Sarah Palin may be right about the whole hope and change thing, but what are you gonna do about it?
Right now three pro-mountain activists sit in jail on excessive bails. Two of those three began a hunger strike today in protest of those excessive bails.
The legal system is loaded against people fighting King Coal in Appalachia. Over the past year, we’ve seen excessive “cash-only” bails for non-violent activists in jail and excessive fines once their legal matters are settled.
Now two of the three activists arrested last week at the Marfork Coal Company’s offices are fighting back against their excessive bails ($5000 for two and $7500 for the third activist, Mike Roselle).
These folks are putting their health and safety on the line in resisting big coal and the corrupt legal systems. In the very least, please donate to help Climate Ground Zero fight King Coal in southern West Virginia.
BEAVER, W.Va.—Tom Smyth, and Joe Hamsher, from Charleston, W.Va., began a hunger strike in jail today in protest of the absurdity of their $5,000, cash-only bonds compared to that of violent criminals. Smyth and Hamsher went to jail last Thursday when they chained themselves to office furniture in Massey’s Marfork Mining Co., office in response to mounting permit violations and the continued blasting on Coal River Mountain. They also presented a citizen’s arrest warrant to Marfork president Christopher Blanchard, on charges of attempting to injure by poison, malicious or unlawful assault or assault of a child near a school, and wanton endangerment.
Already this month, a man accused of four sex crimes involving a 13-year-old got out on $15,000 bond. Another man, after stabbing someone five times in the back, was being held on $10,000 bond and his accomplice on $6,000 bond. A 19-year-old Beckley woman was arrested for wanton endangerment after shooting at another woman in a Family Dollar parking lot and was being held on $10,000 bond. None of these articles indicates they were restricted to cash-only, which means they’d only have to put up 10% of their total bond amount.
The protesters “cash-only” bonds mean the entire bond amount must be paid in cash, and they cannot use a bail bondsman to pay only 10% of the amount. “There is something broken in a judicial system that responds more harshly to nonviolent protesters than violent criminals, not to mention allowing Massey’s crimes to go on unpunished,” tree sitter Amber Nitchman said. Smyth and Hamsher say they will continue their hunger strike until their bonds are reduced to a reasonable amount.
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For those about to rock, we salute you! Thank you for your persistence and sacrifice! Joe Hamsher, Tom Smyth, and Mike Roselle you’re all heroes at Coalwar.com! Keep the pressure up boys the pots about to boil!
What does it cost the taxpayers of WV daily for their incarceration? I would much rather pay to incarcerate a violent criminal than a nonviolent one, and I’d much rather run into a nonviolent protester than a four time pedophile. Where exactly is the representation here. These men exert pressure on companies robbing us of our national heritage. These men are raising public awareness about a public disgrace. The acts of Massey and Marfork deserve national and international condemnation for acts against the planet and crimes against humanity. They are the criminals here. There’s to be no peace without justice. Let the halls of the West Virginia capital ring with the songs of injustice about these brave souls for facing the wrath of a corrupt out of date system. Call Governor Joe Manchin and support a full pardon for these men. Call the offices of Massey energy and tell them you want them to stop destroying the mountains. Contact the EPA and the office issuing permits to coal companies and require that they investigate and enforce the laws. Do not bend until the moratorium on coal has stopped the blasting and let these patriots be freed!
If only someone in a position of power would listen. None of our political leaders (or anyone in the mainstream media, for that matter) have the will to shed the national spotlight on the issue of mountain top removal mining. The real shame is that it would be such a slam dunk. The story practically writes itself. On the one hand you have greedy corporate executives leveling the landscape of homefront America with explosives and machinery for tremendous personal gain. On the other hand you have wide-eyed, idealistic college students who attempted to stop the madness by- horror of horrors- sitting in trees. And in between are the people of West Virginia: tired, haggard, and hungry, eagerly awaiting the day that coal will finally raise rather than crush their standard of living. They have been waiting for about 80 years. At which point do they realize that it’s an empty promise, dangled in front of them by cynical interests who prey on their hopes and dreams. I suppose this is a testament to the power of big business in politics and lobbyists in DC.