Judi Bari was a friend of mine. Some of Bari’s accusers were the FBI, OPD and Wiseuse. The Oakland District Attorney refused to indict her because the evidence was non-existant and the FBI’s ‘evidence’ was contrived. FBI and OPD were sued and settled for $4 million. The FBI accused her of carrying the bomb to commit a terrorist act. The FBI’s case was devoid of factual context relying upon the ‘professional judgment’ of one FBI agent. Robert McLaughlin describes the FBI’s reaction under Conspiracies. The FBI’s case was a case of victim shaming.

Besides the FBI, OPD and Wiseuse, Judi’s other accuser was the Lord’s Avenger. The Lord’s Avenger also victim shamed Judi by insisting that ‘his’ god wanted her dead because this also happened:

1988 November JUDI BARI’S COUNTER-ABORTION CLINIC DEMONSTRATION—–Judi Bari organized Ukiah Planned Parenthood Clinic Defense Action, a counter protest against a group of Right-to-Life demonstrators led by fundamentalist preacher Bill Staley at the Ukiah Planned Parenthood Clinic. She and Darryl Cherney sang a lusty chorus to the tune of “Will the circle be unbroken” of  “Will the fetus be aborted?” which included these lines:

Betty Lou, she got pregnant, and was addicted to fifteen drugs,

She went down to the abortion clinic and was

Accosted by right wing thugs.

(Chorus)

Will the fetus be aborted, by and by, Lord, by and by?

There’s a better world awaiting, in the sky, Lord, in the sky.

Bridget had two kids already

And an abortion is what she chose                                                 

The Christians showed her a bloody fetus.

And she said I’ll have one of those (chorus)

Reverend Broyles hated abortion,

But for a peaceful end he searched,

He said we’ll never bomb your clinic,

We said we’ll never bomb your church.

(Chorus)

There are so many starving children

And living in the street is tough,

here are five billion of us already,

Don’t you think that is enough?

“We were really outrageous,” Judi later admitted. “In retrospect, I probably would have done it different, but because of the way they were acting, we decided that if they were going to be bullies, we’d show them what their tactics were like.

xxx

As famous as she would become she wasn’t that famous then.

To be bombed in Berkeley or Oakland means she was being stalked.

The death threats made a lot out of knowing where she lived.