Tar Sands Blockade

“Their Police”

I awoke this morning with a bleary-eyed smirk to a text that two more of my friends had successfully made it up into the police state once known to some as the Texas Tree Village.  As exciting as this may be for those of us sitting comfortably behind our computer screens, it’s incredibly important to understand the immense risk undertaken by these folks. Because of the ongoing radio and phone silence from the village, I feel that it’s completely necessary to describe the atmosphere at the village as I left it just over a week ago in order to fully appreciate the situation they have volunteered to enter and be able to support them accordingly. It’s also safe to assume that the things I describe here will only be compounded and made worse in retaliation to these new sitters’ audacity and defiance of previous intimidation tactics. It is my hope you will draw new conclusions and open new channels of dialogue about what these new policing techniques mean for our movement and how we can learn to see beyond them to a future without oppression, ecocidal and otherwise.
Following the brilliant mass action on October 15th, the police presence at the tree village roughly doubled.  I feel that it’s incredibly important to again highlight that these police are not active on-duty officers that are acting on behalf of their city or county in order to “serve the greater good”.  Likewise, they are not acting as mere flashlight-wielding security guards either.  These are off-duty police officers that are being paid $30 an hour by TransCanada Corporation quite simply to be their police – privately, corporately-owned police paid to prevent food re-supply and enforce trespassing laws on a piece of land that TransCanada itself is arguably trespassing upon. If legitimate crimes were being committed by the tree-sitters that concerned the general public that they claim to “serve,” you may reasonably expect that the local police force would feel compelled to self-direct their own initiative to address the situation. But because this is clearly not the case, you should feel free to draw what conclusions you will about the legitimacy of these so-called “crimes.”

These private police are carrying guns and they are arresting and assaulting my friends but they are not allowing the press to document their police state and are handcuffing them immediately if they enter the site. Because they are no longer on taxpayer payroll, the actions of these officers are not accountable to the people of Texas. These privately-owned police are following a fat paycheck and are acting accordingly.

As a telling example, when I was immediately handcuffed after descending from my tree last week, the arresting officer was unable to tell me what I was being arrested for because apparently he had “not been told yet.” Why then, you may ask, was I arrested by default? If an actual crime had been committed perhaps it would not be necessary to wait for an order to manufacture one.  I spent the next 20 minutes listening to armed, camo-clad officers attempting to contact TC higher-ups and ask for further orders. At first my handcuffs were removed and I was told by the county sheriff that I would be able to leave the site without arrest if I promised not to return, but this changed quickly after phone contact with TransCanada was made. They insisted that the police re-arrest and charge me for “criminal trespassing” and they obliged without hesitation.

After I criticized their cozy relationship with the Canadian corporation destroying their own community, they responded by saying that they could just as easily give me a felony “Possession of a Criminal Instrument” charge (for “possessing” a tree sit apparently) and that I should feel lucky and keep my mouth shut. The subjective and arbitrary application of the law that was tailored to fit the interests of this industry sickened me. The arresting officer then forced me to give my full name and address to him which was then written on a business card and handed to two men in TC helmets who had been collecting names and video and of us for the ongoing SLAPP lawsuit; my private information was collected on their behalf by armed officers so that this corporation could sue me for protecting land they wish to destroy.
Twenty four hours a day, there were 1-3 of these private police officers camped under each of the tree-sits, about a dozen more sporadically placed along the new easement, and an unknown (but likely quite large) number ordered to patrol the woods and easement entrances in regular intervals to prevent us from receiving more batteries or food from our friends on the ground. There were 4 large high-intensity stadium light rigs (the sort you might see surrounding a little league baseball field at night) placed beneath the trees and the noise from their gas generators was a constant, maddening reminder that we were being watched at all hours. During the day, two men who work for TransCanada would patrol the perimeter of the tree village with large, expensive-looking video cameras and attempt to record us during times we weren’t wearing bandanas in order to gather evidence for their suit against those of us committing “eco-terrorism.”

On my daily “terrorist” excursions to forage abandoned tree-sits for protein bars and cold cans of soup I would expect an audience of police and TC workers to gather below me and then incessantly videotape and criticize my poor traversing ability. This forced me to wear a bandana over most of my face and add poor visibility and insecurity to the ever-growing list of stressors associated with dangling from a ½” rope.  One particularly blatant disregard for our safety (among many) came in a similar fashion the night before I was arrested when my tree buddy was giddily traversing back to surprise me with the hot sauce she found earlier that day in another tree. While attempting to switch over her safety knots and pulley at a notoriously difficult traverse juncture, the officer beneath her felt compelled to turn his high-power flashlight to the strobe setting at shine it up in her eyes. After she repeatedly told him how dangerous he was making the situation and was only met with inhuman indifference, she yelled something beautifully piercing that I must repeat:

“Look at you. This is who you are.

