Sherman Austin
| Sherman Austin | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 10, 1983 intent (law) Los Angeles, California |
| Known for | activism |
Sherman Martin Austin (born April 10, 1983) is an American anarchist and musician who was arrested for inflammatory content on his website and subsequently convicted. He was the first person to be successfully prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. 842(p), a United States federal law which makes the distribution of information on explosives unlawful if the information is provided with the knowledge or intent that the information will be used to commit a violent federal crime. Austin was convicted under a plea agreement in 2002 and served a one-year sentence in federal prison. Some academics and activists, including Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine, protested the prosecution of Austin.
Prior to his arrest and imprisonment, Austin was webmaster of the Internet site RaisetheFist.com (subtitled "National Security is the Threat"), which provides a platform for discussion for anti-police activists, and provides suggestions on how to practice for possible armed combat with police.
On May 1, 2001, the FBI received information about a possible server intrusion and defacement of the Web site of the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness. The information contained on that Web site's home page had been deleted and replaced with politically militant rhetoric. In addition, the coding for this and a number of other defaced sites contained links to RaisetheFist.com, while responsibility was claimed by a group calling itself "UCAUN", which was Sherman Austin's personal online username for a number of IRC clients, including AIM Instant Messenger.
On January 24, 2002, the FBI and the Secret Service armed with a search warrant raided Austin's home. Agents seized all of his political literature and computer equipment, including the webservers used to distribute the explosives information. While searching Austin's bedroom, agents discovered two glass bottles containing petroleum products; one of these bottles had a metal screw top with a hole punched in the lid and the other contained a piece of burnt material. Agents also found boxes containing 63 glass bottles, and a remote controlled detonation device fashioned from a toy car. Austin's car contained fertilizer, cans of brake fluid, and two gas canisters.
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