17 Jun 1996 Environmental Policy Task Force News

For Immediate Release: June 17, 1996

Contact: David Ridenour or Bob Adams at (202) 507-6398

Property rights and wise use activists from all over the country visiting Washington as part of the Alliance for America’s “Fly-in for Freedom” will hold a “March of Crimes” protest outside the White House on Tuesday, June 18, beginning at 10:00 A.M. The protest will feature demonstrators donning Clinton masks and prison uniforms and carrying signs specifying Clinton Administration crimes against the public. Among the crimes to be featured in the “March of Crimes”: President Clinton’s ongoing “War on the West,” the FBI “Filegate” scandal, the Administration’s attack on private property rights and the Whitewater affair, among others. The protest is sponsored by the American Land Rights Association and The National Center for Public Policy Research.

“During his campaign for the presidency, Bill Clinton vowed to ‘put people first.’ Apparently, he meant they would be the first in his cross-hairs,” said David Ridenour, Vice President of The National Center for Public Policy Research. “By opposing common-sense reforms to such abusive and counter-productive environmental laws as the Endangered Species Act and by opposing legislation that would offer a modicum of private property rights protections, the President certainly hasn’t been putting people in the West first — he’s waging war on them.”

Also appearing at the “March of Crimes” protest will be the “People for the West Players,” a singing troupe that travels throughout the country telling the plight of Westerners at the hands of radical environmentalists through song. The group includes teen-aged children of western timbermen, miners and ranchers who have lost their livelihoods due to environmental excess.

“Bill Clinton’s favorite past-time appears to be in ducking responsibility,” said Bob Adams, Project Director for Environmental and Regulatory Affairs at The National Center for Public Policy Research. “He’s ducked responsibility for the FBI ‘Filegate’ scandal and ducked responsibility for Whitewater and Travelgate. Little wonder that he’s managed to duck responsibility for the very human suffering occurring in the rural West that he helped create.”

In recognition of the President’s chief hobby, a duck — and duck calls — will also be prominently featured at the protest.

The American Land Rights Association is a grassroots activist organization based in Battleground, Washington, dedicated to the “wise use” of natural resources and private property rights. It has a membership of some 20,000.

The Environmental Policy Task Force is a project of The National Center for Public Policy Research, which is a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation established in 1982. The EPTF seeks innovative solutions to environmental problems — solutions that help save the environment and American families, not government bureaucrats.

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