You have sold out your community for $30 bucks an hour. That’s all it takes? That’s your price? Now look at you, you’re standing here and you’re being paid to endanger my life… Why are you even here? Who does this serve? Are you “protecting and serving” your community right now or are you just being an asshole?”

…to which he unapologetically replied: “I’m just an asshole.”

Immediately after I asked her if she had a camera on her person to record what he was doing, the officer killed his light and scurried back into the woods to return to his smartphone, cooler, and fireside lawn chair.

That night I lost a great deal of faith in our police system that is meant to “protect and serve” and I encourage you to also challenge this discourse when trying to understand and dismantle the power structures that not only create, but actively protect and preserve the misery associated with projects like this pipeline from folks who wish to stop it. If it was left up to the communities being exploited by the pipeline, not to the police who allegedly “serve” them, do you really think our friends would have gone to jail for trying to bring us food?

At the end of the day, the state repression we have seen in the last few months should not be viewed as a new, isolated anomaly of the Texas reactionary police force; these systems of power and oppression are widespread, diffuse, and have existed as long as industry has needed protecting from those of us who are sick of being exploited and poisoned by it. Let us not forget that the West Virginia State Police (that has treated Mountain Justice activists is strikingly similar ways) was only established in response to the 15,000 miners who militantly rose up against the murderous coal industry at the Battle of Blair Mountain. This heroic attempt to unionize the West Virginian coalfields and attain humane working conditions – now considered the largest class war in US history – was only crushed after the US army intervened under presidential order and over one million rounds were fired.

When power feels threatened by those it purportedly serves, its natural response is to re-assert its dominance through intimidation and then create seemingly-neutral institutions to codify and quietly maintain this authority. I hope it is clear that there is nothing neutral about an institution that has been carefully designed in response to effective struggle in order to subjectively and arbitrarily enforce laws that protect industry profits and criminalize our acts of self-defense. As Michel Foucault once elegantly put it:

“The real political task in a society such as ours is to criticize the workings of institutions which appear to be both neutral and independent; to criticize and attack them in such a manner that the political violence which has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight against them.”

While I am confident that our new friends in the trees are well aware of the situation they have put themselves into, I can’t in good conscious let their sacrifice be taken for granted by those who haven’t experienced state repression firsthand. In the coming weeks as we see our friends in the trees facing extreme thirst, starvation, isolation, and lawsuits at the hands of these police, it is my hope that we can indeed unmask the state’s monopoly on violence against us and begin to finally understand the scope of the power structures we are resisting so that we may move forward towards a livable world. And perhaps then may we learn what it means to fight for our lives.

TransCanada sure does say the darndest things. You just never know what lies they’ll utter next. Here’s today’s oddity from TransCanada’s spokesperson Jim Prescott, when he told the Houston Chronicle’s FuelFix blog:

TransCanada’s Prescott said the company has been open about its plans to move oil sands crude, along with U.S. oil produced from shale, but contended that opponents of Keystone XL have obscured the facts.

Oh, now they admit they’re pumping tar sands (aka “oil sands”) through the pipes. Well, we already knew that.

Too bad this entirely contradicts their previous lies to KTRE (ABC Channel 9) story, dated Aug. 29, in which David Dodson is quoted as saying the pipeline will not carry tar sands:

David Bodson, a spokesman for the TransCanada Gulf Coast Project, says the project is transporting crude oil from Texas and Oklahoma.

“We have permits, and we’re building the pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to Nederland, Texas,” said Bodson. Bodson says the company hopes to transport Canadian crude oil, as well, in the future. He says the project does not include tar sands, as the protesters claimed yesterday.

Gee, TransCanada we just don’t know what to believe. Especially when TransCanada’s spokesperson Shawn Howard told the New York Times:

“We have always been up front about the materials that are going into the pipeline.”

Again this is a bald face lie. Should TransCanada ever choose to produce a Material Data Safety Sheet accounting for the chemical contents of its pipeline in compliance with Texas statutory law on “common carrier” status for eminent domain powers, we’ll happily post it on our website for all to see.

In the end TransCanada is lying to someone: the media, landowners, the Texas Rail Road Commission…unfortunately when the toxic spills begin from their pipeline their lies will cost lives.

Below is a diary excerpt from Cat Ripley, who joined the tree blockade several days ago. Here is their story from the trees:

Sitting in a tree all day brings on tides of poignant thought; memory thickly-laden with emotion, siphoned from the weightiest of dream states and experiences.

After leaving Cascadia [Pacific Northwest], my original plan was to head far south, to the desert outside Taos, to seek solitude on the land of my kin, to hole up for a while. To paint, to write, to muse. I quickly solidified a once wavering notion – that to plan is a fools work, and we shouldn’t waste precious time with such things. The road will provide the way.

