Category Archives: Protester & Monitor Arrests

Megaload Protesters Arrested Sunday Make Innocent Pleas

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MOSCOW – Two Moscow men pleaded innocent to misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and obstructing a police officer after they allegedly attempted to block three megaloads traveling through their city.

Police Chief David Duke said officers arrested Cass Davis, 47, and James Prall, 67, Sunday night after they re-entered the northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 95 in Moscow shortly after 11 p.m.

Four protesters – Davis, Prall, and two women – initially entered the roadway in an effort to block the giant Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil refinery equipment modules headed for a tar sands oil extraction project in Canada, Duke said. Continue reading →

Four Pile into Street to Stop 865,000 Pounds of Megaloads, Two Arrested

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Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists blocked three colossal tar sands “megaloads” when they linked arms and sat together on Washington Street in Moscow, Idaho, on Sunday, March Fourth!  Listen to between 26:10 and 13:18 of the Monday, March 5, Evening Report, Two Megaload Blockers Arrested, on KRFP Radio Free Moscow, for announcements of the last passage of these shipments in Two Final Megaloads from Lewiston Due Tuesday Night and for on-the-scene reportage of the WIRT protest, civil disobedience, and subsequent arrests in Four Pile into Street to Stop 865,000 Pounds of Megaloads, Two Arrested.

Breaking: Two Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads” in Idaho

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News from Moscow, Idaho: two arrested blockading ExxonMobil’s megaload trucks with tar sands equipment bound for Alberta.

Early News: More Protesters Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads” in Moscow, Idaho

PRELIMINARY NEWS RELEASE

March 5, 2012

Four remarkably brave activists eluded the barricades and put their bodies between enormous Alberta tar sands upgrader parts and the ecological and climate devastation they will visit on us all.  As three of the last five of 78 ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads moved through downtown Moscow, Idaho, two protesters were arrested for linking arms and sitting down in Washington Street late Sunday night, March 4.  Police arrested two men but pulled two women to the side and detained and released them when the convoy passed.  The women did not appreciate the discrimination.

Read more: Breaking: Two Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads” in Idaho

(Drawn from a Wild Idaho Rising Tide media release and photos published by Scott Parkin in It’s Getting Hot in Here)

Early News: More Protesters Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads​” in Moscow, Idaho

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Four remarkably brave activists eluded the barricades and put their bodies between enormous Alberta tar sands upgrader parts and the ecological and climate devastation they will visit on us all.  As three of the last five of 78 ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads moved through downtown Moscow, Idaho, two protesters were arrested for linking arms and sitting down in Washington Street late Sunday night, March 4.  Police arrested two men but pulled two women to the side and detained and released them when the convoy passed.  The women did not appreciate the discrimination.  In a video by Joshua Yeidel of a KRFP Radio Free Moscow interview, We Won’t Be Accessories to Genocide: Moscow ID, March 4, 2012, one of the dismissed women explained her and her many allies’ motivations for marching, chanting, and even obstructing megaloads and risking arrest in cold and dark winter conditions. “We’re not going to be accessories to genocide and climate change and increased cancer rates and all the other ecological damages that the tar sands intends to cause…” Continue reading →

Megaload Monitor Motion to Throw Out Seatbelt Misdemeanor Rejected

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On Friday, February 17, Kootenai County Judge Clark Peterson dismissed a motion to suppress the charge of resisting and obstructing an officer imposed on Wild Idaho Rising Tide organizer Helen Yost.  Idaho State Police arrested and jailed Cici Claar and Ms. Yost on August 26, 2011, when they refused to provide identification after trooper accusations of not wearing safety belts in the back seat of a parked vehicle, as they monitored Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil tar sands megaloads south of Coeur d’Alene.  We anticipate plenty of arguments about civil rights, constitutional case law, and corporate police states, along with regional media coverage, when a jury trial of both defendants occurs in April or May.  Listen to the KRFP Radio Free Moscow story and interview of megaload monitor Helen Yost between 21:00 and 13:11 on the Monday, February 20, Evening Report: Megaload Monitor Motion to Throw Out Seatbelt Misdemeanor Rejected.  For further background on this situation, see the Moscow-Pullman Daily News article Megaload Monitors Arrested Saturday for Obstruction Outside Coeur d’Alene and The Spokesman Review piece Three More Megaload Protesters Arrested in Coeur d’Alene.

