Vernal, UT – Jan 8, 2015 After nearly 6 months of difficult negotiations between defense attorneys for 25 tar sands protesters and the Uintah County prosecutor’s office, Judge Edwin Peterson handed down sentences to the 25 land defenders Thursday morning at 9 am.
There were about a dozen supporters in the courtroom during the proceedings, and supporters wore orange ribbons to show their support and solidarity.
[Background: Twenty-one protesters were arrested as a result of a July 21 civil disobedience action and subsequent confrontation involving 80 anti-tar sands activists at the US Oil Sands site near PR Springs, Utah. Five were arrested on September 23rd after interrupting operation of heavy equipment in a clear-cut area that will be used to store future strip mining tailings.]
No jail time was handed out to anyone. Sentences ranged from 1 year probation and 40 hours community service for 10 individuals who had been charged with criminal trespass, to 18 months probation and120 hours of community service for seven who had been charged with felony rioting. Two of those seven were also ordered to stay 300 feet from the US Oil Sands tar sands site. Others who were charged with interfering with an arresting officer and criminal trespass received were given sentences in between the two extremes. Nine of the land defenders are associated with the activist groups UtahTarSandsResistance (UTSR) and Peaceful Uprising. Many of the other 16 are out-of-state environment activists that came to PR Springs for the Action Camp that preceded the civil disobedience action.
The judge’s sentences were based on plea diversion agreements that had been negotiated by the defense attorneys. being held in abeyance/diversion; that is, set aside for a period of time such that if during the abeyance/diversion (probation) period protesters violate any law (with minor exceptions), the prosecutor retains the ability to resurrect the initial charges.
It had been expected that a UTSR defendant would be able to make a presentation to the court to explain the reason for the civil disobedience action, and the prosecutor had indicated that this would probably be allowed by the judge. However, Judge Peterson would not allow any statement to be made in the courtroom. After court was dismissed, UTSR held a quick press conference and gave statements outside the court to the Vernal Express reporter and to KSL Channel 5 and KSTU Channel 13 news.
Melanie Martin: “The government need to penalize the corporate criminals who are destroying the air and the water and the land, not the people working to protect them.”
Raphael Cordray: “We know that people around the world are realizing that the government and the laws and legislation is not going to protect us, and that the laws of nature are unforgiving. And that humanity is at stake.”
At a press conference in Salt lake City that afternoon to Environews.tv, UTSR’s Jesse Fruhwirth stated that “They (the charges) were heavy-handed and a bit ridiculous. I suppose that was an effort to scare and repress any sort of further activity or tone down the aggressiveness of any future resistance. The reality is however that this has backfire, the felony accusations gathered a lot of attention and support, and made people begin to realize just how grave and serious this battle is.”
Responding to the question of whether the results of the court proceeding is going to slow UTSR down, Jesse responded “No, in fact it’s really emboldened us. The upside of facing a challenge like this is you see people who come and vocally and explicitly tell you how much they support you and how much they want to join and contribute and do what they can. So when it’s highlighted how some individuals have really put their bodies on the line and then their freedom on the line, it has a tendency to inspire other people to be maybe willing to take the same risks for justice and the future of the planet.”
“We think it’s morally imperative on all people who have power and privilege to resist and to join up in whatever ways are most appropriate in their communities, to fight for a revolution against the social order and fight for a world that emphasizes and prioritizes human need over corporate profit.”
We at UtahTarSandsResistance will continue our vigil at PR Springs this coming spring. We will continue our work to oppose and stop the US Oil Sands strip mine operation, to grow the movement, and to keep educating the public of the danger of this mine to the ecosystem of the Tavaputs plateau and its population of deer, elk, bear and cougar. We have observed wildlife at the 9-acre US Oil Sands test pit site on numerous occasions drinking from pools of rainwater and snowmelt that collects in the pit, water that is now exposed to toxic heavy metals that have been disturbed by the pit excavation, such as mercury, manganese, chromium, arsenic, vanadium and possibly lead. Even cattle owned by local ranchers drink from these pools. We are horrified to think that hunters who harvest these game animals, and ranchers, are potentially feeding tainted meat to their children.
The stakes are high: If this strip mine operation gets expanded to the full 32,000 acres of the US Oil Sands lease, it will certainly serve to attract scores of other extraction industry risk-takers. That lease area is almost half the size of nearby Arches national Park. It’s time for concerned people to ask themselves, how would a hundred or so strip mines the size of Arches National Park make the landscape of the Tavaputs plateau area look? Please join us in opposition.