December 5, 2019 by Laura Burns
This morning I was arrested at the site of the proposed Weymouth gas compressor station as fifty or so colleagues and I attempted to prevent construction from beginning. This is not what I wanted to do with my Thursday morning, but it’s what has to happen now.
For five years we have fought this project. Who’s we? Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station (FRRACS) and supporters from all over the state. In spite of all the work done to demonstrate the thousand ways this is bad for our neighbors and the planet, and despite opposition from the towns of Weymouth and Hingham, and despite a mountain of scientific evidence against it, the project received its final permits last week, and construction equipment is being loaded into the site.
If you’re not up on the details of this local catastrophe and want to know why we must stop it, here’s the short version:
1) The compressor will endanger the neighborhood by putting toxic chemicals and particulates in the air, in an area that is already home to several toxic industrial operations. If the station explodes (which they HAVE done: https://www.nocompressor.com/history-of-accidents), the “incineration zone” includes hundreds of homes and an elementary school, not to mention the Fore River bridge.
2) This station is a crucial piece in the battle to prevent climate change. It’s being built not to serve the area, but to compress gas to allow it to be pumped from the Marcellus shale field in Pennsylvania to Nova Scotia for export to Europe. In order for our grandchildren to have a remotely livable world, all that shale gas must stay in the ground! Stopping the compressor station is a necessary act on behalf of future human beings, all of them.
So, this morning when a truck needed to leave the site to go pick up more construction equipment, four of us decided we would not move aside. The very polite and helpful Weymouth police officers regretfully handcuffed us, loaded us into their van, and spirited us away to headquarters for booking. Why were they polite and helpful? For starters, because we were also polite and helpful. But more to the point, as one officer said, “I’m a taxpayer too.”
After booking at the Weymouth Police Department, another van ride took us to Quincy District Court where, for some reason, ankle shackles were substituted for the handcuffs. (Ours is not to reason why.) After some discussion with our lawyer, the DA’s office asked that the charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct be changed from criminal to civil charges, and be dismissed if we stay out of trouble for ninety days. “How about thirty days?” said the judge. Then she banged her gavel and said we were free to go.
A videographer asked me why I was taking this action instead of lobbying on Beacon Hill, or writing a letter. I explained that I have done all those things for years, and continue to do them on a daily basis. I put in over a hundred hours lobbying for climate legislation this summer. But we are at the point in the battle against climate change where none of us can afford to pick and choose what we do. We all must do everything in our power to soften to blow for our children, or they will have little to thank us for.
If we had all done what we should have done decades ago, it wouldn’t be this way – perhaps we would have been able to pick and choose our actions today to get to a livable climate.
But we didn’t, and we all share the responsibility. Now we must all do everything we can. However difficult and unpleasant it may be, it doesn’t even come close to how difficult and unpleasant life as humans will be, forever, if we don’t take action now.
If you would like to take a stand against the compressor station, please take the pledge to action on the FRRACS website: https://www.nocompressor.com/take-action-today
If you would like to know more, the FRRACS website is a great place to start: nocompressor.com
Join me in protecting our neighbors, our community, and our children. There really is something you can do about climate change.
Thank you for your heroic actions on behalf of my children and their whole generation. All over New York State, we are watching the citizen uprising in Weymouth.
My whole family lives in this area. My niece was arrested for peacefully protesting! I am so proud of her.
Thank you Laura & all others in your struggle against this insane construction of more fossil fuel infrastructure. May you prevail (& find out if/why ankle cuffs are legal to use on peaceful protesters). 💕
Thank you, Laura. We’ll all take our turn. Yes, we’ve already fought a lot, will continue to do more, and this is where we take a stand. I’m glad to see the judge will dismiss the charges after 30 days. Ankle shackles are meant to be an improvement over the physical discomfort of handcuffs while still restraining you.
I signed the pledge. I haven’t been notified of any activity yet.
Thank you.
Powerful words! Thank you for your action.
We all owe a lot to you four brave and dedicated people for taking action to stop the dirty, dangerous, costly and unnecessary Weymouth compressor station. Supreme Court decisions such as Citizens United v. FEC have transformed government of, by and for the people into government of, by and for large corporations. Only a 28th Constitutional amendment can fix that.
Once you have exhausted all legal and civil paths to sane behavior, this is the next option. We will all be standing with you before this is done.