You may have heard about the climate activists who had charges and a trial pending over obstruction of commerce by blocking a coal barge to the Brayton Point electric power plant with a lobster boat? Well the DA just caved, and announced he drank the kool-aid, and is going on the climate march. Video follows
From WBGH Boston:
It was intended to be a show trial, with climate scientist-turned-activist James Hansen and 350.org founder Bill McKibben both slated to testify. Ward and O’Hara planned a necessity defense, arguing that climate change presented such a crisis – and federal climate action was so inadequate – that they had no alternative but to place their lobster boat between the barge and the power plant. Whether or not the defense was successful, it would be a statement.
Instead, Bristol County District Attorney Samuel Sutter made a surprise appearance in court Monday morning with a statement of his own. Sutter announced that his office was dropping all criminal charges, and that he, himself, would be attending the People’s Climate March in New York City later this month. He called climate change “one of the gravest crises of our time.”
Ward and O’Hara still face civil charges.
And from The Nation:
And what happened, the truly remarkable thing, was this: the prosecutor, Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter, not only dropped the charges (which could have resulted in months, or even years, of jail time), he then proceeded out to the courthouse plaza where he made a statement to the media and to the hundred or more people gathered in support of Ken and Jay. Here’s what he said:
The decision that Assistant District Attorney Robert Kidd and I reached today was a decision that certainly took into consideration the cost to the taxpayers in Somerset, but was also made with our concerns for their children, and the children of Bristol County and beyond in mind.
Climate change is one of the gravest crises our planet has ever faced. In my humble opinion, the political leadership on this issue has been gravely lacking. I am heartened that we were able to forge an agreement that both parties were pleased with and that appeared to satisfy the police and those here in sympathy with the individuals who were charged.
I am also extremely pleased that we were able to reach an agreement that symbolizes our commitment at the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office to take a leadership role on this issue.
Source: http://bristolda.com/2014/09/statement-on-the-disposition-of-the-brayton-point-protest-case/
Another victim of noble cause corruption: Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter website: http://bristolda.com/
The definition of noble cause corruption is:
Noble Cause Corruption is a mindset or sub-culture which fosters a belief that the ends justify the means.
– source: Public Agency Training Council
A recent tweet says its something they feel strongly about:
https://twitter.com/NJRob973/status/509160517865570304
![LadyJusticeImage[1]](https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/ladyjusticeimage1.jpg?quality=83)
Lady Justice was forced to take her blindfold off by this action:
Lady Justice has often been depicted wearing a blindfold. The blindfold represents objectivity, in that justice is or should be meted out objectively, without fear or favour, regardless of identity, money, power, or weakness; blind justice and impartiality.
This was how the 14th amendment came about, when law enforcement officials would not prosecute racial crimes committed in the south.
Article VI requires that “all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution”. So this DA has, by this statement, arguably tendered his resignation from his office, since he is asserting that he will not be bound to his duties under the 14th Amendment. Someone should accept his resignation, on behalf of the people.
I do hope the voters remember that he discarded the law in favor of his own beliefs when it comes time for re-election.
h/t to WUWT reader Tom McClellan
“I am also extremely pleased that we were able to reach an agreement that symbolizes our commitment at the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office to take a leadership role on this issue.”
Leadership ? He’s supposed to be a prosecutor. He should be leading in applying the law not perverting it.
I have sympathy for those taking direct action ( even if it is misguided ) but this should be decided by a judge, not by the prosecutor making a politically motivated decision not to prosecute.
Dereliction of duty? Misconduct in office ?
Apparently prosecutor Sutton thinks the constitution only applies when you want it to.
If he feels that he is morally bound not to do his job, he should resign.
“LIKE”
Totally agree.
The problem with taking this flippant attitude to whether or not to respect the constitution is, the next time you want to claim freedom of speech or other fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution of the United States, someone else may decide it is convenient to ignore it too.
Very disturbing. And typical since our imperial president took office.
Insane to see how in depth this corruption is going, we’ll we already know courts are corrupt, they also stated that newspapers are not required to decide if what they print is true or not. Orwellian indeed.
Please join us, John cook’s having a IAMA on reddt, he’s a real scientist and really really skeptical.
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2ftwt1/iama_scientist_who_wrote_the_study_finding_97/
This is a giant leap toward anarchy if this is not resolved. The activists are now given the green light to disrupt how they see fit as long as it is for the cause. Just at what level will justice be compromised in the future ? I think it is for the power station to start action against the DA office.
It is not often I disagree with Anthony, but this is one of them.
This is not noble cause corruption, but pure naked political opportunism.
It is election for the Democratic primaries for DA today (Tuesday)
Bristol County is in the heart of the Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Massachusettes and is solid Democrat.
Obviously a man of principle and you can trust what he says!!!
“Four years ago, when announcing that he was seeking a second term as district attorney, Sutter said he would probably not run for a third term in 2014 because he did not see himself being a career district attorney.”
He is running for a third term.
What a wanker.
Just this morning (Australia time), Tim Flannery said that that US deaths from burning coal is 50,000 per year. Would this justify stopping the supply of coal to the power station?
A brief internet search gives 7,500 per year in a 2010 study.
I doubt the science behind claiming even one death caused by burning coal. Were is the control population in this kind of pretend “science”?
Not surprised. This is the People’s Republic of Massachusetts we’re talking about, right?
It is a very bad precedent when we are not all equal before the law.
It is the job of prosecutors to prosecute wrong doings, and decisions not to prosecute should be based entirely upon the strength of evidence and the prospects of success.
The problem is that there is no accountability for actions taken in public office.
It’s a religion. Saul, top Christian persecutor was struck blind on the road to Damascus.
