August 31, 2021 • 39 mins
Garrison travels to Northern Minnesota to attend an Earth Firsth! gathering in the woods to learn about the history of green resistance. While there they end up tagging along with a support caravan to a nearby StopLine3 camp under attack from the cops.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
As the record high heat wave of one hundred and
seventeen degrees hit my hometown of Portland, Oregon, in late
June one, I was facing down baton wielding county sheriffs
in the forests of Minnesota. Originally I was going out
of town to attend the twenty twenty one Earth First
Summer Gathering. I learned about it from some online friends,
(00:27):
and since I was already deep into research for this
very podcast, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity
to learn from people who have been fighting against climate
change longer than I have been alive. I arrived in
Minneapolis in the early morning of June and then up
put someone to make the four hour drive north into
the lake dense forests of Minnesota. By the time we
(00:48):
arrived at the earth First camp, who was already dark
in the mosquito filled woods and it started to rain.
I could of myself indeed bug spray and scrambled to
set up my tent and rain flow. I It was
a long day. My exhaustion coupled with the rain, maybe
not bother to inflate my sleeping pad, a decision I
would soon regret. Come morning, I woke up with a moist,
(01:11):
sore back into the sound of a loud ringing bell
and someone yelling breakfast for me. That meant it was
time for morning coffee. I suppose before I get any further,
it would be useful to explain what exactly Earth First
(01:32):
is for those who are unfamiliar. Earth First is an
environmental movement focused on the protection and defense of nature,
the wilderness, and wildlife. It was sounded in nineteen eighty
as an alternative to other mainstream environmental organizations that were
seen as too moderate and willing to sacrifice demands and
goals to make deals with lawmakers and corporations. Earth First
(01:53):
invented the slogan no compromise and defensive Mother Earth to
demonstrate their commitment to their more radical ideals. Some of
its earliest inspirations were non anthropocentric philosophies such as biocentrism
and eventually deep ecology. Earth First was also in part
inspired by Edward Abbey's nineteen seventy five book The Monkey
Wrench Gang, which follows a small gaggle of radical environmentalists
(02:16):
as they travel around the Western United States doing various
tax as, sabotage, attacking the machinery, and infrastructure that are
harming the planet. The novel became so ubiquitous that the
word monkey wrenching became a synonym for eco sabotage. A
few things set earth First apart from other more mainstream
environmental groups. Its non formal, largely non hierarchical organization structure
(02:38):
resulted in a loose network of local autonomous groups as
opposed to a national membership based organization. Its tactics were
more focused on civil disobedience and direct action rather than
lobbying and political deal making. Direct Action such as body blockades,
tree sits, and tree spiking i e. Putting metal rods
or nails and trees to prevent them from being cut,
(03:00):
gave earth First national media coverage, which in turn got
more people involved with actions. Earth First also launched a
magazine journal, which served as a public face and gave
earth firsters info and tips on direct action and different
writings on biocentrism. Around the early nineteen nineties, the organization
faced some growing pains. Debate between more performative protests and
(03:23):
get the goods style direct action is common in activist spaces,
and earth First was no different. After a nine Earth
First summer gathering, in the UK, some activists, frustrated by
the increasingly mainstream and more hierarchical version of the Earth
First organization with an emphasis on civil disobedience over sabotaged,
formed a spinoff group called the Earth Liberation Front or
(03:46):
the e LF. Earth First continue operating the journal and
doing tree sets, blockades, civil disobedience, and occupation style protests.
While the ELF took credit for tree spiking, fire bombings,
and more fiery and instructive direct actions. Inevitably, business leaders, politicians,
law enforcement authorities, and many others would rise up to
(04:07):
attack these activists. The FBI labeled them the number one
domestic terrorism threat in two thousand one and began work
to suppress the entire green movement. This culminated in the
Green Scare of the two thousands, a federal crackdown and
mass surveillance project against environmental activism that was also in
part fueled by the heightened anti terror fervor post and
(04:28):
eleven and the terrorism enhancements in the Patriot Act. FBI
investigations and subsequent grand juries broke many of the actives
communities active at the time and scared more into hiding.
Many are still imprisoned today, quoting Braun Taylor, a professor
of environmentalism at the University of California, quote often complimented
(04:49):
by lawsuits, The radical environmental movement had no small number
of victories in the nineties, although the victories were often small. Nevertheless,
the perception of the movement's activists were that they were
losing overall and badly, and moreover, that the government was
not only corrupt and the cahoots with the industry, but
increasingly repressive. Such perceptions reinforced an increasingly common view in
(05:10):
the movement that the time had come to a shoe
above ground tactics and create an underground resistance movement. By
the mid ninety nineties, there was a proliferation of such tactics.
Between then and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center two thousand and one, at least twenty activists deployed
arson as a tactic torturing gas guzzling sports utility vehicles,
a ski lodge being built in the habitat of a
(05:31):
threatened species of Canadian links in Colorado, a forced service
office in Oregon, and trophy homes being built in ecologically
sensitive areas, to name but a few of these incendiary incidents.
Welly sorts of tactics have drawn the bulk of the
media's attention to these movements. Significant environmental victories have been
won or contributed to by radical environmentalists. In January one,
(05:53):
for example, the United States Forced Service under President Bill
Clinton issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protects over
fifty eight million acres of federal forest lands. Although it
took more than a decade of legal battles for imponents
of this rule to exhaust their legal challenges to it,
it eventually became law of the land. It is inconceivable
that the government would have issued this important rule in
(06:13):
the absence of a decade of strong and disruptive resistance
to the Force Services Timber program bi radical environmentalists. Although
the rule did not provide everything the radical environmental activists sought,
it was a significant advance from biodiversity conservation in North America.
(06:40):
Every day at the Earth First Camp followed a rough
pattern wake up and breakfast call around seven, then a
morning circle where folks lay out the plan for the
day and make announcements. After that, the late morning to
early afternoon is split up into three time blocks for
various workshops at different sections of the camp, with lunch
somewhere in between time slots. Once workshops are done, it's
(07:00):
dinner time by the lake, and then usually some sort
of evening activity. The workshops covered a broad range of topics,
from how to climb a tree to how to do
comfort resolution. Many were pre planned, but if you had
a skill you wanted to share, time was set aside
to do an impromptu workshop. The main workshops were on
Indigenous solidarity and land Back, the History of Earth First, Slash,
(07:21):
the Radical Green Movement, and an Overview slash discussion on
direct action. Direct action is about literally taking direct action
in hopes of achieving a tangible goal. It's not simply
a protest march. Direct action means actually getting something done.
People who call themselves Earth First are usually known for
doing direct actions that temporarily inconvenience those who wish to
(07:43):
harm the planet, while also trying to gain positive media
attention or optics to grow massive support of the overall
green movement. Examples of these actions include tree sits and lockdowns,
more permanent and destructive tactics, and direct actions like burning
down an ecologically distry active ski resort construction site or
torching high carbon emitting luxury SUVs were more associated with
(08:06):
the ELF or the Earth Liberation Front. The Direct Action
workshop went over many examples of direct actions from years
passed and around the globe. People discussed what goals the
actions may have had, if the actions achieved that goal,
the different risks of participating in the action, and what
the public perception might have been, all of which are
important things to consider when planning an action. Also discussed
(08:29):
was slight deception as a useful tool for planning the
risk and optics of an action. A past protest was
shown as an example. At that protest, Indigenous folks were
attached to fake chains so it looks like they were
locked onto equipment while standing in front of a large
message banner for media attention and pictures. Meanwhile, white protesters
behind them were locked down to actual equipment, thus putting
(08:51):
the indigenous activists at the center of media coverage while
having white folks bear the brunt of the burden of
state repression. A green activism classic are body blockades. Generally
there are two types, hard and soft. Soft blockades are
just bodies linked together. Hard blockades use lock boxes, typically
made out of metal or plastic tubes that people attach
(09:12):
their limbs to on the inside, that are then attached
around equipment machinery, train tracks, or gates. Other hard blockades
can use technology like bipods or tripods to suspend people
up in the air to physically block off a space.
