OKLAHOMA GOVERNOR SIGNS ANTI-PROTEST LAW IMPOSING …drwho.virtadpt.net/files/2017-05/oklahoma-governor... · oil and gas industry and home of the self-styled “Pipeline Cross-roads

Photo: Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP

OKLAHOMA GOVERNORSIGNS ANTI-PROTEST LAWIMPOSING HUGE FINES ON“CONSPIRATOR”ORGANIZATIONSAlleen Brown

May 6 2017, 6:02 a.m.

A statute aimed at suppressing protests against oil and gas pipe-

Oklahoma Governor Signs Anti-Protest Law Impo... https://theintercept.com/2017/05/06/oklahoma-go...

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lines has been signed into law in Oklahoma, as a related bill ad-

vances through the state legislature. The two bills are part of a

nationwide trend in anti-protest laws meant to significantly in-

crease legal penalties for civil disobedience. The Oklahoma law

signed this week is unique, however, in its broad targeting of

groups “conspiring” with protesters accused of trespassing. It

takes aim at environmental organizations Republicans have

blamed for anti-pipeline protests that have become costly for lo-

cal governments.

The statute Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin approved Wednes-

day was rushed into immediate effect under a provision that de-

clared the situation “an emergency.” It will dramatically in-

crease penalties against protesters who trespass on property con-

taining a “critical infrastructure facility.”

Under the newly signed trespassing law individuals will face a

felony and a minimum $10,000 fine if a court determines they

entered property intending to damage, vandalize, deface, “im-

pede or inhibit operations of the facility.” Should the trespasser

actually succeed in “tampering” with the infrastructure, they

face a $100,000 fine or ten years of imprisonment.

Significantly, the statute also implicates any organization

“found to be a conspirator” with the trespasser, threatening col-

laborator groups with a fine “ten times” that imposed on the in-

truder — as much as $1 million in cases involving damage.

A section of the law defining “critical infrastructure” includes

various types of fossil fuel facilities. Oklahoma is a center of the


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oil and gas industry and home of the self-styled “Pipeline Cross-

roads of the World” in Cushing. The state has seen a dramatic in-

crease in earthquakes since the nation’s fracking boom began,

as companies began pumping wastewater produced from hy-

draulic fracturing underground. The Oklahoma Oil and Gas As-

sociation is a supporter of the legislation.

A second bill, passed by the Oklahoma House of Representatives

Thursday, would permit “vicarious liability” for groups that

“compensate” protesters accused of trespassing. The bill’s au-

thor reportedly called it a response to the Dakota Access pipe-

line protests, aimed directly at organizers fighting to stop the

Diamond pipeline, a project of Valero and All American Pipeline

that would transport oil from Oklahoma to Tennessee. Protests

against the pipeline have already begun and construction is

scheduled for completion before the end of the year.

The trope of the “professional protester” has long been a talking

point for those who disagree with participants’ politics. It was

used widely this year by Republicans frustrated by a series of

anti-Trump protests after his election and inauguration. It was

also used against demonstrators involved in massive actions in

defiance of the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota, that

were violently repressed by police. North Dakota governor Doug

Burgum is seeking $38 million in compensation from the federal

government for costs associated with the police response and

with cleaning up resistance camps whose residents were evicted

in February.

According to Public Radio Tulsa, Democrat Rep. Cory Williams


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demanded to know the definition of “compensation” under the

liability bill. “Is it a check? Is it money? Is it staying at some-

body’s house?” he asked.

“That would be for the courts to decide,” replied Rep. Mark

McBride, the bill’s author.

Doug Parr has represented numerous environmental activists in

Oklahoma protest cases. In an interview with the Intercept the

attorney noted the liability bill’s loose wording. “Say they lock

themselves to a piece of construction equipment, and a claim

can be made that there were damages from that trespass,” Parr

said. “Does this statute create a civil action for a pipeline com-

pany to then go after a person or organization that posted bond

or helped pay for a lawyer for that civil disobedience?”

Parr noted that under the new trespassing law a violation as mi-

nor as spray-painting a message on an oil facility could plausibly

lead to $100,000 dollars in fines if a court determined it was “de-

facing equipment.”

And he said the law amplifies risks for groups that organize

protest actions, who can’t always account for the diversity of tac-

tics used by attendees. “Suppose an organization decides they

want to support a perfectly legal, no civil disobedience, action,”

he said. “Somebody in that crowd, who has come to the protest

at the request of that organization, then jumps the fence, and

runs in there, and spray-paints on a storage tank, ‘This equip-

ment causes earthquakes. Shut it down.’ … These statutes could

be used to attack that organization and impose financial liability


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on them.”

Johnson Bridgwater, head of the Oklahoma chapter of the Sierra

Club, which opposes the Diamond pipeline, noted that the Club

has an official policy against participation in civil disobedience.

(Its board suspended the rule in 2013 before executive director

Michael Brune was arrested in a protest calling for then-Presi-

dent Barack Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline). However,

he said “We don’t necessarily know everyone who’s attending

the events,” adding, “There is a strong and real fear that this

could be used as an attempt to crush a group or a chapter of

Sierra Club unfairly.”

Bold Oklahoma is part of a coalition attempting to halt the Dia-

mond pipeline’s construction. Asked whether the group sup-

ports direct action, director Mekasi Camp Horinek replied, “We

stand behind the people, and if people choose to do that, we’re

going to stand behind them in that choice, but that’s always an

individual choice. There’s nobody that’s going to tell somebody

else to do something illegal or put their bodies or their families

in harm’s way.”

Horinek travelled to North Dakota and was arrested with oth-

ers opposing the Dakota Access pipeline. “That’s exactly what

they were saying about me, that I was an out-of-state, paid pro-

tester, because I worked for an environmental organization,” he

said. “I don’t think that when we’re talking about life, not only

the life of our children and the life of our brothers and sisters,

but when we’re talking about life itself, all living things on the

planet, that state borders are going to deter or stop anybody


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RELATED

Update: Lawmakers in Ten States HaveProposed Legislation CriminalizingPeaceful Protest

from going to try to protect a body of water.”

“I’m an enrolled member of the Ponca Nation, and we were

forcefully removed to the state of Oklahoma in 1876,” he said.

Before that, his tribe relied on the Missouri River, the body of

water Standing Rock tribal members sought to protect by block-

ing the oil pipeline. “I was there first as a father, as a son, as a

brother. Secondly I was there as a Ponca tribal member, protect-

ing the Missouri river. Last, but not least, I was representing the

Bold organization that I work for.”

As of April 2, Common Dreams counted 19 anti-protest bills

across the U.S. Bills in Colorado, North Dakota, and South

Dakota were directly aimed at activists attempting to block oil

and gas infrastructure. Other laws, in places like Minnesota, re-

sponded to protests in 2015 and 2016 that blocked roads and

highways after police killings of black men and women in vari-

ous cities.

Bridgwater said his biggest concern is reserved for citizens who

might think twice before attending a protest. “We see all of

these bills as nothing more than corporate America being fear-

ful of how successful the Standing Rock protests were.”


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Federal Law Criminalizes ProtestingTrump Now That He’s Guarded by theSecret Service

Photo Essay: A New PipelineEncroaches on Florida’s FragileEverglades

Video: Last Stand at Standing Rock asPolice Prepare to Evict PipelineOpponents


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Documents

OKLAHOMA GOVERNOR SIGNS ANTI-PROTEST LAW IMPOSING …drwho.virtadpt.net/files/2017-05/oklahoma-governor... · oil and gas industry and home of the self-styled “Pipeline Cross-roads