Things are heating up in Portland, and I'm not referring to the 100-degree temperatures that are cooking the Greenpeas "activists" dangling from the St. Johns Bridge like so many sausages; a federal judge in Alaska has declared Greenpeas in contempt of her federal court decision regarding their interference with Shell Oil's arctic operations. Accordingly, she's fining them $2500 for each hour that their "activists" continue to block passage of the icebreaker Fennica, effective immediately.
At the court hearing in Anchorage, Judge Gleason said the hourly fine against Greenpeace would increase over the next few days unless the blockade is lifted. It would jump to $5,000 an hour on Friday, $7,500 an hour on Saturday, and $10,000 an hour on Sunday.
"They need to be off the ropes," she said.
And this afternoon, things got even more heated as police shut down the bridge, assembled an aerial SWAT team to forcibly remove the "activists", and began towing the other ones, who've been paddling around in their little plastic kayaks, off the river.
Crews shut down the bridge and set up barricades at both ends just before 2:30 p.m. Thursday. A high-angle rescue team, State Police, Portland Police and the Coast Guard are on scene.
And it's underway, much to the panic and amazement of the kiddies:
UPDATE, 3:22 pm: Protest organizers confirm that Portland police officers have begun removing activists dangling from ropes. "Support needed ASAP," they wrote in a mass text. "Climbers are being extracted."
It's unclear as to what, exactly, they hope to garner from any "support" - enough is enough, and whether they like it or not, the kiddies are coming down from their swingsets. One ignorant girl's "livestreaming" it. All in all, I can only suggest that popcorn is in order.
