Monday Update on RAMPS
Subject: Dorian fine, others not so much
Thank you, SJSF, for spreading the word about RAMPS’s bold action against mountaintop removal and Dorian’s role in it. I have a report from yesterday afternoon that Dorian and all the other women arrested in the protest are together in jail, healthy and in good spirits.
Unfortunately, the men have not fared as well. Dustin Steele, the twenty year old son and grandson of WV coal miners, was taken out of his cell yesterday and badly beaten by police. Other inmates reported that as he left the room where they hurt him, he struggled to or was unable to walk.
This is an atrocity, a horrible aberration in the history of the campaign against mountaintop removal, but it is also a wakeup call. If we play it right, we’ll be able to expose the inappropriate practices of (some) WV police and the collusion we believe to exist between them and the coal companies. For now, though, we just need to get Dustin, Dorian and eighteen others out of jail.
We’ve set up a fund for their bail, which is currently at a ridiculous and potentially unconstitutional $25,000 per person. We’re hoping to get it reduced soon, but the $6,000 we have so far is still not going be enough.
Thank you. Glad to have you all with us in this fight.
From Charleston, WV,
Zak Rogoff