Innovation and experimentation are key to the success of these devices.
The state already knows of and how to quickly counter
(09:33):
most popular lock box designs, though rule policing areas may
be less trained on how to counter these more militant tactics.
Having a publicly announced protest march serve as a sort
of distraction action as other folks can do shenanigans and
monkey wrenching behind the scenes at other spots was mentioned
as a useful idea, but one that's rarely utilized. There
were also discussions of other activism and direct action related concepts,
(09:57):
such as affinity groups and security culture. An affinity group
is essentially your specific small crew of people that you
are with at an action. You all watch out for
each other and usually have linked goals. Security culture is
a broader concept that we don't have tons of time
to get into today, but one aspect of it is
is that there's information that you, your friends, and especially
(10:18):
strangers don't need to share or sometimes even know about
at all. A good security culture habit to get into
is thinking about if sharing details or even letting it
be known that you have knowledge of certain things could
put people at risk before you say anything at all
to anyone. This includes bragging about things, especially direct actions
(10:39):
that you may or may not have participated in in
the past, even if you're telling a quote unquote trusted
group of friends or on your quote anonymous Twitter account.
Another big discussion point was risk assessment, knowing what risks
you can and can't take for whatever reasons, both at
actions and during the planning process, and then trying to
(10:59):
plant accordingly to set yourself up for the best possible outcome. This,
by no means always works out, but it's still a
good thing to practice and something that may save your skin.
One method of trying to suss out rough risk levels
is the stoplight system, which divides actions into green, yellow,
and red. These are areas of the physical protest space
(11:20):
and or specific rules linked to different levels of risk.
Green means that you plan on getting out of the
protests without getting arrested. This includes stuff like protest theater,
holding signs and banners, doing legal support work, doing protest
extraction i e. Going around in a car, picking up
folks as they're trying to leave an escalating situation, or
(11:41):
even just standing in a large group to help anonymize
other folks in the crowd, doing more mischievous actions. Yellow
means that you'd rather get out of the protests without
getting arrested, but you may be in scenarios where that's
slightly more likely to happen. This includes being a part
of the shield slash umbrella walls, attempting d arrests, perhaps
throwing a water bottle at an armed man with a badge.
(12:02):
Being able to move quickly is a really useful skill
for folks that take up yellow rolls. Red means that
you plan on being arrested, whether it be for tree
sitting or locking down to the gate of ice facility
to temporarily prevent the transportation of immigrants, among other possibilities.
Also included in this category are people who get arrested
for optics purposes, although getting arrested solely in hopes of
(12:24):
getting good media coverage is a point of contention in
certain activists circles. The stop flight method is by no
means perfect or applicable in every scenario, but I included
it here as an example of one way to do
very basic risk assessment related to organizing practicing split second
in group decision making was also discussed as a really
good habit to get into. Things like a D and
(12:46):
D and role playing games are great ways to do this.
As an RPG party is very much like an affinity group,
and in the end, it's important to remember actions have
the potential to be empowering and achieve measurable change. Sometimes
you can do both, sometimes just one, and sometimes neither.
(13:15):
At the end of Earth First Gathering is there's usually
some sort of project or direct action. As we were
in northern Minnesota, it was a decent assumption that this
one would be related to the Line three pipeline currently
being constructed across the Minnesota wilderness, including underneath lakes, wet
lands growing sacred wild rice, and the Mississippi River headwaters.
People from the nearby stop Line three protest camp named
(13:38):
the may Wog came over to the Earth First Gathering
a few times, either to hang out or attend workshops.
A panel of Indigenous folks from the GNU Collective and
Indigenous Women and Two Spirit led Frontline Resistance group drove
from the Stop Plane three camp and gave a wonderful
panel on land back and how to show Indigenous solidarity. Monday, June,
(13:59):
Day three of the week long gathering, started out like
any other day thus far. The early morning wake up
bell that my Pacific time zone brain was slowly adjusting
to coffee and breakfast, and then morning circle. Today I
planned on strapping on a harness and doing some tree
climbing at the training setup they had in camp. But
during morning circle we had a surprise announcement at the
(14:21):
Stop Plane three camp near Park Rapids, Minnesota, situated on
a piece of private property owned by the activists. Mind you,
the Hubbard County Sheriff's had shown up at six am
with a piece of paper that said they would be
blocking off access to the driveway leading to the private property,
letting us suspicious, obscure and never before enforced land use ordinance,
(14:42):
saying that the property owners didn't have an official easeman
to use the driveway. Part of the paper read quote
the trail will be barricaded beginning on June at ten am.
Beveagles not be allowed to enter for any reason after
this time. Beagles driving on this Hubbard County owned trail
or in violation of the Hubbard County land Use Ordinance
(15:02):
and enforcement action will be taken by the Hubbard County
Sheriff's Office unquote. This also meant that vehicles were not
allowed to leave, effectively trapping people inside with limited cell
service and supplies. Water has to be hauled in from
a nearby town into the Nomawag camp and the camp
property has no utility hookups and it's only accessible via
(15:24):
this driveway that runs through one fifty foot strip of
public land owned by Hubbard County. The land use ordinance
has only been around since two thous and seven, and
the driveway in question has been around for at least
over four decades, according to land records and aerial photographs.
Plus basic property law, use dictates that you can't landlock someone,
(15:45):
and usually for property to even be sold, it needs
to have access to a public road. The previous owner
of the property actually did get a non exclusive eastment
prior to selling and has given the new owner's permission
to use their easement as it only expires in the
vent of non use. To make things even more legally complicated,
Hubbard Counties blockade of the driveway may actually be in
(16:07):
violation of treaty law. Quoting an article by Karen Savage,
an investigative journalist who reports on climate change related litigation
and environmental justice. Quote Frank B. Bu, executive director of
the eighteen fifty five Treaty Authority, which represents approximately twenty
five thousand Chippewa tribal members who are currently beneficiaries of
the eighteen fifty five Chippewa Treaty with the United States,
(16:29):
says the matter was settled more than a century ago.
The eighteen fifty five treaty grants the Chippewa a superior
federal perpetual conservation easement and the right to access quote
public lands and public waters using public roads unquote. I'll
explain how this particular legal issue gets resolved in the
next episode, but suffice to say sheriff of blocking the
(16:51):
driveway and probably illegally. A new collective put out a
call for assistance and requests for people to attempt to
bring in supplies. So people at the first camp organized
a caravan of cars with people willing to protect the
No May Walk camp and bring in food and water.
Most of our regular plans of the day were postponed
as about half the Earth First camp decided to go help.
(17:12):
Jail support forms were filled out and people wrote to
the jail support numbers on their body and so around
noon I hopped in a Prius and began the two
hour drive towards No May Wog. I could tell we
were getting close by the number of Hubbard County Sheriff's
vehicles passing us, white pickup trucks emblazoned with sheriffs in
that cool cop font you know the one. Soon enough,
(17:33):
the fifteen car long caravan from Earth First past the
Line three construction site. As we drove by, I stared
at the miles of pipe on top of overturned soil
and trees. Near the end of the drive, the car
I was then lost the vehicle ahead of us that
we were supposed to be following, So we decided to
tail one of the cop cars going in the same direction,
(17:54):
figuring we would all be heading to the same place,
and we were correct. Once we arrived at the spot,
we just pulled up behind the rest of the Earth
First caravan, already multiple cop cards were blocking the entrance
to the Maywog. While sitting idle and all still inside
our vehicles, a share S deputy walked by, writing down
all the license plate numbers and issuing a warning, you
(18:15):
guys gotta leave or else your vehicles gonna get ton Okay.
