Rumors are flying on Twitter that Asheville filmmaker Kurt Mann was recently arrested during a protest of Massey Energy’s mountaintop removal mining operation in West Virginia.
I’ve looked around a little and find no mention of Mann, although I did find a story about four people arrested in a Sept. 9 protest there. Mann has been active in filming protesters at the Massey operation. See the powerful short movie at bottom.
Here’s part of the story, from Newsday:
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Four people protesting Massey Energy’s mountaintop removal mining practices were arrested Wednesday after linking their arms together with plastic pipe and duct tape, briefly blocking a private road to a coal company office in southern West Virginia.
The Boone County sheriff’s department charged the four men, who range in age from 22 to 80, with trespassing, destruction of property, failure to obey lawful command, conspiracy and resisting arrest. They were being held late Wednesday on $5,000 bail each.
The protesters are affiliated with Climate Ground Zero, an environmental group that has been staging acts of civil disobedience against Richmond, Va.-based Massey all year from its base in Rock Creek.
Last week, protesters staged a six-day tree-sitting action that temporary halted blasting operations at the Edwight mine near Pettry Bottom in Raleigh County. Four people were arrested.
The protest Wednesday was on a private road near Julian, off U.S. 119.
Charged were: Roland Micklem, 80, of Savannah, N.Y.; Joseph Hamsher, 22, of Charleston; James McGuinness, 53, who has been living in Rock Creek since last winter; and Fred Williamson, 74, of Albuquerque, N.M.
Climate Ground Zero spokesman Charles Suggs said all four men were committed to protesting without causing property damage. After linking themselves, they used plastic pipes and chain to lock themselves to a guardrail and light post, he said. Authorities used bolt cutters to disconnect them.
Mountaintop Removal Protest from kurt mann, americangreen.tv on Vimeo.
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The Wikipedia article on mountain top mining seems to present both sides of the issue, although most of its sources appear to be anti. One quote:
Critics are quick to show photographs of active mine sites but then rarely show the same area after mining and reclamation has been completed. They claim that because flat land is worth more than steep rocky mountain side, land value increases after completion of MTR for the local land owners. These mines employ many local residents and pay some of the highest wages in the region for equipment operators.