I followed friends I met in early September, and started making my way south, slowly. We slept on beaches, in groves of prickle bushes higher than our heads, in the bodies of redwood trees – so grand, we could fit three comfortably.

I found myself traveling alone, funneled without mercy back to San Francisco, the metropolis of my dreams, but still, ever-reeling back towards the woods where I truly belong. I participated in the 20th Anniversary of Critical Mass, hitching rides on cargo bikes, a pedicab (paid for by some kind “suits” in the plaza), but mostly running alongside the mass of peaceful protesters. That night, after joining up with a girl I met further north, we went down to the Mission to see a screening at the ATA (Artists’ Television Access, a collective space that has been around since 1984). There I caught my first view of Petropolis, a documentary about the Alberta Tar Sands, characteristically distinct by it’s simple audio and epic aerial shots. I was stunned, I was unmoved, I wanted to vomit and run and spin and shake all at the same time. I wept relentlessly.

It was then I decided I would do all that I could to stop this massacre. A few days later, I left for Texas.

Now here I am 80 feet off the ground. They’ve started bending the pipes to go around us. We haven’t formed an accurate count of how many days it’s taken/going to continue, but whatever the count it’s all thanks to the tree blockade and all of the humans who spent time building, supplying, and living up in these trees.

It’s been quiet today, which was much appreciated. Last night was so cold, I don’t think any of us left our sleeping bags before 10am. Finally we have ample unobstructed sunlight to warm our bones and charge our techs. This solar pad is mighty.

These passing hours have been rough. The weather has grown colder. I mostly sleep or read fiction, only leaving the warmth of my cocoon when I have been thoroughly convinced that the sun is high enough in the sky to warm my bones. Jerry and B are traversing on ropes back here [to my tree] from the timber scaffolding wall, bringing extra warmth for the night. Maybe we’ll play cards – anything to get us out of our own headspaces for a moment. We do what we can, these times are dark.

Fear aside, I still harbor much hope. So much.

All heart and tree bark,
Cat Ripley

There is only one tree blockader who has been in the trees from day one of the tree blockade. Our friend, who goes by Chickadee, is a joyous and unbreakable spirit that we dearly miss here on the ground. Watch this touching video of them speaking truth to power from the trees. With love, honesty, humanity, and humor they give us all the enduring hope to continue our struggle to stop the toxic tar sands once and for all.

In their own words:

“I’m here to make my Sunday school teachers proud…loving my neighbor as myself. If TransCanada was your neighbor would you want them to do this to your land?…Take your land when you don’t want them to take it, cut down all the trees, and [build] a pipeline. Is that the kind of neighbor you want?! Because thats not the kind of neighbor I want.”

“It’s okay to be scared. I’m scared everyday out here….but courage isn’t about being not afraid its about how you respond to your fear. There’s only one thing deeper than my fear and thats my love, my love of life. The world I want to create doesn’t involved giant corporations bullying people….Im here for the dignity of all humanity, a livable planet, and a thriving just, sustainable world.”

“Love is an active thing. Love is about taking actions to protect and defend people that you love. Working for their health and safety and the future for the little ones. That’s why I’m out here.”

Chickadee, we love and miss you and can’t begin to thank you for your endless bravery and powerful love in the face of greedy corporate devastation.

Landowners and blockaders held a community town hall panel. Local residents were given the opportunity to ask blockaders questions and hear directly from impacted landowners about the Keystone XL and the blockade.

Here’s a comment from locals in the crowd:

“The only local jobs TransCanada has created here is paying off our local police.”

While our friends remain in the blockade, others are organizing across the region. If you can’t climb up a tree, there are still many ways to help on the ground.

It will take a massive grassroots effort to defeat the Keystone XL and you can be a part of it. This includes things like community outreach, cooking, scheduling, writing, media, phonecalls, art and much more.

Sign up and let us know how you would like to help.

By Candice Bernd, Re-printed with permission from Truth-Out.org

TransCanada supervisors huddle with local off-duty police officers and the private security they hired during a blockade action on Monday, October 15, when more than 50 activists stormed the pipeline easement in an attempt to re-supply blockaders occupying a tree village in Winnsboro, Texas to halt construction on the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Tar Sands Blockade activists maintain their vigil in the trees despite the best efforts of hired security and legal wrangling to dislodge them.

The Midwestern leg of TransCanada’s pipeline is up and running after a five-day shut-down to repair areas where required integrity tests identified possible safety issues, according to the federal agency that oversees the existing 2,100-mile link.

Meanwhile, in East Texas, a contingent of Tar Sands Blockaders maintains their vigil – now in its fifth week – to stop construction on the Gulf Coast extension of the controversial project.

The nonviolent blockaders have been met with pain compliance tactics, felony charges, a SLAPP suit which uses the language of “eco-terrorism” and what amounts to a police state surrounding their tree village in Winnsboro, Texas.

