Radical Enviros Target Suburbs
Radical enviros are turning their attention from forests and wilderness areas to the nation’s sprawling suburbs, prompting growing concern among law-enforcement agencies and the developers and homeowners whose money is invested in said sprawl. The Earth Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for more than a dozen acts of sabotage and vandalism in the past year, with damage totaling more than $60 million; most of the damage was done to houses and SUVs in areas where forests were cleared or wetlands filled to make room for suburban development. Despite hundreds of thousands of dollars of reward money and intensified efforts by the FBI to infiltrate the group, few arrests have been made and fewer convictions secured. The ELF is comprised of loosely affiliated cells and has no top-down hierarchy of the sort that enabled law-enforcement agents to penetrate and take down traditional criminal enterprises like the mafia. The ELF website strongly discourages any harm to people or animals.
