Some environmental activists in Oklahoma used a Hunger Games banner as part of a protest against Devon, an energy company. For their trouble, reports say they were locked up and are now facing terrorism charges.
Having gained access to a building bearing Devon’s name, the protestors erected two huge banners, one of them bearing the Mockingjay from Hunger Games. As Motherboard notes, there was also some glitter on this poster, which meant when it was unfurled, the glitter spilled down from a second-floor balcony.
While the mess was being cleaned up, and most of the protesters (two remained chained to the building’s front door) were leaving peacefully, the FBI turned up. With a Hazmat van. They examined the glitter — which they described as a “black substance” — and arrested everyone.
Attorney Douglas Parr told website Dissenter that suddenly “Police on the scene were communicating with someone off site attempting to find some statute in the Oklahoma anti-terrorism statutes”, and were “trying to figure out if one of those statutes could be applied to the banner droppers.”
They sure could. Especially since Parr says the term “biochemical assault” was now being mentioned. While the activists chained to the door were charged with trespassing, the two who had unfurled the Hunger Games banner were booked with “terrorism hoax”, a state felony. It’s still being decided if they can be charged; if they are, it carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
For real. Because of glitter. On a Hunger Games poster.
America.
For First Time, Anti-Terrorism Law Used to Have Americans Protesting Keystone XL Pipeline Arrested [Dissenter]
A Hunger Games Banner Can Get You Locked Up for Terrorism [Motherboard]
Comments
9 responses to “Report: Hunger Games Banner Has Protesters Facing Terrorism Charges”
Has the whole world gone insane.
It sure has.
No, only America.
Now, I think glitter is evil as much as the next person but come on, I think the most that glitter could do other than make things, glittery is attract children!
The glitterati strikes again!
…is glitter even in any way biological at all?
Not biological, but possibly organic. Something doesn’t have to be biological for Hazardous Materials officials to clean it up, it just needs to be… a chemically hazardous… material.
“Glitter never comes off: Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies” – Demetri Martin
You didn’t hear it from me, but a few years ago a department of government in Australia sent out invitations to their big Hawaiian-themed christmas party to the other departments they deal with (government branches, libraries, etc). Someone thought it would be a good idea to make the invitation Hawaiian-themed too. And what’s more Hawaiian than the beach? So they filled the envelopes with sand.
This was a few months after the whole “anthrax in the mail” thing happened in America.
And yep, what you’re guessing happened, happened. Public decontamination of old lady librarians and all.
(As far as I’m aware the only outcome was a very embarrassing public apology by the head of the department, though)
The problem – as it’s been for years – is that for police in ‘murica there’s no downside to massively overreacting and screaming “terrorism” whenever your eye catches something shiny.
Of course, these protestors could have mildly inconvenienced a corporation in ‘murica, so they’re toast – but for cases where a corporation or a VIP (Very Rich Person) isn’t affected things aren’t going to change until people start saying, for example, “hey, how about we *don’t* shut down Boston because a cop found a Mooninite outlined in LEDs.”