TransCanada, the multinational corporation behind the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline, has hired local off-duty police as well as a private security to maintain their own occupation of the pipeline’s easement in Winnsboro, Texas, where blockaders have been set up in a tree village since September.

Blockaders have been trying to negotiate for weeks with the on-site private security firm to arrange for food and water to be brought to activists occupying the trees.

But security hired by Michels Corporation, the company TransCanada contracted to construct the southern leg of the pipeline, refused to allow it. On Monday, October 15, blockaders stormed the easement in an attempt to resupply their friends in the trees.

Activists affiliated with the Tar Sands Blockade say they have seen it all the past few weeks. Two blockaders who locked themselves to construction equipment in East Texas – Shannon Bebe and Benjamin Franklin – were subjected to pepper spray, arm-twisting, chokeholds and multiple uses of Tasers to get them to unlock themselves. Franklin, Bebe and others are now facing felony charges under the Texas criminal instruments law, the same law was used against Occupy activists in Austin last December after police infiltrators gave protesters locking devices that they used to block an entrance to the port of Houston.

According to the law, a “‘criminal instrument’ means anything – the possession, manufacture or sale of which is not otherwise an offense – that is specially designed, made or adapted for use in the commission of an offense.”

TransCanada also slammed the blockaders with a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) last week, naming 19 individual defendants, three organizations and another six unidentified tree-sitters. The broad civil action seeks an injunction, declaratory relief and damages.

The suit also alleges the blockaders have engaged in acts of “eco-terrorism.” According to the suit:

Under the auspices of nonviolent direct action, the Defendants, all of whom are members of, affiliated with, or acting under the banner of the Tar Sands Blockade group, have engaged in acts of eco-terrorism through their coordinated, orchestrated and ongoing unlawful conduct and have trespassed on Keystone’s property, have interfered with construction of Keystone’s pipeline and/or threatened additional interference with construction of Keystone’s pipeline in an attempt to deny Keystone use of Keystone’s valid right of way.

According to the suit, TransCanada hired Greenwood Advisors to collect intelligence on Tar Sands Blockade. Eric Flatten, a staff consultant to Greenwood, works as an agent for TransCanada in its interactions with law enforcement agencies, according to the suit. Flatten provides many details of the Blockade’s Livingston lockdown action in the suit.

However, Pipeline opponents’ concerns transcend private property rights. The carbon loads that contribute to climate change over time are a key issue for the blockaders.

Read the rest of this entry »

In celebration of the one-month milestone of our sustained tree blockade two more people joined the blockade! In defiance of TransCanada’s police repression these two brave blockaders managed to sneak past the security perimeter, floodlights, and 24/7 surveillance to join our friends in the trees. There are now a total of four tree blockaders defending the blockade despite TransCanada’s recent moves to attempt to build the toxic pipeline around the blockade.

Cat Ripley, 20, is no stranger to TransCanada’s toxic pipelines. She helped stop the proposed Palomar Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline last year. The pipeline was a joint venture between TransCanada and Portland based energy company Northwest Natural. It would have bisected organic farmland south of Portland before clear-cutting through the pristine Mt. Hood National Forrest. Because of Cat’s work organizing with the watchdog group called Bark, she helped stop this toxic project in its tracks on March 23, 2011 when the companies withdrew their permit application.

“I’ve stopped pipelines before. I came out here two weeks ago to help stop TransCanada’s latest toxic pipeline,“ said Cat. “Being here in Texas has been a beautiful, nurturing experience. I look forward to going up into the trees in solidarity with everyone in the blockade.”

Joining Cat and the two others in trees is Jerry O’Brien, 23, who hails from Milwaukee. “I can’t stand by and watch something as disastrous as this pipeline be built without stepping in to do something about it. We know we can’t count on politicians to do it for us,” said Jerry. “The only thing we can do is have faith in is our power when we get together to use direct action to stop that which threatens our communities.”

Below is an email we got from Cat to let us know they safely made it into the trees.

****

3:47 am

At first there was one [TransCanada's police officer/security guard]. He sat on a fallen log and stared up at us, just a silhouette in the darkness. More came within a minute of our victory cigarette, about seven. They ran around a pulled on the cables, shaking the platform. Eventually, one – a younger bloke, very collegiate – called up:

“If I ask you one question, will you answer it?” 

I reply, “Well, that is a question. As for the next one, maybe.”

He asks again, “So what’s the point you know, if it’s already gone around you?”

“Solidarity!” I say. 

He wishes us safety and joins back up with the others. I imagine they’ll sit round smoking cigarettes for a while.  Jerry is on the top bunk tonight. As for me, I’m due for some rest. Climbing up a tree larger in circumference than my own wingspan is hella draining.

With love from the trees, 

Cat Ripley