West VA magistrate sets bail at $100,000 for misdemeanors by non-violent protesters at Massey HQ.

[Are_grits_groceries]

Madison, W.Va. – EmmaKate Martin and Benjamin Bryant were arrested this morning while blockading the driveway to Massey Energy’s regional headquarters in Boone county, W.Va. Magistrate Snodgrass set their bails at $100,000 each for misdemeanor charges of trespassing, conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor, obstructing an officer, and littering.
<snip>
EmmaKate Martin was perched on a platform suspended in a tripod, a structure built with rope and three log poles, and Bryant was locked to the base of a pole. Both Martin and Bryant underwent extensive non-violence training prior to their action. Their banner read “Massey, Profits Before People & Mountains, Fight Back!”
<snip>
Climate Ground Zero’s legal team is researching the legality of the unprecedentedly high bail and will seek legal recourse.
<snip>
There is an emerging pattern of non-violent protesters receiving heavy-handed punishment while those who use violence against them are let off the hook. On July 4, 2009, on Kayford Mountain, Adam Pauley threatened to kill families who had gathered to celebrate Independence Day at the Mountain Keepers Festival. He was not arrested, but was given a $100 fine and six months unsupervised probation when found guilty of verbal assault in a February 2010 trial brought against him by Mountain Keeper Larry Gibson. Rock Creek resident, Ruth Tucker, slapped Judy Bonds, outspoken mountaintop removal abolitionist, at a non-violent protest on June 23, 2009. She was released on personal recognizance and given a $100 fine six months after the fact. Climate Ground Zero activist, Jacqueline Quimby was recently sentenced to sixty days in jail for an act of non-violent civil disobedience at a Kanawha County mine site.
http://climategroundzero.net/2010/05/magistrate-sets-100000-bail-for-non-violent-protestors/
==============
Climate Ground Zero is not another environmental organization. It is an ongoing campaign of non-violent civil disobedience in southern West Virginia to address mountaintop removal coal mining and its effects on our future.
http://climategroundzero.net/

And equal justice for all..........

[theHandpuppet]

1. As I kept telling folks...

Massey doesn't fear the law because Don Blankenship *IS* the law. He bought and paid for it, from local politicians to seats on the WV Supreme Court.

Those here who have attacked miners for not standing up to Massey and their ilk really have no idea.

[ejpoeta]

2. sounds like that town needs a takeover and overthrow or something.

[Vinca]

3. Better send the magistrate down to the Gulf of Mexico.

If he posts bail at $100,000 for these people, surely he'll come down hard on the CEOs of the companies that killed 11 people and are ruining our coastline and fishing industry.

[hootinholler]

4. Boss Hog lives.

Litterin? Really? Have these people never listened to Alice's Restaurant?

$100K bail for litterin?

-Hoot

[Downtown Hound]

5. Meahwhile, the Republicans block an attempt to raise BP's damage liability

for destroying the Gulf of Mexico.

America...And Justice For All. :eyes: