Center for Consumer Freedom

In addition to the usual gaggle of anti-American, anti-capitalist, radical feminist, and other “social change” activists, the conference’s highlight (or lowlight, depending on your perspective), was a presentation by Rodney Coronado, a convicted arsonist who spent 57 months in prison for burning down a research lab at Michigan State University. PETA thought so highly of this crime that it gave Coronado over $70,000 from its tax-exempt treasury.

Yesterday, Coronado addressed a lecture hall full of tomorrow’s window-smashers and bomb-hoaxers, instructing them on how to assemble a crude incendiary device for just two dollars, using a milk jug, a sponge, and a stick of incense. He also gave glowing reviews to the violent group SHAC, and encouraged his audience to forcibly attack police officers: “Every time a police agency pepper-sprays or uses pain-compliance holds against our people,” he advised, “their cars should burn.”

Speaking of corporations that rightly fear for the safety of their employees in the wake of ALF attacks, Coronado warned: “You know, those people – I think they should appreciate that we’re only targeting their property. Because frankly I think it’s time to start targeting them.”

Rodney Coronado will soon take his “by any means necessary” rhetoric to college campuses across the country. On February 8, he is scheduled to appear at Houston Community College in Texas; he will also be involved with the mid-February “radical environmentalism” event to be held at Cal State Fresno.