Ecoterrorist's sentence includes reading Malcolm Gladwell book
Rebecca Rubin, who in October pleaded guilty to participating in attacks associated with the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, was sentenced Tuesday to serve five years in prison. She also must read two books, Slate reports, Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath, and Nature’s Trust, by Mary C. Wood.
The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken. The Portland, Ore., jurist noted that Gladwell’s book could teach Rubin, a Canadian national, nonviolent ways to protest things she sees as being unjust.
Rubin, whom Slate describes as an “environmental radical,” was reportedly part of a collective known as “The Family.” According to the Los Angeles Times, the group in 1997 freed wild horses from a federal barn in Oregon, and then burned the barn down. In 1998, the article states, the group burned buildings and chairlifts in Vail, Colo.
After being at large for almost a decade, Rubin turned herself in to authorities last fall, according to Slate. As part as her plea agreement, the post notes, Rubin refused to give the government information about her co-conspirators, two of whom are reportedly still at large.