After waiting inside the vehicles for a bit, folks from
the supply and support caravan and started to trickle out
and head towards the Maywog and the cops. There's a
lot of arguing about the driveway in the Eastman situation,
which allegedly brought the cops out in the first place.
If you've ever tried arguing with cops in the street before,
(18:36):
you'll be able to guess that this was a mostly
pointless affair. We have you guys got off the road
because we're gonna start moving. Let us give our supplies
to our friends and then we'll fucking leave. We're not
(18:59):
you guys. You guys have the abilities handker stuff. It's
built on county land. It's a fucking driveway. Looking at it,
you're gonna die on this. Yeah. If this is a
(19:23):
white driveway for a bunch of this is a driveway
for a bunch of white people in it and I out.
You know, you guys, are they all ones? Bring off race?
You don't have. As the day trigged on, the law
enforcement presence grew more and more and more schriffs showing up. Um, well,
cheffs shift deputies, quite a few of them, UM hobably around.
(19:46):
I don't know twenty is here now, about thirty maybe
like thirty five protesters, aren't you know? People from the
nearby nearby First First camp trying to bring supplies to
the stop the Line three camp about two hours away. Um,
(20:06):
so some of the people here on the ground are
are from the stop Line three camp, some are from
their first camp. UM with about twenty ten fifteen cars
trying trying to be trying to be surpries as well.
It's currently being blocked off by the county sheriffs to
today for the first time today they've they've chosen to
a block off road access to the city camp. Since
(20:29):
the comps were blocking off the road, the caravan from
Earth First couldn't pull into the private property and had
to park on the side of the county road. As
we all waited to see how this was going to
turn out. Soon enough, a tow truck arrived. So we
have a tow truck just arrived and is starting to
tow some of the cars that are from the Earth
First camp who came here to bring supplies UM to
(20:52):
the stop the Line three camp that since since the
roadways have been blocked off, so they're unable to transfer
supply from the road UM to get to the stop
Line three camp. And right now there is a currently
it's like the first car being towed and all the
way into the back. I'm walking over there right now.
(21:14):
It's about like four sheriffs, sheriff's deputies and some people
that are obviously not thrilled about getting their cars towed,
given though we're on like a public road and they're
just parked because they're trying to get through and the
cops are blocking them. Stuff's getting because stuffs getting more
tense by the by the by the tow truck area.
UM sheriffs are getting pretty obviously piste UM people are
(21:36):
have vested interest in not getting their vehicles stone but
trying to bring supplies to a protest camp, especially since
the roads being blocked by the sheriffs in the first place,
just causing this traffic. So that's where we're at right now.
Still the same situation by the by the entrance to
the Line three camp, walking back to the Toe t Uck.
(22:00):
That seems a little more tense at the moment. There
are there are I mean when when when we first
heard about this in the Earth First camp, they said
there was like one sheriff's deputy here trying to block
the entrance to the camp um with his vehicle. And
since we've arrived, there is like probably twenty at least
(22:22):
twenty sriff deputies here, possibly more. This is like at
least like fifteen fifteen sheriff's vehicles, so definitely a larger
presence than at the beginning of the day. As the
day continued on and everyone got more antsy arrests and
state violence seemed less like a possibility and more of
an inevitability. Looks like they just got a call for
(22:44):
a jail van um from the sheriff's comms radio. There
is there's a lot of people here. Um, there's a
lot of people here. So if they want to rest
everyone whom we might need multiple vans um. But yeah,
that is the state of this. I'm I'm up at
the front by the entrance to the camp, there's like
(23:06):
three different Sheriff's vehicles UM blocking the roadway UM and
a line of like ten or so vehicles from the
Earth First camp trying to bring supplies hip. Tis that
coming out? And I just got told zip ties are
coming out. None of the sheriff's deputies wanted to say
much well being recorded, but they did recommend if anyone
had any questions. They asked County Sheriff Corey A. Yukes.
(23:29):
When asked how one would get in contact with Sheriff
at Yukes, A deputy replied, when most of these people
go to jail, a little good an opportunity to speak
with him. Under more pressure, the deputy clarified that the
reason they plan to arrest and charge people public nuisance
and obstruction of a roadway. They talked like they were
very concerned that they were cars parked illegally and that
(23:49):
the roadway was blocked and obstructed, conveniently ignoring the fact
that at this point the only vehicles blocking the whole
road were Sheriff's cars and trucks, and that said sheriffess
vehicles blocking the road was the reason the caravan of
support cars were pulled over to the side. It looks
like there are big like patty wagons, big big vans
(24:10):
to put people who are rested in on each side
of this road now, um, and people are gonna try
to avoid this mass mass arrest scenario by trying to
go into the line three camp up. I'm guessing on
to three or four or five fifteen vehicles probably get towed. Um. Again,
(24:31):
the sheriff's the sheriff vehicles are the one blocking the
road right now. Everyone else is just everyone is just
parked on the side at the moment. Um, I'm gonna
slowly kind of make my way into the into the
area that's slightly safer so I can continue reporting. Um.
So I am going to be moving in shortly. The
(24:51):
I was told how do you get I was told
the sheriff, Um, like, you know, head sheriff man is
going to be here and we can maybe talk talk
to him. But he is not here at the moment
that I know of. Yeah, there's a patty wagon, all right, Yeah,
(25:14):
they definitely got a They've definitely got a fucking wagon out. Um.
They're absolutely gonna try to rest so many people as possible.
Since it became obvious that all of the caravan cars
were gonna be towed. Some folks decided that they weren't
gonna make it super easy. We have some people who
decided to park their cars perpendicular on the road, some
(25:36):
sideways so they're more difficult to tow. Um, we'll see
what I'm guessing. The law enforcement reaction to this is
not gonna They're not gonna be pleased. Already blocked people
are as expected. The comps weren't thrilled with the cars
now being parked sideways on the road. The detective on
the scene said, so, not only are all these cars
gonna get towed at this point in time, I'm going
(25:58):
to site every owner of the vehicle. And then this
happened about twenty minutes ago. Have thirty minutes ago Sheriff's
officer U s Starch deputy took someone by d um
and they have not given it back up. And it
looks like that person has since been arrested. They're getting
dragged away. Yeah, someone someone's been dragged away. It looks
(26:27):
like we have the first arrest. What didn't take long
for things to escalate, and a line of Sheriff's in
sparse riot gear to form a line to oppose the
stop Lane three and Earth First campers did some lewd chanting.
(26:52):
After the chanting stopped, the riot line slowly pushed forward,
forcing people into the driveway. So UM the line of
Sheriff's deputies uh she dispersal order on the side of
the road near the entrance UM to the camp. The
(27:13):
very rough right line was everyone equipped with Exeptize chaser's
guns however spray etcetera. UM, some habitans or big clubs
dispelling clubs. UM. They moved towards the road. It looks
like all of the Line three protesters have moved into
like the UM driveway of the camp that's currently being
blocked by the Sheriff's vehicles. UM. So that's where that's
(27:34):
where most people are right now. There are some other
UM people here to that came to support and deliver supplies.
Also the people who live here at the camp on
the on the other side of the main road, UM,
the one where the top truck is currently next to
next to like the main drag that got us. They
got us to the side road which gets us into
the road near the camp. There's there's a dozen or
(27:57):
so maybe like two dozen sheriffs on that side as well. UM,
a couple of dozen um campers and people that came
for supplies and uh. One of the one of the
sheriffs and a detective said that they're dealing with this.
