(Washington, D.C., November 15, 2024) – The sentencing of Donald Zepeda to two years in prison and Jackson Green, known by his artist’s name “Kroegeor,” to 18 months in prison for a symbolic protest at the National Archives is yet another in a string of disproportionate responses to peaceful climate activists, Climate Rights International said today. This troubling trend was documented in our recent report, On Thin Ice: Disproportionate Responses to Climate Change Protesters in Democratic Countries.
On February 14, 2024, Zepeda and Kroegeor threw paint powder on the protective case of the United States Constitution at the National Archives Museum in Washington, D.C. They said that their action was intended to draw attention to the climate crisis and to call on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency. No permanent damage was done to the Constitution.
Zepeda and Kroegeor were charged with felony destruction of government property, a sentence that carries a possible penalty of up to ten years in prison. Both pled guilty. Kroegeor was sentenced on Tuesday, November 12, and Zepeda was sentenced on Friday, November 15, in both cases by Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
Following the throwing of the powder, Kroegeor stated, “This country is founded on the conditions that all men are created equally and endowed with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We all deserve clean air, water, food, and a livable climate.”
“It’s disgraceful that peaceful activists are subjected to lengthy prison sentences while the corporations that have driven us into this crisis continue to operate with impunity,” said Brad Adams, Executive Director at Climate Rights International. “Instead of targeting activists trying to raise awareness of the existential threat of climate change and its impacts on people, the government should take urgent steps to limit the emissions that have caused the climate crisis.”
Zepeda and Kroegeor are not the first peaceful climate protesters to be imprisoned. Joanna Smith pled guilty to a charge of causing harm to a National Gallery exhibit after she placed water-soluble fingerpaint on the protective case of Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen statue. Judge Jackson sentenced her to two months in prison and barred her from Washington D.C., museums, and monuments for two years. The trial of Timothy Martin, Smith’s partner in the action, will begin on November 19, 2024, and will also be heard by Judge Jackson.
Zepeda, Kroegeor, Smith, and Martin all stated that their actions were intended to highlight the failure of the United States government to address the climate emergency in a meaningful way. With the looming return of President Donald Trump to the White House, who has called climate change a “hoax” and called on law enforcement to use aggressive tactics against protesters, many fear an even harsher approach to climate protesters in the future.
“In a democracy, the response to peaceful protest should never be to seek lengthy prison sentences or repressive punishments,” Adams said. “With Donald Trump coming to power in January, the Biden administration is setting a terrible precedent that it should urgently reconsider.”
The recent cases in the U.S. are part of a global trend of increasingly severe responses to peaceful civil disobedience by climate protesters in democratic nations. In the United Kingdom, Phoebe Plummer received two years for throwing soup on the protective covering of a painting, Morgan Trowland received three years for climbing atop a bridge, and Roger Hallam received five years for giving advice over Zoom about orchestrating a disruptive protest. In the Netherlands, Sieger Sloot was charged with the felony of sedition for asking his followers to join a protest in front of the Hague on social media. In Germany Winfried Lorenz received 22 months in prison for blocking a road with the climate group Last Generation to call attention to the climate crisis.
Governments are not solely relying on prison sentences to crack down on peaceful protesters. In France, the climate activist group Earth Uprisings was ordered to be disbanded before a court overturned the decision. The German state of Bavaria has used preventative detention to keep activists from joining protests in the first place. Governments in Europe have used “pain grips” and water cannons against peaceful climate protesters, a practice condemned by Michel Forst, the special rapporteur on environmental defenders under the Aarhus Convention.
Peaceful civil disobedience, while often disruptive and sometimes unpopular, is a protected form of expression under international human rights law. Civil disobedience has been instrumental in achieving critical social and political advances worldwide, such as the Suffragette Movement to gain the right to vote for women; the Indian independence struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi; the Civil Rights Movement in the United States; and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
Those engaging in civil disobedience are willing to risk consequences. But, in a democratic society, the laws and their enforcement should be reasonable, and the consequences proportionate.
“Civil disobedience has a long and honorable history in the United States, one that has been emulated in many parts of the world as part of freedom struggles,” said Adams. “Rather than imposing lengthy prison sentences on those who sound the alarm about global warming, the government should honor a form of protest that has secured so many of our freedoms.”
