Two activists were arrested filming a single protester shutting off the the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline shipping the oil from from the Canadian Tar Sands during the #ShutItDown protests on October 11t . Now they are being charged with archaic felonies used to punish labor activists during one of the Red Scares that swept across the Pacific Northwest during the rise of the Industrial Workers of the World in the early 20th century.
By AMY RADIL
Three people were arraigned in Skagit County Superior Court Thursday on charges related to Oct. 11 demonstrations against oil pipelines. A lawyer said two of those people are journalists who did nothing to warrant the criminal charges.
That pipeline brings Canadian oil from Alberta to refineries in Anacortes. Two other people were watching from outside the fence: Lindsey Grayzel and Carl Davis, who lawyers say are making a documentary about Ward.
Ward posted his video in which a Skagit County deputy approaches the filmmakers, telling them, “You don’t have permission to be on this property. So now’s your chance to go back. If not, you will be arrested also.”
Court documents suggest they complied. But all three were arrested that day and charged with the same felonies: burglary, criminal sabotage and being part of an assembly of saboteurs.
“These two latter crimes were adopted in the state of Washington early last century in an effort to combat the militant labor union, the Industrial Workers of the World," said Grayzel’s attorney Neil Fox.
He said it’s fairly unprecedented for journalists to face those charges in Washington, but it resembles the rioting charge filed against "Democracy Now!" host Amy Goodman during similar protests in North Dakota. This week a judge there dismissed that charge.
The three arrested in Skagit County also face a misdemeanor trespassing charge.
The filmmakers crossed what court documents say is a "privately owned field" to get to the fence. Fox says this charge is also unusual.
“Normally if you’re on unimproved property and there are no ‘no trespassing’ signs, it’s not a crime to be there," Fox said.
RCW 9.05.060
CRIMINAL SABOTAGE DEFINED—PENALTY.
(1) Whoever, with intent that his or her act shall, or with reason to believe that it may, injure, interfere with, interrupt, supplant, nullify, impair, or obstruct the owner's or operator's management, operation, or control of any agricultural, stockraising, lumbering, mining, quarrying, fishing, manufacturing, transportation, mercantile, or building enterprise, or any other public or private business or commercial enterprise, wherein any person is employed for wage, shall willfully damage or destroy, or attempt or threaten to damage or destroy, any property whatsoever, or shall unlawfully take or retain, or attempt or threaten unlawfully to take or retain, possession or control of any property, instrumentality, machine, mechanism, or appliance used in such business or enterprise, shall be guilty of criminal sabotage.
(2) Criminal sabotage is punishable according to chapter
9A.20 RCW.
RCW 9.05.030
ASSEMBLAGES OF SABOTEURS.
Whenever two or more persons assemble for the purpose of committing criminal sabotage, as defined in RCW
9.05.060, such an assembly is unlawful, and every person voluntarily and knowingly participating therein by his or her presence, aid, or instigation, is guilty of
a class B felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in a state correctional facility for not more than
ten years, or by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars, or both.
Climate Activist Unrepentant After Being Charged in #ShutItDown Pipeline Protest
By Deirdre Fulton
Videographers Lindsey Grayzel and Carl Davis, who were on site documenting Ward’s actions—but did not participate—were arraigned on conspiracy charges. Four other activists, two support team members, and another independent documentary filmmaker are also facing charges in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana.
Ahead of his participation in the “unprecedented” protest, 59-year-old Ward explained why he was taking part: “There is no plan of action, policy, or strategy being advanced now by any political leader or environmental organization playing by the rules that does anything but acquiesce to ruin. Our only hope is to step outside polite conversation and put our bodies in the way. We must shut it down, starting with the most immediate threats—oil sands fuels and coal.”
In a statement on Thursday, Ward reiterated that sentiment, noting that he is “a responsible and law-abiding citizen” whose previous brushes with the law also involved attempts to avert climate catastrophe. In 2013, Ward and one other activist blockaded a shipment of West Virginia coal from arriving at Brayton Point Power Station in Massachusetts—an act for which they were later praised by a local district attorney who dropped all charges against them. Then last year, Ward took part in the Break Free from Fossil Fuels oil train blockade, also in Anacortes.
“I did these things because I believe that it is the obligation of every thinking person to find a way to stave off climate cataclysm, and there is no effective, legal alternative to personal direct action,” Ward said.
He cited a recent study from Oil Change International that showed the vast majority of fossil fuels must be left in the ground for a good chance at a habitable planet.
Criminalizing activistism has had a long ignoble history in my state of Washington. Does this prosecutor want to make these two activists into examples to discourage activists themselves from documenting these protests, which he might see as a means to popularize civil disobedience? Something the oil industry must desperately want to avoid to cling to the energy consumption status quo.