This tosser had his Damascene moment and he’s welcome to it. To all but a handful of alarmists he just appears to have lost his marbles…doubt if he gets re-elected!
Reblogged this on Aussiedlerbetreuung und Behinderten – Fragen and commented:
Staatsanwalt wird edle Sache Klima beschädigt, fällt Gebühren
von Anthony Watts
Sie können über den Klima-Aktivisten, die Gebühren und eine Testversion über Behinderung des Handels durch die Blockade einer anstehenden Kohle Lastkahn auf dem Brayton Punkt Kraftwerk mit einem Hummer Boot hatte gehört haben? Nun, die DA nur eingebrochen, und kündigte er betrunken die Kool-Aid, und basiert auf der Klima März gehen. Video folgt […] , Glück, Auf, meine Heimat!
That’s one funny autotranslation to German…
Useless translation – did you use some online tool?
“Climate change is one of the gravest crises our planet has ever faced”
In my 46 years I’ve seen really bad winters and very hot summers, the memorable ones happened when I was a kid. There’s been nothing that’s happened in the last 30 years that was particularly memorable, never mind some kind of ongoing escalation that makes me think there’s any truth to the threatened ‘crisis’, so intelligent people should be sceptical without doing any research.
But as soon as you start to dig past the headlines you find huge holes in every aspect of ‘climate science’ that prove beyond doubt that the climate science is so corrupt the entire profession needs to be disbanded. Adjustment of past records, statistical shenanigans, fudging, guesswork, corruption in peer review, pressure on journals, hiding inconvenient data, suppression of sceptical papers. Lies and deceit percolate through climate science, it clearly can’t be trusted to police itself or provide honest information to governments.
For me it’s exactly the same as a religion, people have to be so stupid to believe this nonsense while looking out of the window and seeing nothing for themselves, or dishonest and motivated by something else, usually money and/or power (bishops and cardinals) but sometimes misguided ideology (the congregation).
I wonder what would happen if he did something similar in a murder case. ‘Well, the victim deserved to die, so I am dropping all charges against the attacker and I’m going to join the vigilante posse they represent’
I used to joke about Climate Alarmism Zombies taking over the world, looks like it might actually be happening.
Oh I finally get it, as the prosecutor, he was supposed to be on the side of the coal barge people and against the lobster boat people, but he reversed his allegiance so now there is no one to defend the rights of the coal barge people.
It took me a while to find the original story from 2013. There doesn’t seem to be an original WUWT link to this lobster boat/Brayton Point power plant story.
I too hope they all “freeze to death” (well at least get frostbite) this winter because of the result of closing coal fired power plants which emit “awful” carbon dioxide. I guess it will take a blackout in MA during the depths of winter to bang home the point that the ends don’t always justify the means.
I wonder what would have happened if the barge had sunk the lobster boat? I guess then he would have had a case worth prosecuting.
as the DA he was supposed to be on the side of the LAW … Sure, if the law is wrong, change it. But as a DA you can not choose which laws you want and which you don’t.
True, but as a juror, you can judge the validity of the law as applied in the case and throw out an unjust application of the law. The verdict says “not guilty” but there are many things involved. The Georgia (US State) Constitution actually says so explicitly though the courts for some reason try to ignore that in their instructions to jurors. Other states may vary in explicitly saying so, but it is a moral obligation of jurors.
File charges against the DA with the state ethics and the state bar. Climate obsession and climate corruption go hand in hand. And as always, follow the money. This stinks of money.
Well the ability to protest is a wonderful thing in this country. MLK was arrested numerous times for his acts of civil disobedience. But he did his jail time equal to his acts. In other words he paid a price, so people would come to understand his view.
It is not civil disobedience if the DA is out there protesting with you, it’s is effectively a government sponsored event. What a disaster of government and law.
Climate alarmism and everthing it touches is seeming to become more corrupted as time goes on.
This might signal a new campaign effort by the AGW folks. Go after the lowest elected officials in the criminal/civil systems (the prosecuters, county attorneys, etc.) and “organize” them. It might be effective since those races are “cheap”. I.E., a prosecutor in most jurisdiction might spend less than 20K. Considerting the hundred of thousands tossed into a single Congressional race, the math works well for them provided they have staffing to run a distribution and intimidation network (which, of course, they do).
It is one way the early Christians defused state suppression.
So it’s ok to ignore the law if we believe in our cause. The President says so, and this equally vacuous DA agrees.
I guess they’ll be sympathetic, then, when those who value freedom take up arms.
What about the Lobsters.
Who is going to protect them from this boat. A case could be made for the necessity defense.
Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.
+1
Brayton Point has been scheduled to close in a few years. It was politically scheduled to be closed, and they really have no idea how they are going to power the 300,000+ homes Brayton serves… so the closure is likely to be pushed out a few months at a time for years and years more, at great expense to the taxpayer.
The tentative plan to start to replace that power is a NG pipeline from Pennsylvania. You should see the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the underground natural gas pipeline through northern MA like it was a 200 mile wide swath of salted-earth destruction…. Complete with town meetings in my town with people proclaiming “SOLAR CAN DO IT ALL, WHAT ARE WE DOING?!?!!” and whatnot.
Many MA residents are fools. Witness Pocahontas Warren’s election.
Fauxchahontas
Fixed it for you.
I hope you are stocking up on generator fuel (and a generator if you don’t have one) so you can run your heat this winter, because you will need it in a New England winter powered by solar power and unicorn flatulence.
I suspect that this action by the DA will encourage more activists to be more and more disruptive. Meanwhile anyone who wants to actually make a living is looking to leave.
Once our own police, prosecutorial, and judicial systems have drunk the Kool-Aid, game over. The creep of dictatorial regulation over self-initiative and public take-over of once private commerce, industry, and business continues.