Paul Schroeder figures he’s spent about 2,000 hours and nearly as much of his own money leading the charge against the development of the state-owned West Old Town Landfill.

There have been press conferences, strategy sessions and lawsuits. He and other members of We The People, a small community-based group opposed to the landfill, have spent hours poring over documents connected to their cause.

But neither Schroeder nor his fellow We The People cohort Debbie Gibbs were pleased to learn of Sunday’s vandalism spree at the controversial project.

Sometime between 4:30 and 6 p.m. on Sunday, vandals slashed tires, broke windows and spray-painted buildings with messages such as “We don’t want your trash.”

Apparently it’s still unclear who’s responsible, but Gibbs knows that probably some people will be looking her way with a bit of suspicion in their eyes.

“Not only were we not involved,” Gibbs said of herself and her husband, “but we strongly opposed such acts.”

The core group of We The People, those who do most of the work, is made up of only about a dozen folks, though the group’s e-mail list reaches into the hundreds, she said.

The swift involvement of the FBI in the investigation may indicate that suspicion is falling beyond the doorsteps of people like Gibbs and Schroeder and may instead be focused on a global radical environmental movement called the Earth Liberation Front. The word “ELF” was spray-painted on vehicles and buildings, as were symbols indicating involvement by green anarchists.

ELF has taken credit for millions of dollars in ecoterrorism acts in the United States, including burning down a ski resort in Aspen, Colo., in 1999 and burning down a housing complex in San Diego, Calif., in 2003.

What I’ve found surprisingly lacking in the follow-up to Sunday’s vandalism is the outrage and condemnation that should be coming not only from We The People but also from every environmental group in the state.

Maine is never short on protesters. We protest the war, gay rights, a multitude of development projects and tax increases. It’s a revered First Amendment right that has been the backbone of such causes as the civil rights movement and the suffrage movement.

Those who stand before the public to picket and protest any cause should be the first to come forward to condemn the actions of those who hide in the shadows and resort to criminal behavior to send their message.

Ilze Peterson of the Peace and Justice Center, who has staged many one-woman protests of her own, reminded me this week that the media needs also to take note.

A couple of years ago, for example, hundreds of people from this area loaded onto 11 buses and headed to Washington, D.C., to protest the Iraq war. This apparently received no coverage in this, or other area news mediums.

The day those buses returned to Bangor, however, there was a large picture in this newspaper of a man burning a U.S. flag in Seattle.

“It’s unfortunate, but they get the attention and the publicity, and that’s what anyone who is engaging in peaceful protest wants, but doesn’t always get,” she said.

It’s a valid point, and one media types should note, though it’s pretty darn difficult to ignore a $30,000 vandalism spree or the torching of a ski resort.

Too often, those who fight any issue or policy are viewed as pains in the posterior. They work hard to be heard, and those who commit acts such as the landfill vandalism are creating even bigger hurdles for them.