Massey Coal assaults cause security guards to resign
Sun, Sep 06 2009 at 9:59 PM EST
Photo: Climate Ground Zero It's pretty clear who runs the town of Pettry Bottom, W.Va., the site of a battle between environmentalists and coal behemoth Massey Energy.
One week ago, protesters from Climate Ground Zero began a sit-in ... 80 feet above the ground on a national forest slated for "demolition" by the coal giant who has pioneered the environmentally devastating practice known as mountaintop removal (MTR).
Since then, several of the protesters have had their lives threatened. Last week, Massey guards were instructed to fell adjoining tress in the attempt to knock the protestors from their arboreal perches, a blow which (if aimed properly) would have caused instant death. When that didn't work, several Massey contractors scaled the occupied trees and began felling pieces of the tree directly above the protesters.
Meanwhile, the police did nothing.
Mounting pressure on Massey guards to forcibly remove the protesters caused six of the guards to resign. The guards were told "they would never work in the state again."
Here's their account. Read the whole story on The Huffington Post.
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Comments(3)
Posted By Heather Ferris - Wed, Sep 09 2009 at 10:42 AM ESTLove these guards!
These 2 guards are smart, conscientious, caring, and bold. Bravo!!!
Posted By Seth Hoyt - Tue, Sep 08 2009 at 4:06 PM ESTMassey Coal
Whoa, Nellie: this is terrifying stuff. Is MNN the only news source reporting on this outrage? Good for you. Bad PR for Massey. Is Julia Butterfly Hill involved in the sit-in?
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If there were more people like you in the world...
I have complete respect for these guards and applaud their efforts to serve their role as "people" before "guards". When politicians really start to get involved with this issue and question those who committed these assaults against protesters, they'll all say that they were just doing their jobs so they could feed their families. These men prove that you have a choice. This is a really tough situation for people in West Virginia and I just hope we can create alternative green jobs there so.... More