[T]hree protesters were arrested in the Statehouse Thursday morning for refusing to leave the House chamber during floor debate.
Asa Skinder, 18, and Alec Fleischer, 21, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful trespassing. Carmen Richardson-Skinder, 15, was also arrested but has not been charged yet as she is a minor, said Capitol Police Chief Matthew Romei. Skinder gave her name to VTDigger.
Protesters, affiliated with Extinction Rebellion Montpelier, said they resorted to interrupting floor debate because rallies held earlier this year and meetings had not resulted in bold enough climate action.
Shortly after 11 a.m., members of the House were in the middle of a floor debate on a medical monitoring bill, S.37, when roughly a dozen climate activists filed in to the upper gallery.
“We are in a climate emergency,” one protester began saying. House Speaker Mitzi Johnson immediately banged her gavel down multiple times, calling for order in the chamber.
Johnson said that the chamber is “open to anybody for observation and we encourage people to participate in democracy in a productive way that respects the rules of the House and all points of view.” She then tried to shift the chamber back to a pending vote on an amendment to the medical monitoring bill.
But demonstrators continued, saying lawmakers had failed to take meaningful action on climate change this session. They unfurled banners that said “Fossil fuels kill” and “See you in January,” a reference to the start of the next legislative session.
“There is a huge gulf between what we should be doing and what we’re doing now,” said Henry Harris of Marshfield.
The protesters threw a reported 3,000 pieces of pink and white paper over the balcony railing that said “Climate justice now,” “Planet over profit,” and “See you in January.”
The speaker swiftly stopped House proceedings, asking lawmakers and members of the public to leave the chamber. Protesters, a few members of the House’s Progressive caucus and reporters remained.
“If you refuse to leave the chamber, that’s kind of on you,” Romei told reporters in the galley.
Multiple protesters were removed by Capitol Police while speaking. Police informed them that they would be arrested if they remained in the chamber. Police also asked members of the press to leave the galley multiple times.
Johnson later told police that members of the media were allowed to stay. During a press conference that afternoon, however, she expressed displeasure with the three Progressive representatives — Brian Cina, Selene Colburn and Zachariah Ralph — who had remained in the chamber.
“When you are elected to serve all of the people of your district, in my view you also make a pledge to work productively within the rules that you signed up for when you ran for office,” she said. “I’m disappointed, very disappointed that there are members that refused to leave the chamber to allow Statehouse police to do their job and I think that behavior’s counterproductive.”
Members of the Progressive caucus have been pushing their colleagues this session to take up more aggressive legislation to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Fleischer, a Middlebury College student who was arrested, said in an interview after that he had tried more peaceful ways to get lawmakers’ attention, like marching from Middlebury to Montpelier last month, but felt those methods weren’t working. He said he was tired of “incrementalism” on the part of Democrats and wanted to see a “real prioritization” of climate initiatives.
One specific proposal Vermont climate activists will be pushing for next session is a version of the Green New Deal, said Fleischer.
Fleischer and Skinder will be arraigned at Washington County Court next Thursday.
Extinction Rebellion gained international attention last October when over 1,000 protesters issued a “declaration of rebellion” outside the Houses of Parliament in London. Last month, activists staged a series of “die-ins” to highlight the threat humans face from climate change.