They said, fitting with this situation, referring to the stuff
near the entrance first, and then they will deal with
(28:19):
the dozen or so vehicles that have pulled off onto
the road. Um after being blocked by the sheriff's cars. UM.
So we're taking this kind of one step at the
time here. Unclear how many more rests still be there's
already been one. UM, just kind of waiting it out
at the moment. One one guy keeps insisting that if
everyone moves into the camp, UM, there won't be any arrests.
(28:41):
Of course, they already arrested somebody who cops also took
took three d never gave it back for like an hour. UM.
So that's that is the thing we're dealing with at
the moment. Another toe truck arrived on the other side
of the road, closer to the new wage Camp entrance
and began towing vehicles from this side too, albeit with
(29:02):
a rough start. Don't truck the struggle, and it's it's
it's getting pulled back. It's trying to winch the car
to change this. Granted, ran the toad strugge not it'll go,
(29:24):
but it's gonna. It's gonna do this. Follow their orders.
You don't need to tow this van. They're blocking our driveway.
We need to want to drive the van into the driveway.
You don't need to tow it. About four minutes in
(29:44):
it looks like they missed the rant. It's been five minutes.
They'll get it this next As the tow truck was struggling,
the sheriffs were struggling to get people to move further
(30:05):
down the driveway spurs thirty three feet. You're still in it.
It goes for all of you thirty three feet. Definitely
further yet okay, just like they're trying to disperse, disperse
means to disperse, can't do so. You will not be
(30:28):
the charge. Were arrested who with the crime of public juice.
It's violation and the awful assembly. That's what dispersed means
almost dated thing. You're still trying to get the first
man they might do at this time. Oh maybe it's
(30:53):
a way. I don't know, quite a bit of damage
to vot. You have the character entires almost nine minutes
in almost add eleven minutes into them trying to move
this span onto I think they'll probably get at this time,
(31:22):
but they may public tire. This is thrilling Audio content
and the Toucher company are doing quite a bit of
damage to the to the public road, which is of
course I run in because they're here claiming is still
happening because of the cards walking the road. Those are
(31:45):
the cars walking um but still threatening arrests for like
pup muise and stuff. I mean, the froad is gonna
get so messed up by the time they to the
rest of like the fifteen cars. It's taken like fifteen
minutes to get the bat other one might get the faster.
(32:06):
There's quite a bit of damage about right, oh ship.
It looks like the toe truck they have just the
(32:27):
coach are it looks at the toe truck they have
just got some of the metal in the bottom got
worked or snapped us. Yeah, yea that they can't be
good since it's run it's still working. Damn. There's a
(32:47):
lot of what do you think they took that so
first been sixteen minutes, so that's sixteen times to get straight.
Well they got up only I don't know fifteen more ago.
Shortly after the problematic van was towed, comps grabbed more
(33:09):
folks just arrested about four people who were walking towards
the exit of the road carrying blankets chanting waters life um.
And then as the crowd was missed, the crowd who
was you know, gathered to watch as the as the
police they tackle and arrest of them. One person was
(33:30):
filming and uh like another like a protest per camper
um was filming and police grabbed them off the road
and put them into handcuffs. So another arrested. There the
rough riot line of Sheriff's and now also Park Rapids
police did a surprise charge into the driveway, tackling and
arresting five people for no apparent reason. Hurting people after
(34:09):
the abrupt attack from the cops, folks from no mawag
and earth first from the very strong and tight shield
wall on the driveway leading to the private property. Meanwhile,
someone up the road locked themselves onto one of the
cars to temporarily prevented from being towed. One of the
main detective guys that's been talking to the group the
past few hours walked up to the shield wall and said, Um,
(34:33):
your friend that's like hooked up to the equipment, UM
needs to needs you need we need you to unhook
him or we're gonna destroy your car. UM because he's
climbing that he doesn't know how to remove the lock
box that's connected to the car. UM crowd said just
started chanting cops sly and he walked aways like okay, UM,
So my guess is that they probably will destroy the
(34:54):
car because like why why wouldn't they right if they're
going if they have an excuse to do that, of
course they didn't to it. So I'm guessing they're gonna
be selling a part of car UM, and then the
person in the lock box is gonna get arrested. Um,
they'll probably face some of the harshest charges out of
everyone that's been the rest of today so far, I've
counted about ten arrests. UM. Yeah, I think spread around ten.
(35:15):
Right now. The shield wall has been holding strong for
almost almost like an hour and a half At this point,
Um and the Sheriff's haves have not advanced. One of
them tried to like trespass into private property like part
part of this land and was called out for it
and people went over there to film and then he
left because he's he's obviously breaking the law. There was
(35:35):
to the cabra's um, he looked, he looked very sad. Um.
But yeah, now we're still to set the standstill with
UM stop Lane three protesters with shields UM trying to
hold holding their ground against the Sheriff's who marched into
into the driveway and towards their camp. So that's situation.
(35:58):
That's the situation right now. It's almost to eleven pm,
standing around for a while. I don't have a right
jacket anymore because I believe the I believe it is
the car I arrived in. UM, I believe it's probably
towed away and I left my raine jacket inside. So
I'm not at my regular student spot at this at
the top Line three camp. I don't have a check
(36:20):
of I don't have ray jacket, I have some water,
and then there's you know people here who are who've
been extremely friendly. UM. So yeah, that's that's the update
as of ten pm in Hubbard County at the stop
to Line three protest on the drive here. I saw
(36:41):
all of the all the equipment, um, all of like
the line three pipes and stuff laid out in the
giant field. It was a massive there's a lot of
a lot of stuff, um, and I know they're just
starting to dig under the Mississippi River to put in
the line three pipes and stuff. The movement somber when
as discussions of the pipeline, UM, yeah, a lot of
(37:04):
it's it's extremely somber. People talking about how this land
is extremely important to them and um, their indigenous relatives
and the spirits living in the water and in the trees, um,
and how the line three of pipes are gonna kill
(37:25):
so much of this environment and so much of this history.
But these people know that a movement can't run on grief,
sorrow and resentment all on its own. That's a people
cheering on the people cheering on the person that locked
themselves to one of the vehicles. I believe they just
(37:46):
got let let into a into one of the jail vans,
um and they they yelled at the crowd from from
out on the street, and everyone cheered them on to
you know, make them to you know. The camaraderie here
is one of the main driving forces the feeling of community. UM.
(38:08):
The feeling of you know, putting something at risk, going
going into the conflict and knowing that you have a
community to support you, UM and cheer you on and
UM help you out and no matter what happens. UM.
And that's that's the that's that's the main driving force
from all my time at the Earth First conference or gathering.
(38:30):
That's you know, one of the main things that gets
talked about, maybe not in those words, that the same,
that's the same idea, UM is that you know, this
isn't a movement of individuals, um. This is it only
works as a movement when everyone's together like this and
everyone's supporting each other. Almost three hours and to hold
in the shield wall. At around midnight, someone started playing
(38:51):
fun the Police on a big speaker and almost on queue.
That's when the sheriffs and cops decided to pull out.
The crowd erupted in celebration, and then the absence of
the cop cars headlights, I could see fireflies in the
darkened street for the first time in my life. This
wraps up part one of my two Earth First and
(39:14):
Stop Line three episodes about my trip to Minnesota. Part
two will air tomorrow and wrap up this particular small
section of the stop Line three story. If you want
to support the Stop Line three movement and people who
are fighting right now, you can go to Protest Law
dot org slash line three to donate, and also go
to Stop Line three Bail Funds dot org to donate
(39:37):
to bail Funds and to donate to the Canoe Collective.
