A policeman has threatened climate protesters in Nevada with his firearm after they staged a peaceful protest on the road to the Burning Man festival.
Activists blocked traffic into the event on Sunday, causing a stand-still spanning several miles on a major road in the state before rangers arrested them at gunpoint for “trespassing on tribal land.”
Videos posted online showed about half a dozen protesters from Seven Circles blocking a rural road using a trailer that they locked themselves onto, surrounded by banners reading “BURNERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!,” “ABOLISH CAPITALISM” and “GENERAL STRIKE FOR CLIMATE.”
The group says the protest was designed to draw attention to “capitalism’s inability to address climate’s ecological breakdown” and was meant as a protest against the “popularization of Burning Man among affluent people who do not live the stated values of Burning Man, resulting in the commodification of the event.”
But things turned ugly when state officers turned up and rammed through the protesters, wielding a gun shortly after.
Sharing the footage on social media, Extinction Rebellion said: “Environmental activists face violence from law enforcement worldwide, but this example is particularly horrifying.”
Watch it in full below:
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