Washington, March 2, 2014: over one thousand young people marched on the White House demanding President Obama reject the Keystone XL pipeline and uphold his commitment to protecting the environment. Hundreds of these students then handcuffed themselves to the White House fence in the largest youth act of civil disobedience in a generation! There were 398 arrests.
According to DC Indymedia, "an estimated 2,000 opponents of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline marched from Georgetown University to the White House for the largest one-day civil disobediance against the pipeline DC has seen."
Many locked themselves to the White House fence using flex-cuffs. Others simply refused to move when the cops "closed" the sidewalk, still others sat down by what appeared to be a second showing of the black tarp fake oil spill first set up in front of Sec of State John Kerry's house.
Hundreds of people zip tied to the White House fence and doing a die-in to protest Keystone XL. #xldissent pic.twitter.com/2P94x6wbT7
— Jenna Pope (@BatmanWI) March 2, 2014
Due to the number of protesters, arrests took many hours and were still ongoing as this was written. As the arrests continued the weather turned cold and rain began to fall, the first breath of a oncoming winter storm. Some protesters were still tied to the White House fence 6 hours after they arrived in cold rain!
A report went out over Twitter of 400 arrests before all were arrested, yet a mainstream new outlet spoke only of a "couple hundred" arrests.
Bill McKibben reported 398 arrests, same as the 398ppm concentration of CO2 being reported in the atmosphere. There was another report of 450 arrests, there is still some confusion about exact numbers but they were very high and far more than that mainstream media report.
Many of the protesters were first-time, student activists standing up for their own futures. If the Keystone XL or any other tar sands export pipeline ever reaches from the Alberta Tar Sands to any seaport, the potential will then exist to burn all of the tar sands. Climate scientists say that would be "game over" for the climate.
More reporting from DC Media Group: Students to Obama: Take Our Future Seriously, Scrub Keystone Pipeline
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