bwarr1@cox.net> wrote in message news:3E20B725.9B167369@cox.net...
>> "Rev. Fredric L. Rice" wrote:
>>> On site report of the John Quigley take down
>>> 10/Jan/2003, Fredric L. Rice
>>> FRice@SkepticTank.ORG
>> All that effort spent for one lousy tree. It's a damn shame those people
>> don't take on a meaningful cause. You sure don't see a turnout like that
>> for ANY picket of Scientology...but then, trees don't hire PIs, dig
>> through your trash, or make false complaints to the police.

>Rather than wasting all that time protesting about
>Scientology, why don't you do something about the
>homeless?

Like Shydavid's work at women's shelters and domestic abuse hotlines.

All these problems -- over population, the destruction of ancient trees and the environment, homelessness, domestic abuse, and Scientology -- are all legitimate but hopeless efforts to fight. Even if money was available to oppose such things it would still be hopeless. But they are all _worthy_ venues to fight since to do nothing is to die a sort of spiritual death and just maybe a few -- people or trees -- are saved along the way (kind of like slot machine gambleing, huh?)

Some people who oppose Scientology have become _defined_ by their opposition; fighting Scientology becomes their way of life and Mr.

Minton mentioned that fact in one court transcript. It's like Segourney Weaver constantly fighting the aliens -- she did nothing else. Environmentalists are prone to the same problem of becoming defined by their environmentalism. Good or bad depends upon the level of extremism, the methodologies of their opposition, and whether the activist has become addicted or not.

>Each of us has to pick their ground and their meaning.
>Each person has a right to say "This far and no further!"

At the Quigley take down last night the protesters were of all mixed "racial" types that Southern California is home to. Blacks, Mexicans, Indians, whites, Asians were all there shaking hands, touching each other on the backs and holding each other's shoulders while talking in a spirit of humanity that rarely exists among individuals who are not united in a cause. The people there knew it was just one tree in a long line of trees that had already been cut down in the canyon and, in fact, going further in there are still others that are set for destruction.

"This far and no further" when Quigley climbed the tree was the act of a speed bump that, while doomed to be run over by the developer, slowed him down just a bit, long enough for the world's media to take a look at Don Quixote tilting at Windmills that threaten humanity's quality of life.

>Granted that many such acts are stupid. I think it might be in the
>genetic code. The problem is in grading those in "stupid", "inspired by
>the gods [oh dear]", "probably a good idea", "you're a loonie", etc.
>Thankfully, most countries don't limit that expression.

>I probably wouldn't be upset about anyone's non-violent protest.
>Frequently, I think that many "attaboys" at a picket are for sticking to
>Co$, rather than about protesting what they've done.

>Go figure!

Picketing them hurts their revenues, I think.

-- George W. Bush threatens to kill us all -- for oil http://www.gwbush.com/ http://www.bushwatch.net/ Soon to come: http://www.notserver.com/

From: HR-Defense@aol.com (Shy David)
Subject: Re: On site report of the John Quigley take down
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 07:28:13 GMT
Organization: -NONE-
Message-ID: <3e21190e@news2.lightlink.com>

On Sat, 11 Jan 2003 16:30:29 -0800, barb <bwarr1@cox.net> wrote:

> "Rev. Fredric L. Rice" wrote:

> > On site report of the John Quigley take down
> > 10/Jan/2003, Fredric L. Rice
> > FRice@SkepticTank.ORG

> All that effort spent for one lousy tree. It's a damn shame
> those people don't take on a meaningful cause. You sure don't
> see a turnout like that for ANY picket of Scientology... but
> then, trees don't hire PIs, dig through your trash, or make
> false complaints to the police.

Humans are generally given the "benefit of the doubt" and allowed to protect themselves--- and yes, this means a hell of a lot of abused people are left to fend for themselves (Keith Henson being a good example). 400-year-old trees do not have even that much of a defense.

I used to wonder, way back when I was an idealist and not a cynic, why there were so many cat and dog shelters, and so few women's and children's shelters. The answers (plural) are probably:

1) Humans are expected to fend for themselves.

2) There is a MYTH in the U.S.A. that all one needs to succeed in life and to be happy is to "work hard."

3) The Lone Rangers are drawn to lost causes.

4) There is a HELL of a lot of human beings, but very few 400-year-old oak trees.

5) Backlash against over-development, over-population, and assorted human evils makes protection of a tiny part of "Nature" (large "N") attractive as it helps to re-humanize in the face of dehumanizing growth, expansion, technology, etc.

---- http://www.norahjones.com

"Narconon helps drug addicts like NAMBLA helps young boys."

http://narconon-exposed.org

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