Greenpeace leaders have definitely developed a special niche when it comes to protest tactics. While some groups might utilize shocking street theater (think PETA), