Three members of the Denton Drilling Awareness Group were arrested when they refused to move away from the entrance to a fracking site where work began today.
Before arresting them, however, Sergeant Jenkins, a 30-year veteran of the Denton police department, thanked Adam Briggle, a professor at the University of North Texas, and Denton residents Niki Chochrek and Tara Linn Hunter for the work they had done.
Sergeant Jenkins thanks Adam Briggle for his service to the community. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
The three were charged with criminal trespass and released before noon. The arrests come a week after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation that prohibits cities and towns in Texas from banning fracking.
In a prepared statement before his arrest, Briggle wrote:
“An act of civil disobedience requires you to distinguish just laws from unjust laws. I have read much about this and discussed Antigone, Thoreau, and Martin Luther King, Jr. with my students. But I have never acted until now, because never before has that distinction been so clear in my mind. A just law would give those exposed to the harms of fracking a meaningful voice. An unjust law would subordinate those voices to the dictates of the powerful and wealthy. HB 40 is an unjust law.”
Adam Briggle arrested for trespassing at a Vantage frack site. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
Tara Linn Hunter arrested for trespassing at a Vantage frack site. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
Niki Chochrek arrested for trespassing at a Vantage frack site. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
Yesterday, before fracking within the city limits resumed, a group that supports the fracking ban, including Denton Councilpersons Kevin Roden and Keely Briggs, gathered at City Hall.
Rally in front of City Hall in support of the fracking ban. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