Megaload Cyclist Expects to Take Plea Deal Down to an Infraction, Selway Corporation Transport Passage, & Port of Lewiston Spends Much of Its Megaload Revenue on Security

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Co-defendants Zach Johnson and Aaron Malgren, arrested on October 6 while participating in the Bikes Not Bitumen! critical mass bike ride during ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil tar sands shipments through Moscow, describe developments in their court case against police and prosecutors who imposed wrongful charges of obstructing and resisting officers and held their bikes for evidence over two months.  Probably due to the implausibility of prosecutors’ arguments, Aaron and Zach were offered three plea bargain choices of infractions to replace their misdemeanor charges.  This broadcast also covers the two movements of a huge Selway Corporation Y-shaped pipe westbound on Highway 12 between the Montana border and Lewiston on Friday night and, on Monday evening, onward to Highway 195 and Snoqualmie Falls, Washington.  Additionally, the Port of Lewiston spent 80 percent of its revenue from yard storage of ExxonMobil modules on security officers during its July 2010 to June 2011 fiscal year.  Listen to more news about Megaload Cyclist Expects to Take Plea Deal Down to an Infraction, Selway Corporation transport passage, and Port of Lewiston Spends Much of Its Megaload Revenue on Security between 16:11 and 5:43 on the Monday, December 19, KRFP Radio Free Moscow Evening Report, Bike Plea Bargain.

Megaload Cyclist Says He’ll Fight Obstruction Charge

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A Moscow man says he and a friend were wrongfully arrested and charged late Thursday night for allegedly obstructing law enforcement by riding their bicycles on North Main Street ahead of three overlegal Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil loads.

Zachary E. Johnson, 33, said he probably plans to the fight accusations in court.

He said he was part of a Critical Mass bike ride earlier Thursday night prior to shipments passing through the city. Critical Mass of Moscow is described on its Facebook page as a group that opposes the fossil fuel industry and promotes cycling and will do so to assert their right to access roadways. Continue reading →

Megaload Monitors Arrested Saturday for Obstruction Outside Coeur d’Alene

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Wild Idaho Rising Tide community organizer, fellow opposition member refused to give ID to state trooper

Two protesters of the Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil megaload that began its trip from Lewiston late Thursday were arrested outside Coeur d’Alene on U.S. Highway 95 while monitoring the shipment’s progress early Saturday morning.

Helen Yost said she and another woman had been part of a group that was monitoring the load early Saturday when they were arrested by an Idaho State Police trooper.

They were later charged with obstruction and failure to wear seatbelts. Continue reading →

Update: More Mega-Load Protesters Arrested

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UPDATED: Saturday, August 27, 5:00 pm Idaho State Police told Citydesk that two more mega-load protesters were arrested Saturday morning in Coeur d’Alene.  That brings to eight the number of persons taken into custody, expressing their displeasure of the oversized rigs heading for the Kearl Oil Sands Project in Alberta, Canada.

ORIGINAL POST: Friday, August 26 Six people were arrested early today, protesting mega-loads as the huge rigs rolled through their Latah County community.  The six, members of Wild Idaho Rising Tide, took part in a larger protest which saw several people lie down in the middle of Washington Street in Moscow, as scaled-down ExxonMobil mega-loads rolled on Highway 95 toward Coeur d’Alene before heading east on I-90 and north to the Kearl Oil Sands Project in Alberta, Canada.

Read more: Update: More Mega-Load Protesters Arrested

(By George Prentice, Boise Weekly)

Three More Megaload Protesters Arrested in Coeur d’Alene

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Three more protesters were arrested early Saturday in Coeur d’Alene as a megaload shipment of oil excavation equipment passed through the Lake City.

Law enforcement officers confirmed that the arrests were made by Idaho State Police, but the names were not released.

One woman taken into custody had refused to identify herself, officials said.

Read more: Three More Megaload Protesters Arrested in Coeur d’Alene

(By Mike Prager, The Spokesman-Review)