Mountain Justice Update: 5 Bailed Out, 4 Remain

Published by danawv, May 25th, 2009 global warming 4 Comments

The singer in this video is the grandson of Sidney Moye, who was among the 17 folks were arrested on Saturday, protesting mountaintop removal and the presence of unstable 9 billion gallon toxic waste coal slurry dams that, if it fails, would kill over 1,000 people. Also in the video is West Virginian hero and former congressman, and former WV Secretary of State Ken Hechler (the only congressman to march with Marin Luther King, Jr.) (born in 1914) (architect of the Mine Health and Safety Act) — who wanted to be arrested, but the authorities refused.

9 of those were taken into prison with a $2,000 cash bail each — despite the fact that the fine for trespassing is a maximum of $100. Activists raised over $10,000 in 24 hours to release 5 of our heroes, the rest will spend at least 3 days in jail, hopefully to be released tomorrow.

For more updates or to donate towards legal efforts, visit www.mountainjustice.org

4 Responses to “Mountain Justice Update: 5 Bailed Out, 4 Remain”

Feed for this Entry Trackback Address

1 Watcher May 26th, 2009 at 9:37 am

Way to go Raleigh Co. W V. athorities, keep them reaching ever so deep in their “activist” pockets!
2 danawv May 26th, 2009 at 10:15 am

For those who don’t understand how bail works, Raleigh County doesn’t get to keep the money, but they have wasted thousands of dollars holding non-violent people hostage in their over crowded prisons.

The money was raised by hundreds of people chipping in. A little adds up to a lot! We are powerful!

In the long run though, these heroes will save Raleigh a lot more money if they can prevent the blasting of Coal River Mountain. The Coal River Wind Farm would provide millions more in tax revenue than the proposed strip mine. Not to mention the cost of cleaning up from a major sludge dam spill.

About

Dana works on the national council of the Student Environmental Action Coalition in Charleston, WV Visit www.seac.org. She likes to make papier mache stuff with five year olds. She likes mountains that haven't been blown all to hell. She likes communities that fight back when their mountains have been blown all to hell. She doesn't like coal, or blowing up mountains. She especially doesn't like (not so) Clean Coal (no such thing) and thinks Carbon Sequestration is a bad deal for communities and kids. And really, who else matters?