You can go to bit dot l y slash stop
Pipeline three
As the record high heat wave of one hundred and
seventeen degrees hit my hometown of Portland, Oregon, in late
June one, I was facing down baton wielding county sheriffs
in the forests of Minnesota. Originally I was going out
of town to attend the twenty twenty one Earth First
Summer Gathering. I learned about it from some online friends,
(00:27):
and since I was already deep into research for this
very podcast, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity
to learn from people who have been fighting against climate
change longer than I have been alive. I arrived in
Minneapolis in the early morning of June and then up
put someone to make the four hour drive north into
the lake dense forests of Minnesota. By the time we
(00:48):
arrived at the earth First camp, who was already dark
in the mosquito filled woods and it started to rain.
I could of myself indeed bug spray and scrambled to
set up my tent and rain flow. I It was
a long day. My exhaustion coupled with the rain, maybe
not bother to inflate my sleeping pad, a decision I
would soon regret. Come morning, I woke up with a moist,
(01:11):
sore back into the sound of a loud ringing bell
and someone yelling breakfast for me. That meant it was
time for morning coffee. I suppose before I get any further,
it would be useful to explain what exactly Earth First
(01:32):
is for those who are unfamiliar. Earth First is an
environmental movement focused on the protection and defense of nature,
the wilderness, and wildlife. It was sounded in nineteen eighty
as an alternative to other mainstream environmental organizations that were
seen as too moderate and willing to sacrifice demands and
goals to make deals with lawmakers and corporations. Earth First
(01:53):
invented the slogan no compromise and defensive Mother Earth to
demonstrate their commitment to their more radical ideals. Some of
its earliest inspirations were non anthropocentric philosophies such as biocentrism
and eventually deep ecology. Earth First was also in part
inspired by Edward Abbey's nineteen seventy five book The Monkey
Wrench Gang, which follows a small gaggle of radical environmentalists
(02:16):
as they travel around the Western United States doing various
tax as, sabotage, attacking the machinery, and infrastructure that are
harming the planet. The novel became so ubiquitous that the
word monkey wrenching became a synonym for eco sabotage. A
few things set earth First apart from other more mainstream
environmental groups. Its non formal, largely non hierarchical organization structure
(02:38):
resulted in a loose network of local autonomous groups as
opposed to a national membership based organization. Its tactics were
more focused on civil disobedience and direct action rather than
lobbying and political deal making. Direct Action such as body blockades,
tree sits, and tree spiking i e. Putting metal rods
or nails and trees to prevent them from being cut,
(03:00):
gave earth First national media coverage, which in turn got
more people involved with actions. Earth First also launched a
magazine journal, which served as a public face and gave
earth firsters info and tips on direct action and different
writings on biocentrism. Around the early nineteen nineties, the organization
faced some growing pains. Debate between more performative protests and
(03:23):
get the goods style direct action is common in activist spaces,
and earth First was no different. After a nine Earth
First summer gathering, in the UK, some activists, frustrated by
the increasingly mainstream and more hierarchical version of the Earth
First organization with an emphasis on civil disobedience over sabotaged,
formed a spinoff group called the Earth Liberation Front or
(03:46):
the e LF. Earth First continue operating the journal and
doing tree sets, blockades, civil disobedience, and occupation style protests.
While the ELF took credit for tree spiking, fire bombings,
and more fiery and instructive direct actions. Inevitably, business leaders, politicians,
law enforcement authorities, and many others would rise up to
(04:07):
attack these activists. The FBI labeled them the number one
domestic terrorism threat in two thousand one and began work
to suppress the entire green movement. This culminated in the
Green Scare of the two thousands, a federal crackdown and
mass surveillance project against environmental activism that was also in
part fueled by the heightened anti terror fervor post and
(04:28):
eleven and the terrorism enhancements in the Patriot Act. FBI
investigations and subsequent grand juries broke many of the actives
communities active at the time and scared more into hiding.
Many are still imprisoned today, quoting Braun Taylor, a professor
of environmentalism at the University of California, quote often complimented
(04:49):
by lawsuits, The radical environmental movement had no small number
of victories in the nineties, although the victories were often small. Nevertheless,
the perception of the movement's activists were that they were
losing overall and badly, and moreover, that the government was
not only corrupt and the cahoots with the industry, but
increasingly repressive. Such perceptions reinforced an increasingly common view in
(05:10):
the movement that the time had come to a shoe
above ground tactics and create an underground resistance movement. By
the mid ninety nineties, there was a proliferation of such tactics.
Between then and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center two thousand and one, at least twenty activists deployed
arson as a tactic torturing gas guzzling sports utility vehicles,
a ski lodge being built in the habitat of a
(05:31):
threatened species of Canadian links in Colorado, a forced service
office in Oregon, and trophy homes being built in ecologically
sensitive areas, to name but a few of these incendiary incidents.
Welly sorts of tactics have drawn the bulk of the
media's attention to these movements. Significant environmental victories have been
won or contributed to by radical environmentalists. In January one,
(05:53):
for example, the United States Forced Service under President Bill
Clinton issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protects over
fifty eight million acres of federal forest lands. Although it
took more than a decade of legal battles for imponents
of this rule to exhaust their legal challenges to it,
it eventually became law of the land. It is inconceivable
that the government would have issued this important rule in
(06:13):
the absence of a decade of strong and disruptive resistance
to the Force Services Timber program bi radical environmentalists. Although
the rule did not provide everything the radical environmental activists sought,
it was a significant advance from biodiversity conservation in North America.
(06:40):
Every day at the Earth First Camp followed a rough
pattern wake up and breakfast call around seven, then a
morning circle where folks lay out the plan for the
day and make announcements. After that, the late morning to
early afternoon is split up into three time blocks for
various workshops at different sections of the camp, with lunch
somewhere in between time slots. Once workshops are done, it's
(07:00):
dinner time by the lake, and then usually some sort
of evening activity. The workshops covered a broad range of topics,
from how to climb a tree to how to do
comfort resolution. Many were pre planned, but if you had
a skill you wanted to share, time was set aside
to do an impromptu workshop. The main workshops were on
Indigenous solidarity and land Back, the History of Earth First, Slash,
(07:21):
the Radical Green Movement, and an Overview slash discussion on
direct action. Direct action is about literally taking direct action
in hopes of achieving a tangible goal. It's not simply
a protest march. Direct action means actually getting something done.
People who call themselves Earth First are usually known for
doing direct actions that temporarily inconvenience those who wish to
(07:43):
harm the planet, while also trying to gain positive media
attention or optics to grow massive support of the overall
green movement. Examples of these actions include tree sits and lockdowns,
more permanent and destructive tactics, and direct actions like burning
down an ecologically distry active ski resort construction site or
torching high carbon emitting luxury SUVs were more associated with
(08:06):
the ELF or the Earth Liberation Front. The Direct Action
workshop went over many examples of direct actions from years
passed and around the globe. People discussed what goals the
actions may have had, if the actions achieved that goal,
the different risks of participating in the action, and what
the public perception might have been, all of which are
important things to consider when planning an action. Also discussed
(08:29):
was slight deception as a useful tool for planning the
risk and optics of an action. A past protest was
shown as an example. At that protest, Indigenous folks were
attached to fake chains so it looks like they were
locked onto equipment while standing in front of a large
message banner for media attention and pictures. Meanwhile, white protesters
behind them were locked down to actual equipment, thus putting
(08:51):
the indigenous activists at the center of media coverage while
having white folks bear the brunt of the burden of
state repression. A green activism classic are body blockades. Generally
there are two types, hard and soft. Soft blockades are
just bodies linked together. Hard blockades use lock boxes, typically
made out of metal or plastic tubes that people attach
(09:12):
their limbs to on the inside, that are then attached
around equipment machinery, train tracks, or gates. Other hard blockades
can use technology like bipods or tripods to suspend people
up in the air to physically block off a space.
