Tim DeChristopher arrested in Boston protest


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SALT LAKE CITY — Tim DeChristopher, the environmental activist who was sent to prison for disrupting a BLM land sale in Utah, was arrested in Boston Wednesday during a protest against a new natural gas pipeline.

DeChristopher was one of 26 people arrested for entering the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline worksite, Boston police officer Rachel McGuire confirmed. The former University of Utah student was among eight activists who laid in the trench alongside the pipe and refused to leave, having to be carried out on stretchers by police, she said.

Those who were pulled from the trench were arrested for investigation of trespassing, disturbing the peace and resisting arrest, McGuire said.

Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, said bail in trespassing cases is "nominal" and that all protesters are believed to have been released from jail.

According to a press release sent out by DeChristopher on Thursday, protesters included Karenna Gore, daughter of former Vice President Al Gore, and Buddhist, Jewish, Protestant and Unitarian clergy. The group equated the pipeline trench to a mass grave, foreshadowing a future of deaths resulting from the changing climate.

DeChristopher and others assisting with his social media accounts chronicled the demonstration online Wednesday, tweeting the march's progress, broadcasting on Periscope, sharing photos of the action for media use and posting video of DeChristopher's remarks on YouTube.

"This is not just a pipeline trench, what they are digging is a mass grave," an emotional DeChristopher said in the video. "We know that every new fossil fuel infrastructure will lead to another mass grave somewhere in the world. We don't know where that mass grave will be, we don't know who will fill that mass grave, but we know that this mass grave that Spectra is digging here today, this one is ours."

The crowd answered DeChristopher's speech with calls of "Yes!" and "Amen!" as construction on the pipeline continued in the background. The activist told the crowd that the time has come to use their heavy hearts as anchors, combining grief with resistance.

"We can't just grieve like we have learned to grieve, like we have learned to grieve through so many generations, where we can take time off and step away from what's going on in the work and grieve privately, grieve in our congregations and in our own homes," DeChristopher said. "We need to not just grieve, he have to resist at the same time. We have to fight back."

DeChristopher served 15 months in prison and six months in a halfway house after being convicted of violating an onshore oil and gas leasing act and making a false statement when he bid on land parcels he had no intention of paying for in a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction in 2008. DeChristopher bid on 14 parcels for $1.8 million.

Environmental activist Tim DeChristopher lies in a trench where a natural gas pipeline is being built through the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. DeChristopher was among 26 of the protesters who entered the construction site and were arrested. DeChristopher served two years in federal prison for a previous act of civil disobedience, disrupting a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction in Utah. (Photo: Peter Bowden)
Environmental activist Tim DeChristopher lies in a trench where a natural gas pipeline is being built through the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. DeChristopher was among 26 of the protesters who entered the construction site and were arrested. DeChristopher served two years in federal prison for a previous act of civil disobedience, disrupting a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction in Utah. (Photo: Peter Bowden)

The impromptu act of civil disobedience garnered DeChristopher a national following and was later recounted in the documentary "Bidder 70."

A West Virginia native, DeChristopher moved to Utah and studied economics at the U. Following his release from prison, he moved to Boston to attend Harvard Divinity School.

Of more than 50 protesters, only those who ignored safety warnings by going under or around barriers to enter the site and halt work on the pipeline were arrested, McGuire said.

"We don't want to make arrests, we're here to assist these protesters and make sure they safely exercise their right to demonstrate," McGuire said.

Police tell protesters ahead of time that it is dangerous to enter the active construction site and that anyone who crosses the barrier is subject to arrest. Demonstrations at the pipeline site have become a regular occurrence, McGuire said. Only those who have entered the site have been arrested, including a previous group of about 20 people.

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McKenzie Romero

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