Pipeline protest prevented bank entry for 6 hours (although drive up was open)
Throughout the occupation no less than a dozen supporters were always on scene
The four arrested do-gooders who chained themselves to the main entry and exit doors of TD Bank on Triangle Street blocking access for six hours all pleaded not guilty and brokered a deal with ADA Bob Opsitnik to reimburse the town $800 for all the public safety personnel they needlessly tied up.
Now $200 each may not sound like much, but the usual court cost imposed is $50 and I've seen a few set at $100 but the only time in memory it went that high was for the infamous case of the Blarney Blowout when most of the perps reimbursed the town $200, wrote a letter of apology to APD and did 40 hours of community service.
Since these protesters were apologetic to APD the entire time of the incident, no need for a letter of apology and their idea of "community service" would probably be standing in town center with their anti-pipeline signs.
Since the four were egged on and supported throughout the occupation by about 20 other like-minded individuals if they split up the total cost it only comes to $35 or $40 each.
But I can assure you if this happens again the next four perps will not get off so (relatively) easily.
Alyssa Johnson-Kurts
Harrison Greene
Paxton Reed
Marc Oston
(Although I wish they interviewed the young woman who quit to find out why)
13 comments:
UNMITIGATED BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!
The court has made it clear that some people are more equal than others -- what right does the court have to charge 50% more (i.e. $300) to perps who cost the town (and MSP, UMPD, etc.) far less?
So much for "equal justice under law" -- and when that fails (as it has), you inevitably will get vigilantism.
You also are likely to get injuries to officers as the very legitimacy of their badges has been compromised. What today says is everything the Jason Vassel farce didn't -- there are two sets of rules in Amherst an that is a very dangerous thing to tell 19-year-olds because it makes the police into enemies (biased agents of "the other side") and hence shifts injuring one from being inherently wrong to only wrong "if you get caught."
And what's worse is UMass will not punish these assholes, I have no doubt of it, and that endangers the safety of every police officer in town. This is not a good thing...
Oh, and Enku, pay attention to the Bently lawsuit.
What are you now Larry, a judge? You really need to get some mental help.
These characters don't fit the profile of UMASS students, Ed... They're more likely employees over at Whole Foods
What's more hilarious is that the whole Dakota Access Pipeline thing has somewhat gone stagnant with the Army CoE denying the easement needed to complete it. Yet, here they are.
What about the 176,000 gallon leak some 150 miles from the big camp? $$$!
it would seem the police or town should get paid extra for doing an extra good job. An extra good job would be not letting this happen AND educating the public about what is really going on and who makes decisions. This did not happen.
How long after the police arrived were they cutting the protesters loose? Did the protesters resist?
How much did the party that suffered a loss, the actual victim, the bank, get vs. the parties that did an ok job they are already paid to do, the police?
To report that the government got a financial bonus, awarded by itself after people protested and the police did their jobs just seems odd and sets up a bad precedent. I would have rather seen them locked up or forced to pay the bank. The police are just perifery to the actual parties, but again, become the focus of the party.
This is less the "price of protest" and more another "bonus to the town" like many other transactions locally.
Add in how much money spent on actual overtime for the police and fire called in off duty. Overtime adds up. How many responded, and for how many hours?
10:2 -- There is a 3-hour minimum on call-in, regardless of how many hours the cop or FF actually works. I think there is even more for a court appearance, and that the arresting officer is required to appear.
The interesting question is who would have had to pay the overtime had the Hadley PD, covering Amherst, had to appear in court subsequent to an arrest they made.
These characters don't fit the profile of UMASS students, Ed... They're more likely employees over at Whole Foods
The group behind it is a UMass "student" organization,"Divest UMass." Now, I'll agree that NONE of the so-called "student" organizations at Planet UMass actually are reflective of UMass students.
However when the perps say that they are a UMass organization, with several saying that they are UM students, well.....
What's more hilarious is that the whole Dakota Access Pipeline thing has somewhat gone stagnant with the Army CoE denying the easement needed to complete it. Yet, here they are.
I think that, to them, it's that they are protesting and not what they protest.
It's about power and self-esteem more than any underlying message.
That's why what the court did was so dangerous...
What about the 176,000 gallon leak some 150 miles from the big camp?
This is all about socialism and controlling people, forcing us to ride a bus rather than drive our own cars, etc, etc, etc. They really could care less about the environment -- if they did, they'd realize that a new pipeline is a whole lot safer than a 30+ year-old one built under far-weaker regs and then poorly maintained.
The point I make is that the oil WILL cross the river, wither in a pipe or on a railroad, and there is a little town in Quebec Province that isn't there anymore...
What the left doesn't understand is that not all companies are the same -- that RR only had one man on that train, and when his shift ended, they had him just leave it there until the next morning... And the pipeline that leaked is run by a company with a bad record.
Ed, so I agree with you on two and three. The first, meh... All the folks worried about the overtime to the police, blah blah blah, they're off point and missing the bigger picture. In the end, are you for or against the pipeline?
I say dig, baby, dig! Open the valves up and let it rip!
Do these four have jobs?
Paxton Reed
paxtonreed@umass.edu
Major: SocialThought&PoliticlEcon (BA)
If he's still a student in the spring, Enku Gelaye needs to be held accountable.
Ed@douchebaggius.Com accountable.
I say dig, baby, dig! Open the valves up and let it rip!
No.
What these asinine ecofreaks fail to understand is that they run the risk of creating a backlash that throws out a lot of good and necessary regulations. I don't want to see the planet destroyed -- although it was the EPA that turned the river yellow and gave an "Energy Star" rating to a gasoline-powered alarm clock. (Seriously...)
The first, meh... All the folks worried about the overtime to the police, blah blah blah, they're off point and missing the bigger picture.
I make an issue of it because Larry keeps making an issue of AFD runs to Planet UMess -- the fact is that the town (not AFD but the town) actually turns a profit due to the ambulance revenue.
In the end, are you for or against the pipeline?
I'm for it unless someone can show some credible reasons against it, which no one has.
It's like Exxon v. BP -- Exxon had/has a generally good safety record with one notable exception, while BP not only has a long list of things (including DeepwaterHorizon) such as refineries exploding and pipelines literally falling apart.
Crude oil is corrosive, BP let several pipelines in Alaska get "paper thin" and (not surprisingly) they ruptured. A responsible company would have been X-raying the pipes and replacing those too thin to meet specs, BP didn't. A responsible company has people walking the pipeline looking for problems -- that costs money and others don't, which is how you have these massive spills.
Plus the Smithies love the elderly white males, with chains.
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