Innovation and experimentation are key to the success of these devices.
The state already knows of and how to quickly counter
(09:33):
most popular lock box designs, though rule policing areas may
be less trained on how to counter these more militant tactics.
Having a publicly announced protest march serve as a sort
of distraction action as other folks can do shenanigans and
monkey wrenching behind the scenes at other spots was mentioned
as a useful idea, but one that's rarely utilized. There
were also discussions of other activism and direct action related concepts,
(09:57):
such as affinity groups and security culture. An affinity group
is essentially your specific small crew of people that you
are with at an action. You all watch out for
each other and usually have linked goals. Security culture is
a broader concept that we don't have tons of time
to get into today, but one aspect of it is
is that there's information that you, your friends, and especially
(10:18):
strangers don't need to share or sometimes even know about
at all. A good security culture habit to get into
is thinking about if sharing details or even letting it
be known that you have knowledge of certain things could
put people at risk before you say anything at all
to anyone. This includes bragging about things, especially direct actions
(10:39):
that you may or may not have participated in in
the past, even if you're telling a quote unquote trusted
group of friends or on your quote anonymous Twitter account.
Another big discussion point was risk assessment, knowing what risks
you can and can't take for whatever reasons, both at
actions and during the planning process, and then trying to
(10:59):
plant accordingly to set yourself up for the best possible outcome. This,
by no means always works out, but it's still a
good thing to practice and something that may save your skin.
One method of trying to suss out rough risk levels
is the stoplight system, which divides actions into green, yellow,
and red. These are areas of the physical protest space
(11:20):
and or specific rules linked to different levels of risk.
Green means that you plan on getting out of the
protests without getting arrested. This includes stuff like protest theater,
holding signs and banners, doing legal support work, doing protest
extraction i e. Going around in a car, picking up
folks as they're trying to leave an escalating situation, or
(11:41):
even just standing in a large group to help anonymize
other folks in the crowd, doing more mischievous actions. Yellow
means that you'd rather get out of the protests without
getting arrested, but you may be in scenarios where that's
slightly more likely to happen. This includes being a part
of the shield slash umbrella walls, attempting d arrests, perhaps
throwing a water bottle at an armed man with a badge.
(12:02):
Being able to move quickly is a really useful skill
for folks that take up yellow rolls. Red means that
you plan on being arrested, whether it be for tree
sitting or locking down to the gate of ice facility
to temporarily prevent the transportation of immigrants, among other possibilities.
Also included in this category are people who get arrested
for optics purposes, although getting arrested solely in hopes of
(12:24):
getting good media coverage is a point of contention in
certain activists circles. The stop flight method is by no
means perfect or applicable in every scenario, but I included
it here as an example of one way to do
very basic risk assessment related to organizing practicing split second
in group decision making was also discussed as a really
good habit to get into. Things like a D and
(12:46):
D and role playing games are great ways to do this.
As an RPG party is very much like an affinity group,
and in the end, it's important to remember actions have
the potential to be empowering and achieve measurable change. Sometimes
you can do both, sometimes just one, and sometimes neither.
(13:15):
At the end of Earth First Gathering is there's usually
some sort of project or direct action. As we were
in northern Minnesota, it was a decent assumption that this
one would be related to the Line three pipeline currently
being constructed across the Minnesota wilderness, including underneath lakes, wet
lands growing sacred wild rice, and the Mississippi River headwaters.
People from the nearby stop Line three protest camp named
(13:38):
the may Wog came over to the Earth First Gathering
a few times, either to hang out or attend workshops.
A panel of Indigenous folks from the GNU Collective and
Indigenous Women and Two Spirit led Frontline Resistance group drove
from the Stop Plane three camp and gave a wonderful
panel on land back and how to show Indigenous solidarity. Monday, June,
(13:59):
Day three of the week long gathering, started out like
any other day thus far. The early morning wake up
bell that my Pacific time zone brain was slowly adjusting
to coffee and breakfast, and then morning circle. Today I
planned on strapping on a harness and doing some tree
climbing at the training setup they had in camp. But
during morning circle we had a surprise announcement at the
(14:21):
Stop Plane three camp near Park Rapids, Minnesota, situated on
a piece of private property owned by the activists. Mind you,
the Hubbard County Sheriff's had shown up at six am
with a piece of paper that said they would be
blocking off access to the driveway leading to the private property,
letting us suspicious, obscure and never before enforced land use ordinance,
(14:42):
saying that the property owners didn't have an official easeman
to use the driveway. Part of the paper read quote
the trail will be barricaded beginning on June at ten am.
Beveagles not be allowed to enter for any reason after
this time. Beagles driving on this Hubbard County owned trail
or in violation of the Hubbard County land Use Ordinance
(15:02):
and enforcement action will be taken by the Hubbard County
Sheriff's Office unquote. This also meant that vehicles were not
allowed to leave, effectively trapping people inside with limited cell
service and supplies. Water has to be hauled in from
a nearby town into the Nomawag camp and the camp
property has no utility hookups and it's only accessible via
(15:24):
this driveway that runs through one fifty foot strip of
public land owned by Hubbard County. The land use ordinance
has only been around since two thous and seven, and
the driveway in question has been around for at least
over four decades, according to land records and aerial photographs.
Plus basic property law, use dictates that you can't landlock someone,
(15:45):
and usually for property to even be sold, it needs
to have access to a public road. The previous owner
of the property actually did get a non exclusive eastment
prior to selling and has given the new owner's permission
to use their easement as it only expires in the
vent of non use. To make things even more legally complicated,
Hubbard Counties blockade of the driveway may actually be in
(16:07):
violation of treaty law. Quoting an article by Karen Savage,
an investigative journalist who reports on climate change related litigation
and environmental justice. Quote Frank B. Bu, executive director of
the eighteen fifty five Treaty Authority, which represents approximately twenty
five thousand Chippewa tribal members who are currently beneficiaries of
the eighteen fifty five Chippewa Treaty with the United States,
(16:29):
says the matter was settled more than a century ago.
The eighteen fifty five treaty grants the Chippewa a superior
federal perpetual conservation easement and the right to access quote
public lands and public waters using public roads unquote. I'll
explain how this particular legal issue gets resolved in the
next episode, but suffice to say sheriff of blocking the
(16:51):
driveway and probably illegally. A new collective put out a
call for assistance and requests for people to attempt to
bring in supplies. So people at the first camp organized
a caravan of cars with people willing to protect the
No May Walk camp and bring in food and water.
Most of our regular plans of the day were postponed
as about half the Earth First camp decided to go help.
(17:12):
Jail support forms were filled out and people wrote to
the jail support numbers on their body and so around
noon I hopped in a Prius and began the two
hour drive towards No May Wog. I could tell we
were getting close by the number of Hubbard County Sheriff's
vehicles passing us, white pickup trucks emblazoned with sheriffs in
that cool cop font you know the one. Soon enough,
(17:33):
the fifteen car long caravan from Earth First past the
Line three construction site. As we drove by, I stared
at the miles of pipe on top of overturned soil
and trees. Near the end of the drive, the car
I was then lost the vehicle ahead of us that
we were supposed to be following, So we decided to
tail one of the cop cars going in the same direction,
(17:54):
figuring we would all be heading to the same place,
and we were correct. Once we arrived at the spot,
we just pulled up behind the rest of the Earth
First caravan, already multiple cop cards were blocking the entrance
to the Maywog. While sitting idle and all still inside
our vehicles, a share S deputy walked by, writing down
all the license plate numbers and issuing a warning, you
(18:15):
guys gotta leave or else your vehicles gonna get ton Okay.
