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Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t CFACT – Bonner Cohen (CFACT) writing for The Hill notes that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are responding vigorously to threats from eco-terrorists – so vigorously the eco-terrorists are complaining.
Eco-terrorist attacks on energy infrastructure on tap for 2018
December 29, 2017 by Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.
Determined to disrupt the interstate transport of oil and natural gas throughout the United States, a network of environmental activists is openly threatening to resort to sabotage to achieve their ends. And having let their intentions be known, they are crying foul now that law enforcement officials are taking their threats seriously.
Indeed, the recent past foreshadows what is to come. In October 2016, a group of five demonstrators cut through padlocks and chains to enter the flow stations of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Dubbed Valve Turners, they shut off the pipeline’s valves, temporarily stopping the flow of oil through the pipeline. Local law enforcement officials in North Dakota apprehended the group. A court found two of the protestors guilty of felony charges, two more are awaiting trial, and a fifth was found guilty of second-degree burglary.
The Valve Turners were hardly the only protestors to turn to sabotage in the name of combating climate change. Anti-pipeline activists set fires and caused $2 million in damages near Standing Rock in North Dakota. Elsewhere, two women from a social justice charity proudly told the Des Moines Register how they had used oxyacetylene cutting torches to attack another stretch of the pipeline in Iowa’s Mahaska County. In another incident, damages to pipeline construction equipment in Iowa reached $2 million.
…
Alarmed that acts of vandalism against public and private installations will not go unpunished, groups that can best be described as “Green Antifa” are conjuring up visions of noble activists facing police-state tactics.
“This crackdown is happening, because activists have been successful, and because industry realizes that protest is a threat,” Kelsey Skaggs, executive director of the Climate Defense Project, recently told ThinkProgress.
On the contrary, officials and lawmakers are rightly concerned that acts of sabotage pose a threat to public safety. Anti-pipeline protesters have the right to free speech and free assembly; they do not have the right commit acts of sabotage, arson or trespassing.
…
Think Progress sees the legal crackdown differently. From 20th December;
The criminalization of environmental protest in Trump’s America
Environmental protesters had a successful 2016. Then came the crackdown.
NATASHA GEILING
DEC 20, 2017, 10:29 AM
In October of 2016, a group of five climate activists across four states cut through padlocks and chains to enter flow stations for the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which runs from Canada to the United States. In an orchestrated action, the activists shut off the valves for the pipeline, effectively bringing the transport of millions of barrels of tar sands oil to a halt in an attempt to shine a light on the global climate crisis.
Legal retribution against the group, dubbed “Valve Turners,” was swift and severe. The activists were charged with a litany of crimes, including, most notably, criminal sabotage and criminal mischief — both felonies that can carry sentences of 10 years in prison. Two of those activists have already been found guilty of felony charges, while two others are still awaiting trial. The fifth activist’s case initially ended in a mistrial, with a jury finding him guilty of just one charge, second-degree burglary, during the second trial.
…
“This crackdown is happening because activists have been successful, and because industry realizes that protest is a threat,” Kelsey Skaggs, executive director of the Climate Defense Project, told ThinkProgress. “We’ve seen it begin, and now we’ve seen it worsen.”
…
“The conditions now are perfect for an increased crackdown, because the Trump administration is so friendly in terms of pro-policing, pro-business attitudes, and because a lot of state legislatures are controlled by Republicans,” Skagg said.
…
“This suit is part of a rising tendency on the part of government and industry to demonize activists and to criminalize free speech activity,” Ted Hamilton, co-founder of the Climate Defense Project, told ThinkProgress in August when Energy Transfer Partners first filed their lawsuit. “Fossil fuel companies know that they’re losing public support for their poisonous activities — and so label their opponents ‘terrorists’ and seek gag orders in court.”
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Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/criminalization-of-environmental-protest-f3a4c5eb29c3/
What did you expect Ted? A mass uprising of people demanding liberty for your followers, an end to fossil fuel heating for their homes, and an end to fuel for their vehicles?
The US constitution protects free speech. It does not protect “free speech activity”, which you seem to define as dangerous interference with or destruction of property owned by other people.
I and I’m sure many other people would love to be able to live without fossil fuels. I would love to buy an affordable car which never needs gasoline, yet still offers me the convenience of rapid long distance travel. I would love to go off grid, without the inconvenience of having to gather and burn large quantities of firewood, or truck in and burn large quantities of fossil fuel to power my home.
Sadly nobody wants to sell me a couple of miniaturised nuclear reactors.
Eco-terrorists who commit crimes against property or people are being treated as they deserve; as dangerous criminals pursuing a pointless vendetta against the lifeblood of our society.
The climate cult is super serial.
Hopefully the companies and state file civil suits as well.
I know someone convicted of rioting can get 10 years in the slammer and a $25,000 fine. The long arm of the law can be very persuasive sometimes!
When the DAPL protests were at its height, guess who was buying stock in a rival pipeline? Who else but our old buddy Soros. Did the activists take Soros’ money and not realize they were being used to take out his competition?
I just want to point out for the record that, were it not for this blog, I would have never even been in any way even faintly aware of these terrorists nor of their criminal actions.
The story has been completely ignored by the national media.
