Catherine Ann MacDougal is a hero in our eyes. She stood up against the destruction of mountains for coal in West Virginia in the United States. Now she is paying the price in terms of her personal freedom.
Macdougal pleaded no contest to trespassing charges during a “tree sit” last summer and is now serving seven days in jail and owes related court costs of US$160.
She began her seven days in jail on February 10.
This young activist is lucky. Around the world, environmental activists are being sent to jail for their opposition to environmental destruction, often for far longer periods than Macdougal. Utah activist Tim DeChristopher is serving two years in jail for disrupting a mining rights auction by bidding, his aim to prevent the illegal sale of land to oil companies in Utah. Erwin Vermeulen, a volunteer with the Cove Guardians group from Sea Shepherd, has spent over six weeks awaiting trial in Japan following an incident in which it was claimed he shoved an employee of the Dolphin Resort Hotel in the town of Taiji. Vermeulen was trying to take photographs of dolphins as they were being transferred between holding pens at the resort, Sea Shepherd reports. Jordan Halliday is a Utah-based animal rights activist who has just begun a 10-month prison sentence for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury about his political beliefs and political associations following the release of mink by Animal Liberation Front activists from farms in Utah.
The list goes on and on.
These people should celebrated and supported, not sitting in jail.
It takes courage to stand up against injustice and the destruction of the environment and wildlife.
Unfortunately, the laws and big business conspire in many circumstances to prevent individuals from exercising what should be their right to protect the environment. The media is also not always helpful in their characterization of activists, as seen in a recent story in The Atlantic that gave the impression that these people were little short of suicidal loonies.
What is clear is that people like Macdougal need our support. Although they may be acting with the support of others, they are targeted as individuals by the authorities, isolated, and tested by a system that puts profit and power before care of the Earth.
The following are Macdougal’s words just before going to jail:
“I am prepared to go to jail today; when I decided to climb that oak tree, I knew that I could go to jail for much longer than this. I chose to plead no contest because I wanted to be sure that I could continue to organize during the next few months and because I am not willing or able to pay thousands of dollars to the courts for a trial. This experience has really opened my eyes to the glaring injustice embedded in the United States criminal justice system.
“A ‘right’ to a jury trial doesn’t mean much if we are intimidated into pleading guilty and penalized for taking a case to trial. The right to a jury trial doesn’t mean very much if we have to pay for every juror and face fees that are prohibitive for those of us who don’t have a lot of money. The right to a jury trial also doesn’t mean much if I know that I won’t be able to adequately present my own defense, and that the jury will be made to feel as if it has no other option than to convict me.
“What is happening today is not a loss for the movement. I will be out of jail in seven days, and this experience has only strengthened my conviction to work to stop mountaintop removal. Thank you all so much for your support.”
That is right – we need to support her. Just like Julia Butterfly Hill who spent two years in a tree over a decade ago to protect the ancient redwoods in the United States, Macdougal and other activists need support.
Numbers matter. Solidarity matters. Publicity matters.
Jailing an individual is easy. Jailing hundreds or thousands is harder.
To support Macdougal, check the RAMPs website.
