Statement from FIGHT Concord Pines [previously on S!N] re: the events of 4/11 and 4/12
Nuthatch’s tree sit at the Concord Pines site ended last week as a result of horrific violence towards them and their supporters. They descended and exited the site safely. Sometime after they left, the tree and others around it were cut down.
An employee of Toll Brothers’ land clearing contractor, William J. Lang Land Clearing, used his tree-clearing equipment to physically assault a protester at around 7am on Monday morning 4/11 and to fell multiple trees next to Nuthatch’s sit the next day at around 6:15pm, one of which struck the platform and nearly killed Nuthatch. We believe the contractor was aware of Nuthatch’s presence in the tree, as supporters informed him, Bill Lang, and onsite Ann Arbor Police Department officers of it on Monday morning. That morning, a supporter also heard the contractor state that he would not hesitate to kill anyone he found in the trees. When the supporter informed the AAPD officers onsite of this threat, the officers, of course, did nothing.
On Tuesday evening, after cutting trees and clearing brush on the site all day, the employee advanced towards Nuthatch’s sit in his machine. He cut four trees, which dropped towards the platform. One of the trees collided with the platform as it fell, knocking the platform askew and Nuthatch into the air. Their rope and climbing harness, the construction of the sit, good fortune, and responsive comrades saved their life. It appears to us that thanks in part to the Toll Brothers’ utter disregard for the most basic of worksite safety precautions and city and state governments’ cowardly, toothless approach to permitting and development, this violent Lang Land Clearing worker felt enabled to attempt murder on non-violent protestors twice in two days.
Supporters of Nuthatch who responded to their call for help met further violence at the hands of Code 3 Security, the Toll Brothers’ hired private security. These fully-armed goons threatened supporters with Tasers, shoved people into the mud, and illegally handcuffed four of them before Ann Arbor police arrived. Once they did, AAPD did nothing to address the extreme danger posed to everyone on the site by the continued presence of the Lang employee and took no action against the Code 3 “officers” despite having witnessed their violence against supporters.
FIGHT Concord Pines invites supporters to contact us at fightforhousing [at] protonmail [dot] com, donate to our bail fund, or attend any of our upcoming events for more information. (All inquiries motivated by a desire to leverage our fight in myopic City Council politics will be discarded.)
Bail fund link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/bail-out-our-forest-defenders