After waiting inside the vehicles for a bit, folks from
the supply and support caravan and started to trickle out
and head towards the Maywog and the cops. There's a
lot of arguing about the driveway in the Eastman situation,
which allegedly brought the cops out in the first place.
If you've ever tried arguing with cops in the street before,
(18:36):
you'll be able to guess that this was a mostly
pointless affair. We have you guys got off the road
because we're gonna start moving. Let us give our supplies
to our friends and then we'll fucking leave. We're not
(18:59):
you guys. You guys have the abilities handker stuff. It's
built on county land. It's a fucking driveway. Looking at it,
you're gonna die on this. Yeah. If this is a
(19:23):
white driveway for a bunch of this is a driveway
for a bunch of white people in it and I out.
You know, you guys, are they all ones? Bring off race?
You don't have. As the day trigged on, the law
enforcement presence grew more and more and more schriffs showing up. Um, well,
cheffs shift deputies, quite a few of them, UM hobably around.
(19:46):
I don't know twenty is here now, about thirty maybe
like thirty five protesters, aren't you know? People from the
nearby nearby First First camp trying to bring supplies to
the stop the Line three camp about two hours away. Um,
(20:06):
so some of the people here on the ground are
are from the stop Line three camp, some are from
their first camp. UM with about twenty ten fifteen cars
trying trying to be trying to be surpries as well.
It's currently being blocked off by the county sheriffs to
today for the first time today they've they've chosen to
a block off road access to the city camp. Since
(20:29):
the comps were blocking off the road, the caravan from
Earth First couldn't pull into the private property and had
to park on the side of the county road. As
we all waited to see how this was going to
turn out. Soon enough, a tow truck arrived. So we
have a tow truck just arrived and is starting to
tow some of the cars that are from the Earth
First camp who came here to bring supplies UM to
(20:52):
the stop the Line three camp that since since the
roadways have been blocked off, so they're unable to transfer
supply from the road UM to get to the stop
Line three camp. And right now there is a currently
it's like the first car being towed and all the
way into the back. I'm walking over there right now.
(21:14):
It's about like four sheriffs, sheriff's deputies and some people
that are obviously not thrilled about getting their cars towed,
given though we're on like a public road and they're
just parked because they're trying to get through and the
cops are blocking them. Stuff's getting because stuffs getting more
tense by the by the by the tow truck area.
UM sheriffs are getting pretty obviously piste UM people are
(21:36):
have vested interest in not getting their vehicles stone but
trying to bring supplies to a protest camp, especially since
the roads being blocked by the sheriffs in the first place,
just causing this traffic. So that's where we're at right now.
Still the same situation by the by the entrance to
the Line three camp, walking back to the Toe t Uck.
(22:00):
That seems a little more tense at the moment. There
are there are I mean when when when we first
heard about this in the Earth First camp, they said
there was like one sheriff's deputy here trying to block
the entrance to the camp um with his vehicle. And
since we've arrived, there is like probably twenty at least
(22:22):
twenty sriff deputies here, possibly more. This is like at
least like fifteen fifteen sheriff's vehicles, so definitely a larger
presence than at the beginning of the day. As the
day continued on and everyone got more antsy arrests and
state violence seemed less like a possibility and more of
an inevitability. Looks like they just got a call for
(22:44):
a jail van um from the sheriff's comms radio. There
is there's a lot of people here. Um, there's a
lot of people here. So if they want to rest
everyone whom we might need multiple vans um. But yeah,
that is the state of this. I'm I'm up at
the front by the entrance to the camp, there's like
(23:06):
three different Sheriff's vehicles UM blocking the roadway UM and
a line of like ten or so vehicles from the
Earth First camp trying to bring supplies hip. Tis that
coming out? And I just got told zip ties are
coming out. None of the sheriff's deputies wanted to say
much well being recorded, but they did recommend if anyone
had any questions. They asked County Sheriff Corey A. Yukes.
(23:29):
When asked how one would get in contact with Sheriff
at Yukes, A deputy replied, when most of these people
go to jail, a little good an opportunity to speak
with him. Under more pressure, the deputy clarified that the
reason they plan to arrest and charge people public nuisance
and obstruction of a roadway. They talked like they were
very concerned that they were cars parked illegally and that
(23:49):
the roadway was blocked and obstructed, conveniently ignoring the fact
that at this point the only vehicles blocking the whole
road were Sheriff's cars and trucks, and that said sheriffess
vehicles blocking the road was the reason the caravan of
support cars were pulled over to the side. It looks
like there are big like patty wagons, big big vans
(24:10):
to put people who are rested in on each side
of this road now, um, and people are gonna try
to avoid this mass mass arrest scenario by trying to
go into the line three camp up. I'm guessing on
to three or four or five fifteen vehicles probably get towed. Um. Again,
(24:31):
the sheriff's the sheriff vehicles are the one blocking the
road right now. Everyone else is just everyone is just
parked on the side at the moment. Um, I'm gonna
slowly kind of make my way into the into the
area that's slightly safer so I can continue reporting. Um.
So I am going to be moving in shortly. The
(24:51):
I was told how do you get I was told
the sheriff, Um, like, you know, head sheriff man is
going to be here and we can maybe talk talk
to him. But he is not here at the moment
that I know of. Yeah, there's a patty wagon, all right, Yeah,
(25:14):
they definitely got a They've definitely got a fucking wagon out. Um.
They're absolutely gonna try to rest so many people as possible.
Since it became obvious that all of the caravan cars
were gonna be towed. Some folks decided that they weren't
gonna make it super easy. We have some people who
decided to park their cars perpendicular on the road, some
(25:36):
sideways so they're more difficult to tow. Um, we'll see
what I'm guessing. The law enforcement reaction to this is
not gonna They're not gonna be pleased. Already blocked people
are as expected. The comps weren't thrilled with the cars
now being parked sideways on the road. The detective on
the scene said, so, not only are all these cars
gonna get towed at this point in time, I'm going
(25:58):
to site every owner of the vehicle. And then this
happened about twenty minutes ago. Have thirty minutes ago Sheriff's
officer U s Starch deputy took someone by d um
and they have not given it back up. And it
looks like that person has since been arrested. They're getting
dragged away. Yeah, someone someone's been dragged away. It looks
(26:27):
like we have the first arrest. What didn't take long
for things to escalate, and a line of Sheriff's in
sparse riot gear to form a line to oppose the
stop Lane three and Earth First campers did some lewd chanting.
(26:52):
After the chanting stopped, the riot line slowly pushed forward,
forcing people into the driveway. So UM the line of
Sheriff's deputies uh she dispersal order on the side of
the road near the entrance UM to the camp. The
(27:13):
very rough right line was everyone equipped with Exeptize chaser's
guns however spray etcetera. UM, some habitans or big clubs
dispelling clubs. UM. They moved towards the road. It looks
like all of the Line three protesters have moved into
like the UM driveway of the camp that's currently being
blocked by the Sheriff's vehicles. UM. So that's where that's
(27:34):
where most people are right now. There are some other
UM people here to that came to support and deliver supplies.
Also the people who live here at the camp on
the on the other side of the main road, UM,
the one where the top truck is currently next to
next to like the main drag that got us. They
got us to the side road which gets us into
the road near the camp. There's there's a dozen or
(27:57):
so maybe like two dozen sheriffs on that side as well. UM,
a couple of dozen um campers and people that came
for supplies and uh. One of the one of the
sheriffs and a detective said that they're dealing with this.
