PHOTO/CAMP WHITE PINE
PENNSYLVANIA — I’m a cynic when it comes to court cases. Too often, I’ve seen our courts demonstrate that they are not so much about “justice” as they are about state repression, comforting the comforted and afflicting the afflicted.
My friend Ellen Gerhart [a retired teacher and grandmother] was tried for “indirect criminal contempt.” [Energy Transportation Partners (ETP) alleged that she baited a bear onto the pipeline easement on her wooded 27-acre property.] I’m not sure what the exact legal definition is—and it doesn’t matter to me because the laws were not written to be just.
The backstory: the Gerharts have owned a beautiful forested plot of land in Huntingdon County for over 30 years. They allowed the forest to prosper, mature, exist in a protected state. They constructed paths through it and Ellen walked it daily.
Sunoco Logistics (ETP), lusting after money, decided they needed a pipeline, decided the pipeline would pass through the Gerharts’ property (and a whole lot of other folks’ property) whether the Gerharts wanted it or not. But, because the Gerharts didn’t want their trees cut down, didn’t want a pipeline carrying fracked gas liquids to pass through their property, they refused to sign an easement for the Mariner East II pipeline to pass through. But, ETP, anxious to transport fracked gas liquids for export convinced the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission that their “product” was a “public good” and had a portion of the Gerharts’ beautiful woods seized via eminent domain. The “public good” will be profit for a tiny few. The public harm will be ongoing and devastating.
Judge Zanic, saw only contempt, a refusal to obey the dictates of an unjust restraining order. Reading from a script he prepared well in advance, he scolded Ellen. He spoke of his restraint, as long as she “obeyed” the law. He talked about how he “let” her “protest.”
That is a stinking pile of manure. I witnessed his restraint. On the day of the first cutting, almost two years ago, he sent the Sheriff to protect the chainsaw crew against a bunch of observers. His “restrained” Sheriff arrested people, imposed a $250,000 bail on one of them, held them in jail.
He lied when he said he exercised restraint, when he said he respected Ellen’s Constitutional rights and when he suggested there are legal ways to restrain monied corporations from stealing and destroying. Worst of all, he lied about administering justice. Judge Zanic punished a woman who stood up to protect her homeplace when the “justice” system refused to. He lectured Ellen and all in attendance, about how refusing to follow his orders makes a mockery of justice.
Huge corporations stealing and destroying the property of a 63-year old retired teacher is a mockery of justice. Making her sit through a court hearing in leg irons and cuffs with a guard standing behind her is a mockery of justice. Sentencing Ellen to two to six months in jail for protecting what she loves is making a mockery of justice. Calling such blatant injustice “justice” is making a mockery of justice.
We must rise up, protect what we love, and demand real justice.
See full statement at facebook.com/michael.bagdescanning/posts/1898349216852657