You have President Donald Trump now, fools. I doubt he suffers fools gladly. Can’t they be shot while committing a crime? Martyrs you say? The one common feature of martyrs is they are dead.
They’re no different than pirates on the open seas and the US Navy has used deadly force to repel such terrorists.
The US Navy currently polices most international sea lanes, for free. Maybe Trump should start charging benefactor nations a fee? 😉
Climate Defense Project — another 501(c)(3r job creation scheme for lefties, in this case three Harvard law graduates. I can never understand these people are not in breach of Article IV b of their application.
ARTICLE IV
RESTRICTIONS
A. This corporation is organized and operated exclusively for the purposes set forth in Article III
hereof within the meaning of Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3).
B. No substantial part of the activities of this corporation shall consist of carrying on
propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation, and this corporation shall not
participate or intervene in any political campaign (including the publishing or distribution of
statements) on behalf of any candidate for public office.
Also from their application, 2017 expenses included
Flights ($500/trip: 6 trips x 3
attorneys)
$9,000.00
Lodging ($400/trip: 6 trips x 3
attorneys)
$7,200.00
It’s a tough life being a fossil fuel ecshewing whiny eco- warrior.
In the UK some ecoterrorists broke into Kingsnorth Power Station which was due to be upgraded to a more efficient coal burning process. James Hansen was brought over to their trial to give evidence that their activity was justified to save the planet. The jury let them off.
Terrifying!
James Hansen *and political pressure, I guarantee you
Well, such juries should be punished by having them live on the planet such eco-terrorists would give them. Of course, that doesn’t me jurists would be any smarter for the experience but one could hope.
Must disagree. I believe it has been hundreds of years since juries were punished for the “wrong” decision in England. To my knowledge it has never happened in the US of A. English common law does not allow such a thing. The jury can do whatever they can agree upon. They can ignore the law, the facts, the arguments, the judge’s instructions, precedent. They can over rule congress that passed the law, the president that signed it, the police and DA that attempt to enforce it and the judge that conducts the trial. All of those officials prefer the jury remain ignorant of their total power as a final check on governmental power. They call it “jury nullification” and deny it exists. I call it the people having the final say and it’s real.
If you are not careful at these sites, you can go in with a leather jacket, commit your act of vandalism and come out with a blazer.
Skagg is obviously insane. Conflates protest with sabotage. These people are unhinged. If it was not CC they would find some other cause to do the exact same things, they are bat&^$^ crazy
I’d like to see these people living with no resources the way they want the rest of us to live, but what planet would you propose to use as the gulag?
The closest you can get to that is parts of Siberia, or maybe places in Montana and Idaho where, as a friend of mine told me, no one ever goes, at all. There’s no access to anything, unless you count deadwood for fuel, and even that is scarce.
Seems to me if the aboriginal tribes who migrated to this continent over the ice sheets from Siberia and (possibly) from western Europe could survive by hunter-gatherer means and eventually took up farming, these eco-twit terrorists should give it a try, except they aren’t allowed ANY kind of fuel sources to cook their food. I’m not sure that a solar oven will do much in the winter to cook anything, but they could have that.
They want to live without anything connected to fossil fuels. Fine. Gather them together and give them their “ideal” environment. But they’re to be there for life, and ZERO population growth. We can’t afford to support them. /sarc.
Thanks for bringing up this eye-opening article. I had no idea this insanity level was quite so high. They really do need a good dose of their own medicine.
‘criminalise free speech activity”, in other words: criminalize the right for people to commit criminal acts.
Well if they want to go to jail for being just plain stupid, won’t be the first time.
Only a leftists would consider destroying other people’s property and putting lives in danger to be “speech”.
That’s why they always attach ‘by any means necessary’ to all their promotional speeches – that high moral-ground they assign themselves is designed specifically to allow all and any methods on their part, while vilifying ANY effort to block them, polite, legal, peaceful, or otherwise.
All accompanied with the one-way blindness to prevent them from having to acknowledge the inherent, and near total hypocrisy.
Send them on work release to work on the pipeline projects in Siberia. That would be fitting.
Too many opportunities for sabotage.
We have to find Ned Ludd’s horcruxes, and destroy them. Otherwise, he’ll keep coming back to life.
So many personality traits that have to be in place before you can be a warmist – ‘entitlement’ and ‘above the law’ moral elitism are a couple of staples.
Believe in unicorns is very helpful
Let us not forget the unicorns.
Easy = declare them terrorists and lock them in a cage at Gitmo.
it is the logic of political correctness:
1. words cause pain thus words are violence.
2. violence is therefore words.
3. words are protected free speech.
4. thus violence is protected free speech.
quite frankly we are all at fault by not denouncing political correctness for what it is. it is “white lies” in the name of equality.
however, there was a time when we knew white lies were lies. political correctness insists we actually believe white lies to be true. lies told for a good reason are no longer lies. they are truths. and as Bertrand Russell showed, when a single lie is held to be true you can prove all lies to be true.
“Fossil fuel companies know that they’re losing public support for their poisonous activities…”
Really? Canada sold a record number of new vehicles last year, over 2 million in a country over around 35 million people. Fossil fuels to be sold here for a while yet.