A radical environmentalist group sought confrontation with the attorney general of Michigan in an attempt to get him to shut down a decades-old oil pipeline.
About 40 members of “Earth First” converged on the Midland home of Attorney General Bill Schuette on Wednesday, but they didn’t just make their opinions known from the road right-of-way.
WNEM reports:
To make their message clear, the protesters spread chocolate syrup on Schuette’s windows and used it to write “Pipes Spill” in his driveway, but the person they were trying to reach wasn’t even there.
But that’s not all.
The attorney general’s office put out a statement after the attack:
For about 30 minutes, about 40 thugs pounded on the doors and windows, attempting to intimidate the Attorney General’s family and the Attorney General in his role as the chief law enforcement officer for the State of Michigan.
Furthermore, the mob defaced the home, throwing unknown substances over the house and driveway, seemingly to simulate spilled oil related to the oil pipeline issue in the Straits of Mackinac, and also set up signs and gravestones around the yard, all while people continued to pound on the front door and windows.
“In fact, based on how violent the beating of the front door sounded from inside, Mrs. Schuette believed during the attack that the goal was to break the front door down,” according to spokeswoman Andrea Bitely.
The group admitted to also hanging a large banner from tree in Schuette’s front yard which read, “No Line 5: Pipelines Equal Ecocide,” according to its website.
They want Schuette to shut down a pipeline that has run through the five-mile Straits of Mackinac for 63 years.
“He’s so terrified of this Hershey’s syrup, and yet he’s not doing anything to shut down Line 5,” activist Dan Ayler told the Detroit News. “I wonder if he can imagine what it would be like to live along the pipeline and actually experience what a real oil split would look like.”
Police deemed the mob “professional protesters,” as many of their license plates were from out of state.
Despite all of that, no arrests were made. Police says officers remained outside the home “until the demonstrators left.”
An activist with the group warned of an “escalation” of tactics.
“If public officials continue to threaten our safety, then we will continue to threaten their security,” “Frida” said on the group’s website.
“Violence and intimidation has no place in this situation or any other,” Schuette said.
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