They said, fitting with this situation, referring to the stuff
near the entrance first, and then they will deal with
(28:19):
the dozen or so vehicles that have pulled off onto
the road. Um after being blocked by the sheriff's cars. UM.
So we're taking this kind of one step at the
time here. Unclear how many more rests still be there's
already been one. UM, just kind of waiting it out
at the moment. One one guy keeps insisting that if
everyone moves into the camp, UM, there won't be any arrests.
(28:41):
Of course, they already arrested somebody who cops also took
took three d never gave it back for like an hour. UM.
So that's that is the thing we're dealing with at
the moment. Another toe truck arrived on the other side
of the road, closer to the new wage Camp entrance
and began towing vehicles from this side too, albeit with
(29:02):
a rough start. Don't truck the struggle, and it's it's
it's getting pulled back. It's trying to winch the car
to change this. Granted, ran the toad strugge not it'll go,
(29:24):
but it's gonna. It's gonna do this. Follow their orders.
You don't need to tow this van. They're blocking our driveway.
We need to want to drive the van into the driveway.
You don't need to tow it. About four minutes in
(29:44):
it looks like they missed the rant. It's been five minutes.
They'll get it this next As the tow truck was struggling,
the sheriffs were struggling to get people to move further
(30:05):
down the driveway spurs thirty three feet. You're still in it.
It goes for all of you thirty three feet. Definitely
further yet okay, just like they're trying to disperse, disperse
means to disperse, can't do so. You will not be
(30:28):
the charge. Were arrested who with the crime of public juice.
It's violation and the awful assembly. That's what dispersed means
almost dated thing. You're still trying to get the first
man they might do at this time. Oh maybe it's
(30:53):
a way. I don't know, quite a bit of damage
to vot. You have the character entires almost nine minutes
in almost add eleven minutes into them trying to move
this span onto I think they'll probably get at this time,
(31:22):
but they may public tire. This is thrilling Audio content
and the Toucher company are doing quite a bit of
damage to the to the public road, which is of
course I run in because they're here claiming is still
happening because of the cards walking the road. Those are
(31:45):
the cars walking um but still threatening arrests for like
pup muise and stuff. I mean, the froad is gonna
get so messed up by the time they to the
rest of like the fifteen cars. It's taken like fifteen
minutes to get the bat other one might get the faster.
(32:06):
There's quite a bit of damage about right, oh ship.
It looks like the toe truck they have just the
(32:27):
coach are it looks at the toe truck they have
just got some of the metal in the bottom got
worked or snapped us. Yeah, yea that they can't be
good since it's run it's still working. Damn. There's a
(32:47):
lot of what do you think they took that so
first been sixteen minutes, so that's sixteen times to get straight.
Well they got up only I don't know fifteen more ago.
Shortly after the problematic van was towed, comps grabbed more
(33:09):
folks just arrested about four people who were walking towards
the exit of the road carrying blankets chanting waters life um.
And then as the crowd was missed, the crowd who
was you know, gathered to watch as the as the
police they tackle and arrest of them. One person was
(33:30):
filming and uh like another like a protest per camper
um was filming and police grabbed them off the road
and put them into handcuffs. So another arrested. There the
rough riot line of Sheriff's and now also Park Rapids
police did a surprise charge into the driveway, tackling and
arresting five people for no apparent reason. Hurting people after
(34:09):
the abrupt attack from the cops, folks from no mawag
and earth first from the very strong and tight shield
wall on the driveway leading to the private property. Meanwhile,
someone up the road locked themselves onto one of the
cars to temporarily prevented from being towed. One of the
main detective guys that's been talking to the group the
past few hours walked up to the shield wall and said, Um,
(34:33):
your friend that's like hooked up to the equipment, UM
needs to needs you need we need you to unhook
him or we're gonna destroy your car. UM because he's
climbing that he doesn't know how to remove the lock
box that's connected to the car. UM crowd said just
started chanting cops sly and he walked aways like okay, UM,
So my guess is that they probably will destroy the
(34:54):
car because like why why wouldn't they right if they're
going if they have an excuse to do that, of
course they didn't to it. So I'm guessing they're gonna
be selling a part of car UM, and then the
person in the lock box is gonna get arrested. Um,
they'll probably face some of the harshest charges out of
everyone that's been the rest of today so far, I've
counted about ten arrests. UM. Yeah, I think spread around ten.
(35:15):
Right now. The shield wall has been holding strong for
almost almost like an hour and a half At this point,
Um and the Sheriff's haves have not advanced. One of
them tried to like trespass into private property like part
part of this land and was called out for it
and people went over there to film and then he
left because he's he's obviously breaking the law. There was
(35:35):
to the cabra's um, he looked, he looked very sad. Um.
But yeah, now we're still to set the standstill with
UM stop Lane three protesters with shields UM trying to
hold holding their ground against the Sheriff's who marched into
into the driveway and towards their camp. So that's situation.
(35:58):
That's the situation right now. It's almost to eleven pm,
standing around for a while. I don't have a right
jacket anymore because I believe the I believe it is
the car I arrived in. UM, I believe it's probably
towed away and I left my raine jacket inside. So
I'm not at my regular student spot at this at
the top Line three camp. I don't have a check
(36:20):
of I don't have ray jacket, I have some water,
and then there's you know people here who are who've
been extremely friendly. UM. So yeah, that's that's the update
as of ten pm in Hubbard County at the stop
to Line three protest on the drive here. I saw
(36:41):
all of the all the equipment, um, all of like
the line three pipes and stuff laid out in the
giant field. It was a massive there's a lot of
a lot of stuff, um, and I know they're just
starting to dig under the Mississippi River to put in
the line three pipes and stuff. The movement somber when
as discussions of the pipeline, UM, yeah, a lot of
(37:04):
it's it's extremely somber. People talking about how this land
is extremely important to them and um, their indigenous relatives
and the spirits living in the water and in the trees, um,
and how the line three of pipes are gonna kill
(37:25):
so much of this environment and so much of this history.
But these people know that a movement can't run on grief,
sorrow and resentment all on its own. That's a people
cheering on the people cheering on the person that locked
themselves to one of the vehicles. I believe they just
(37:46):
got let let into a into one of the jail vans,
um and they they yelled at the crowd from from
out on the street, and everyone cheered them on to
you know, make them to you know. The camaraderie here
is one of the main driving forces the feeling of community. UM.
(38:08):
The feeling of you know, putting something at risk, going
going into the conflict and knowing that you have a
community to support you, UM and cheer you on and
UM help you out and no matter what happens. UM.
And that's that's the that's that's the main driving force
from all my time at the Earth First conference or gathering.
(38:30):
That's you know, one of the main things that gets
talked about, maybe not in those words, that the same,
that's the same idea, UM is that you know, this
isn't a movement of individuals, um. This is it only
works as a movement when everyone's together like this and
everyone's supporting each other. Almost three hours and to hold
in the shield wall. At around midnight, someone started playing
(38:51):
fun the Police on a big speaker and almost on queue.
That's when the sheriffs and cops decided to pull out.
The crowd erupted in celebration, and then the absence of
the cop cars headlights, I could see fireflies in the
darkened street for the first time in my life. This
wraps up part one of my two Earth First and
(39:14):
Stop Line three episodes about my trip to Minnesota. Part
two will air tomorrow and wrap up this particular small
section of the stop Line three story. If you want
to support the Stop Line three movement and people who
are fighting right now, you can go to Protest Law
dot org slash line three to donate, and also go
to Stop Line three Bail Funds dot org to donate
(39:37):
to bail Funds and to donate to the Canoe Collective.
You can go to bit dot l y slash stop
Pipeline three
It Could Happen Here News
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Garrison Davis
James Stout
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