FBI Targets Local Activist, Pomona Students Rush to Aid

By Lori Desrochers
News Associate

A local peace activist and environmentalist suspected of vandalizing West Covina car dealerships was released from custody Monday evening. Josh Connole, 25, was arrested on Friday outside Regen V, a residential Cooperative where over a dozen residents, including two current Pomona College students and recent graduates of Pomona, Scripps, and Harvey Mudd, are dedicated to ecological conservation and peace.
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Regen V residents were awakened just after midnight last Friday when Connole was arrested and federal authorities took control of their houses.

“We were really scared, really worried, really confused,” said Helena Koelle, who graduated from Pomona last spring. Koelle estimates that between 75 and 100 officials from the FBI, West Covina Police Department, and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms arrived to search the houses for evidence.

According to the LA Times, vandals acting in the name of Earth Liberation Front (ELF) spray-painted and fire-bombed cars in West Covina car dealerships and residential streets on August 22, resulting in over $2 million dollars worth of damage. ELF is a radical activist environmental group that has taken responsibility for the destruction of SUVs in California, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Oregon. According to their own website, their goal is to “to inflict economic damage on those profitting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment,” and have caused over $100 million worth of damage since 1997. Federal authorities regard ELF as a domestic terrorist organization.

Video surveillance from the automobile dealerships led authorities to Connole, who was then followed and observed until Friday. Connole claims the video looked nothing like him and he had no knowledge of ELF. Two search warrants issued on Friday night gave authorities permission to search for evidence of arson and connections to ELF, clothing that matched the video evidence, computers, CDs, documents, and hair fibers.
“They completely trashed the houses, and there’s no accountability for the stuff they seized,” said Koelle.

Friends and family organized to fight for Connole’s release immediately, holding a vigil in his honor for over 12 hours on Monday. When he was released at 4:30 PM, friends changed the message of their signs from “Free Josh” to “Josh is Free,” said observers at the vigil.

“He’s excited as hell to be out of that holding cell,” said Mike Fanjul ’04, and a resident at Regen V.

Supporters and friends of Connole took this unexpected early release as a sign that authorities were rethinking their accusations.

“We are taking this very seriously, and I think that scared them,” said Koelle in referance to work that the Regen House, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Lawyers Guild have accomplished in the last few days. Koelle said that they are prepared to launch a civil suit against the FBI for their procedure and behavior, and continue to fight for the return of their personal belongings.

“There was no doubt in our mind that he was innocent,” said Koelle, noting that one of Connole’s roommates can account for his exact whereabouts at the supposed time of the crime. “But we also know him as a person,” she continued. “He’s an amazing person, a very active peace demonstrator. He would never do something like this.”

Connole has lived at the Regen House since June—a place where students and recent graduates dedicate themselves to conservation, veganism, and environmental activism. They grow their own food, use the electricity of solar panels, and promote nonviolent approaches to activism.

“We exercise our first-amendment rights, and they want to find out more about us,” said Koelle. “We were targeted because of our political views, and I think they wanted to instill fear in us.”

“It’s been a bit surreal realizing the reality that the way things work now gives the government far too much free reign to go after whatever they want to,” said Fanjul. He described his experience of living on campus for the last three years as being buffered from the outside world.

“While I was a college student I never really paid attention to the outside world, but moving off campus changed that,” he said. “The government has you under their control if they want you.”