Three climate activists were arrested in the Vermont House chamber Thursday morning after they interrupted legislative proceedings. Capitol Police also appeared to threaten members of the media with arrest when they refused a request to vacate the public space.
About a dozen protesters initiated the demonstration by unfurling banners from a second-floor gallery and delivering a series of speeches about the urgent threat of climate change and what they called a failure by the legislature to address it.
At first, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) tried to restore order from the podium with forceful strikes of her gavel. After Capitol Police led a woman out of the chamber, protesters threw hundreds of slips of paper off the balcony, showering legislators seated below. Johnson declared a recess and ordered representatives to clear the room.
After most lawmakers had departed, a man approached the vacant speaker’s podium, pounded the gavel and declared his fellow activists “in order” and “truthful” before Capitol Police removed him from the chamber.
Several protesters left after they were threatened with arrest, but three were apprehended. Carmen Richardson-Skinder, 15, and her brother, Asa Skinder, 18, of Montpelier, were arrested along with Alec Fleischer, 21, of Middlebury. (Jennifer Skinder, the siblings’ mother, was the first demonstrator to be escorted from the building.)
Before they were led away in handcuffs, the trio held a banner that said “see you in January,” a pledge that they would return to seek climate action in the 2020 legislative session.
The three later said they’d each been charged with unlawful trespassing and disorderly conduct and released with court dates for next week.
During the standoff, Capitol Police repeatedly threatened to arrest those who remained in the chamber — apparently including a group of reporters documenting the event. At first, Chief Matthew Romei requested that the journalists leave voluntarily.
“I’m asking you to cooperate with us,” he told reporters after VTDigger.org editor Colin Meyn objected to the directive.
Romei then clarified the request: “Not really cooperate with us, but to cooperate with the speaker’s instructions. She owns this chamber. You don’t.”
“It’s the people’s chamber,” Meyn replied.
“Don’t we own the chamber?” a Seven Days reporter asked.
Romei did not respond, instead reiterating his request that reporters leave.
A few minutes later, Romei stood in the well of the House, reading from a clipboard, and announced that those gathered in the chamber were part of an “unlawful assembly” and would be arrested if they didn’t leave.
Romei said Sergeant-at-Arms Janet Miller and Vermont state law “demand all those assembled up there—.” The chief paused and looked directly at the protesters before training his eyes on those in the press gallery, “—to immediately disperse” or they “may be arrested or subject to other police actions … regardless of their purpose” in the chamber.
Johnson intervened after a Seven Days editor called her office to object to demands that reporters leave the chamber. She directed Romei not to arrest any members of the media.
“I was not aware of that [at the time],” the speaker said later Thursday. “I am not supportive of that. Press absolutely has every right to be there, and we’ll be doing a debrief with the chief of police so that he knows his focus needs to be on the people causing the disruption.”
Romei later denied threatening journalists with arrest.
“As we did today, we’ll always ask members of the media to leave the area,” he said, explaining that it’s “a pretty standard mitigation strategy” to remove protesters’ audience. “We don’t want to arrest anyone. We want them to clear out of the area and let business continue. It’ll always be an ask. I’m probably more media-friendly than a lot of police. I don’t mind you guys at all. We just try to get our business done so we can let the legislature get theirs.”
The chief added, “I’m not picking a fight with the media. That’s never what is on my mind at all.”
Johnson said that, though she had engaged in acts of civil disobedience herself, Thursday’s demonstration had been counterproductive. “They were unfortunately not following the rules of the House that allowed reasonable debate to continue within the way we work,” she said.
The speaker said she was not pleased that two lawmakers, Rep. Brian Cina (P/D-Burlington) and Rep. Zach Ralph (P-Hartland), remained in their seats during the protest and verbally encouraged the demonstrators.
“I need to see that everybody in this House wants to be productive and move us forward towards adjournment,” she said. “I was very clear with the representatives that I was disappointed in them, that I thought they were being counterproductive, that they weren’t being cooperative members of the House to get us to the debate that does need to happen.”
John Walters contributed reporting.
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Give me an effing break:
“Johnson said that, though she had engaged in acts of civil disobedience herself, Thursday’s demonstration had been counterproductive. They were unfortunately not following the rules of the House that allowed reasonable debate to continue within the way we work,” she said.”
So, basically, civil disobedience should be polite and productive, as defined by those whose (in)actions are being protested? Civil disobedience should follow Robert’s Rules? Et tu, Vermont?
Kudos to you, Taylor, and to the young people who demonstrated courage, and to Brian Cina and Zach Ralph who visibly supported our collective right to free speech.
If the Progressive (Reps Cina and zach) want to incite and encourage protesters to further delay an already delayed legislative season at the tune of $250k per week in overtime, Maybe Speaker Johnson should dock their paychecks for an appropriate amount.
When looking at this situation it might be wise to consider our reaction if this disruption of the legislative process had been done by a group of people whose position we did not agree with. Say, gun rights or anti-abortion activists. Many feel passionately about what matters most to themselves. However a democratic republic depends on having a place where elected representatives can meet, discuss and consider legislation.
Chain yourselves outside the hall if you feel you must, but let our precious democracy carry on inside.
So what is the point, Vermont already has the lowest co2 emission of any state in the country. So we can add a carbon tax to make it even more expensive for the people who live here. Or do we need to add more solar arrays and batteries. The only thing that solar power generates in Vt is tax subsidies and carbon credits.
The disruption to the House was a mere blip on the whole of disruption to people’s lives that will follow failure to begin meaningful and immediate action on global warming and climate change.
“The disruption to the House was a mere blip on the whole of disruption to people’s lives that will follow failure to begin meaningful and immediate action on global warming and climate change.”
Everyone thinks that the importance of their cause means that they don’t have to follow any rules and can say or do whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want, like children throwing a tantrum in the supermarket.
Such as disrupting public meetings for the cause of climate change or for the cause of gun rights or for the cause of stopping abortion. Such as blocking traffic so that ambulances and fire trucks can’t get through. Such as inciting violence against people online. Such as crashing their cars into anti-racism protesters.
Every one of them is wrong, regardless of what their cause is.
It’s a tired old tactic to turn an issue-based discussion into a discourse on procedure. The planet doesn’t care about your procedural niceties — your children and grandchildren won’t either. Vermont is a beautiful state with unspoiled vistas and a wealth of natural resources. Maybe that lures Vermonters into complacency–but it shouldn’t. Climate catastrophe affects us now and will devastate us in the future. By speaking out loudly to protect the planet — and that requires a far more comprehensive effort than a “carbon tax”–we can have a disproportionate impact on the rest of the world. If even tiny Vermont refuses to ignore the daily extinction happening all around us, how can everyone else pretend it isn’t an emergency?
The protest was timely and urgent. Our elected officials can’t even agree on financing the cleanup of our bodies of water. This is just a small piece of the environmental catastrophe we are facing and our legislature is bogged down in turf wars. When will they address the big issues of pollution from vehicles and animal agriculture? Probably not until it way too late. We have less than 12 years to fix our bad habits, and the legislature is turtle slow in addressing the issue.
*The protest was timely and urgent.*
Gimme a totally partisan freakin break.
If it had been gun rights protesters, instead of climate change warriors, or if it had been anti-immigration protesters, or anti-abortion protesters, you*d be howling about their uncivil disruption of the legislative proceedings. It is only because it was a disruptive protest THAT YOU LIKE that you say it was justified.
Total and complete hypocrisy.
A disruptive protest is a disruptive protest. Period.
Check your privilege at the door. The climate catastrophe is real and present. The others are not.