US Dept. of Homeland Security listed 'climate activist' group as ‘extremists’. UK's 'The Guardian' BAAAAAAWs

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

UK's The Guardian has a climate panic virtue signaling conniption, protesting that environmentalist extremists who break laws and shut down oil pipeline infrastructure are actually treated as criminals by the US federal government.  And then try to justify the criminal actions of shutting down critical oil pipeline infrastructure.  Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

 

The US Department of Homeland Security is nipping in the bud the environmental extremist deliberate legal strategy of trying to shut down the US oil industry by shutting down international oil pipelines.  The "Valve Turners" tested their "climate activist" legal strategy and lost.

 

Revealed: US listed climate activist group as ‘extremists’ alongside mass killers

A group of US environmental activists engaged in non-violent civil disobedience targeting the oil industry have been listed in internal Department of Homeland Security documents as “extremists” and some of its members listed alongside white nationalists and mass killers, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.

The group have been dubbed the Valve Turners, after closing the valves on pipelines in four states carrying crude oil from Canada’s tar sands on 11 October, 2016, which accounted for about 15% of US daily consumption. It was described as the largest coordinated action of its kind and for a few hours the oil stopped flowing.

The five climate activists, members of Climate Direct Action, cut their way through fencing and turned the valves. The activists notified the energy companies whose pipelines were being disrupted and posted videos of their protest online and waited patiently to be arrested.

They’ve since been dubbed the “Valve Turners,” profiled in the New York Times magazine, and featured in a recent documentary titled The Reluctant Radical. Their trials have also tested the willingness of courts to allow climate activists to make use of the necessity defense – the idea that a criminal action is justified if it helps to prevent greater future harm–as part of a legal strategy.

But the group’s actions attracted the attention of the DHS.

In a recent intelligence bulletin evaluating domestic terrorism threats between 2018 and 2020, the department included the Valve Turners and described the group as “suspected environmental rights extremists”.

The document also listed two of the group’s members alongside violent white supremacists and other extremists who have engaged in mass killings, including the man behind the racist 2015 slaying of 9 black church-goers in Charleston, South Carolina.

The document obtained by the non-profit Property of the People through a Foia request defines domestic terrorism as “any act of violence that is dangerous to human life or potentially destructive of critical infrastructure or key resources” and that is intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or government body. The assessment is directed at departmental leadership and is based on a review of roughly 80 violent incidents between 2014 and 2017, according to the document.

The document points to an uptick in “sabotage attacks” conducted by anarchist extremists, environmental rights and animal rights extremists against the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016 at the height of the pipeline protest. Nearly 800 activists have been tried on a variety of North Dakota state charges, in relation to the pipeline protests, according to Water Protector Legal Collective, a legal support organization.  ...

 

...  Jessup, a 34-year-old who had served as a driver and videographer live streaming the action in North Dakota. Michael Foster, a former family therapist who lives in Seattle, turned the valve.

Foster said even though the action involved a high level of legal risk, it was a small price to pay in light of the cascading impacts of climate change.

“The only way to force society to change fast enough is to refuse to participate and fill the jails,” Foster said.

Both he and Jessup were convicted on felony conspiracy charges and Foster spent six months in jail. During closing arguments the prosecutor compared Foster to the Unabomber and the 9/11 hijackers. He’s now on probation and barred from engaging in direct action protest for another two years.

In the more than three years since the action , several states have passed legislation making it a crime to trespass on property containing critical infrastructure.The Trump administration has advocated for stiffer penalties against activists who engage in non-violent direct action targeting fossil fuel infrastructure.  ...

 

[Daniel Ryslink + 19]

No surprise here, since Americans elected a barely sane, not very intelligent person to lead and represent them. I have read that just after starting his Term, Trump wanted all the names of scientists from NASA participating in climate change research. It's one of the reasons why while it's understandable that someone wants to support Donald Trump, it's very difficult to vote for him and still stay a decent, respectable human being.  

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

“It's one of the reasons why while it's understandable that someone wants to support Donald Trump, it's very difficult to vote for him and still stay a decent, respectable humanbeing.”

Actually it is not difficult at all! I did it once, things turned out great...plan to do it again soon!

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

3 hours ago, Daniel Ryslink said:

No surprise here, since Americans elected a barely sane, not very intelligent person to lead and represent them. I have read that just after starting his Term, Trump wanted all the names of scientists from NASA participating in climate change research. It's one of the reasons why while it's understandable that someone wants to support Donald Trump, it's very difficult to vote for him and still stay a decent, respectable human being.  

Pappilon is this your new account?