Photo by Antrim Caskey
BECKLEY, W.Va. — Anti-mountaintop removal protesters showed up to court ready to put on a show this morning. Many of the protesters and their supporters were sporting red bandanas as they prepared to argue against a long-term court order against their peaceful civil disobedience campaign.
But Raleigh Circuit Judge Robert Burnside shut down many of the legal arguments the protesters hoped to make, and made it clear he doesn’t want his courtroom to be used to debate the pros and cons of mountaintop removal coal mining.
“The question of whether mountaintop removal should continue is not for the judicial branch to decide and is not before this court,” Burnside said.
Protesters had hoped to talk about mountaintop removal and argue, among other things, that the damage being done to the environment was so great that it justified their trespassing on Massey property to call attention the the issue.
“You can’t just look on while some horrible crime occurs,” said Roger Forman, one of the protesters’ lawyers. “What they are intending to do here to the environment is a criminal act.”
But Burnside ruled that, as a matter of law, that defense isn’t allowed in West Virginia courts.
[Oddly, though, Burnside also expressed his views that "Mountaintop removal mining, as controversial as it is ... is a legal activity"Â and that regulations governing the coal industry "are most restrictive].
Monday’ s hearing was called for Burnside to consider whether to extend two temporary restraining orders (issued in late February and early March). Massey lawyers want the court orders to block any further protests that involved trespassing and interfering with mining operations.
I had to skip out before today’s hearing ended to take care of some other business in Charleston, and I understand the hearing was scheduled to continue tomorrow. I’ll have more on the matter in tomorrow’s Gazette.
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I am sure glad I have not been in front of this judge with a speeding ticket. My old excuse of not being aware of how fast I was traveling won’t stand up. Good for Judge Burnside not being fooled by this attemped smoke screne of “enviromental damage justified trespassing”. They were caught breaking the law, there are even pictures. The full extent of the law should be leveled against these people. They have shown that they have a disregard for the law and should be punished.
As far as having a “disregard for the law,” let me remind you that slavery was once a legal activity. It was also legal to exclude women and people of color from the voting process. Any legal system is fragile and flawed, at best. The founding fathers of this country were very well aware of this. Civil rights and the right for ALL to vote were won because the PEOPLE stood up and defied unjust laws. Even if MTR is legal, it is NOT right. The long term implications of this type of mining are far more critical than the flawed laws that continue to protect this practice. When slavery was challenged, the the big money people threatened that this country would collapse if slavery were abolished. Guess what? Slavery was abolished and this country continued to thrive. You can argue “economic benefits” until you’re blue in the face, but it won’t change the facts. US Census statistics show WV as running neck and neck to be the poorest state in the US, and the counties which produce the most coal are the poorest in WV. EDITED TO REMOVE NAME-CALLING. Now we as West Virginians are held in thrall by the same ridiculous arguments. Wake up WV! Coal is slavery and a short term fist full of dollars for a select few, while leaving the future of WV and the planet on a high speed chase down a dead end street.
Coal is slavery? Paul, if you think West Virginia is one of the poorest states now, wait until thousands of MTR and “supporting jobs” are gone. Then there will not need to be a Census to determine that WV is the poorest state in the country, it will be obvious in the streets and towns of WV for everyone to see.
Actually, Jon, MTR proponents have , at least in one instance, advocated an intentional depopulation of the coalfields. Turns out that mountains are not the only obstacle to highly mechanized & destructive coal extraction. There are all those EDITED FOR LANGUAGE people in the way, as well.
“Scott 14″ said: “They were caught breaking the law, there are even pictures. The full extent of the law should be leveled against these people. They have shown that they have a disregard for the law and should be punished.”
So Scott, where is your outrage at the thousands upon thousands of pollution and safety violations perpetrated by Massey that just get a slap on the hand and wink. Where was your outrage when Massey, after years of flagrant disregard for the law and non-enforcement by the DEP, had to have the federal government step in because the unpaid fines had amassed into the billions of dollars (and then being let off the hook by only having to pay a penny for each dollar of fines).
You see, people are actually getting sick or dying when Massey breaks the law. And now there arrogance has gone so far that they are blasting right next to billions of gallons of toxic slurry.
How many people have cancer or no longer have drinkable water or have had their homes destroyed in flooding because of what these protesters are doing? How many lives are these protesters endangering, besides there own? How many lives is Massey endangering by their illegal activity? One should be prosecuted to “full extent of the law”, while the other should be ignored?
Jon said, “wait until thousands of MTR and “supporting jobs†are gone. Then there will not need to be a Census to determine that WV is the poorest state in the country, it will be obvious in the streets and towns of WV for everyone to see.” The belief in this type of propaganda is the reason WV, and indeed, the nation are slaves to coal. People in WV have been told for decades they would be nothing without coal. The truth is, there are plenty of opportunities for growth and economic development without coal. There are many states without coal and they seem to do very well. It’s not the lack of coal jobs that will destroy us. It IS the lack of vision and the desire to seek a cleaner future. We can be proud of our heritage without being a slave to it. We can honor the great workers of our state not by continuing in a manner that is quickly destroying us, but rather by looking to the future. If WV was able to lead with coal and lead with the formation of labor unions, scientists, artists and statesmen, WV can lead the way to a cleaner future and one that honors the planet that sustains us as well as the people who live here. It’s time to have a brighter today and tomorrow, unobscured by the haze of coal-fired power plants and nature denuded.
Paul, All –
I’m going to jump in here before this turns into a flame war.
Let’s just stop the hyperbole and comparisons of coal mining to slavery. It’s not going to lead to much of a reasonable conversation of the issues at hand.
If you disagree with the protesters, fine. Say so and simply explain why without calling them names. If you support the protesters, say so without calling the other side names and resorting to comparisons that just make the other side mad.
Ken.
These aren’t peaceful protests with folks holding hands and singing in the streets of D.C. These are people trespassing on to someone else’s property in an attempt to disrupt business at an ultimate cost of safety to everyone. Please prosecute to the fullest extent of the law!
It seems like people really are turning to environmentalism as a religion (instead of a science). These folks don’t really read scientific journals or perform research of any kind, they primarily just read material (mostly blogs) that they agree with and get very upset…so upset they are willing to risk their life and the lives of hard working people to stop it. Has anyone on this board ever tried to argue with someone about their religion? It just isn’t worth it. Live and let live.
Comparing slavery to MTR? You must not have ancestors whom were slaves. This is an insult beyond explaining.
As for getting WV out of the poor house, how about some infra-structure? Nice roads and level land for development like other states have that are ahead of us? The only way to build nice and safe roads in WV is by leveling land and creating valley fills. Will these people be protesting our Coalfiels Expressway and King Coal Highway? If so, they are arguing against our improvement and simply want WV to be gated off as a nature preserve.
It seems to me that the protesters have the right to make their protests, even to the point of breaking the law. However, they need to reevaluate their subsequent actions in light of Thoreau’s essay ‘Civil Disobedience’.
It was in that essay that Thoreau describes his own protest of the taxes imposed to pay for the war of 1812. He went to jail.
Protest all you want. Get the press involved. But, if you cross the line to breaking the law, take your lumps and quit fighting your arrest.
Save your legal dollars for hauling Massey into court for pollution issues instead of fighting your convictions. In fact, have the press present while you plead guilty to the charges.
Be like Mandela and become martyrs for the cause. Martyrdom goes a long way in public relations and press releases.
Readers,
OK, folks — I am not going to spend a couple of days moderating a back-and-forth on this comparison of coal to slavery. Paul got his say, and a couple of folks have responded.
So that is it — no more comments on this post.
Ken.