SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Seven Greenpeace Activists Arrested for Blocking Arctic-Bound Drilling Vessel
Only thing they tried to steal was "future of the Arctic from the desperate clutches of Shell and the oil giants"
Feb 27, 2012
Seven Greenpeace activists were arrested and charged with 'burglary' in New Zealand early Monday, after occupying a Shell Oil drilling vessel for four straight days. Among those arrested was Lucy Lawless, an actress well known for her portayal of the television hero 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.
In what Bunny McDiarmid, Executive director of Greenpeace New Zealand, called a "legal slight of hand by the police," the activists received a 'burglary' charge as opposed to the expected 'trespassing' charge even though they stole nothing from the ship.
"Though maybe we did," reflected McDiarmid in a blog post on Monday. "When I think about the actions of these seven and the 133,000 people globally who joined them, we have gone a long way towards stealing back the future of the Arctic from the desperate clutches of Shell and the oil giants."
The group boarded the ship early Friday morning and ascended to the top of a 170ft drilling tower on the vessel which was docked in Port Taranaki, New Zealand. One activist was arrested on Saturday, while the other six remained on the platform.
Sky News reports today:
The group began protesting on Friday to prevent the chartered ship from leaving on a drilling mission in the Arctic over the weekend.
Lawless, 43, a native New Zealander, told reporters on Friday she wanted to take a stand against damage to the environment.
"I've got three kids. My sole biological reason for being on this planet is to ensure that they can flourish, and they can't do that in a filthy, degraded environment," she said.
"We need to stand up while we still can."
In a series of tweets before her arrest Lawless described some of the challenges of staying on the tower.
"I found last night pretty darn scary," she wrote. "Not for sissies."
Greenpeace released this video on the action and their Save the Arctic campaign:
###
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Seven Greenpeace activists were arrested and charged with 'burglary' in New Zealand early Monday, after occupying a Shell Oil drilling vessel for four straight days. Among those arrested was Lucy Lawless, an actress well known for her portayal of the television hero 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.
In what Bunny McDiarmid, Executive director of Greenpeace New Zealand, called a "legal slight of hand by the police," the activists received a 'burglary' charge as opposed to the expected 'trespassing' charge even though they stole nothing from the ship.
"Though maybe we did," reflected McDiarmid in a blog post on Monday. "When I think about the actions of these seven and the 133,000 people globally who joined them, we have gone a long way towards stealing back the future of the Arctic from the desperate clutches of Shell and the oil giants."
The group boarded the ship early Friday morning and ascended to the top of a 170ft drilling tower on the vessel which was docked in Port Taranaki, New Zealand. One activist was arrested on Saturday, while the other six remained on the platform.
Sky News reports today:
The group began protesting on Friday to prevent the chartered ship from leaving on a drilling mission in the Arctic over the weekend.
Lawless, 43, a native New Zealander, told reporters on Friday she wanted to take a stand against damage to the environment.
"I've got three kids. My sole biological reason for being on this planet is to ensure that they can flourish, and they can't do that in a filthy, degraded environment," she said.
"We need to stand up while we still can."
In a series of tweets before her arrest Lawless described some of the challenges of staying on the tower.
"I found last night pretty darn scary," she wrote. "Not for sissies."
Greenpeace released this video on the action and their Save the Arctic campaign:
###
Seven Greenpeace activists were arrested and charged with 'burglary' in New Zealand early Monday, after occupying a Shell Oil drilling vessel for four straight days. Among those arrested was Lucy Lawless, an actress well known for her portayal of the television hero 'Xena: Warrior Princess'.
In what Bunny McDiarmid, Executive director of Greenpeace New Zealand, called a "legal slight of hand by the police," the activists received a 'burglary' charge as opposed to the expected 'trespassing' charge even though they stole nothing from the ship.
"Though maybe we did," reflected McDiarmid in a blog post on Monday. "When I think about the actions of these seven and the 133,000 people globally who joined them, we have gone a long way towards stealing back the future of the Arctic from the desperate clutches of Shell and the oil giants."
The group boarded the ship early Friday morning and ascended to the top of a 170ft drilling tower on the vessel which was docked in Port Taranaki, New Zealand. One activist was arrested on Saturday, while the other six remained on the platform.
Sky News reports today:
The group began protesting on Friday to prevent the chartered ship from leaving on a drilling mission in the Arctic over the weekend.
Lawless, 43, a native New Zealander, told reporters on Friday she wanted to take a stand against damage to the environment.
"I've got three kids. My sole biological reason for being on this planet is to ensure that they can flourish, and they can't do that in a filthy, degraded environment," she said.
"We need to stand up while we still can."
In a series of tweets before her arrest Lawless described some of the challenges of staying on the tower.
"I found last night pretty darn scary," she wrote. "Not for sissies."
Greenpeace released this video on the action and their Save the Arctic campaign:
###
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.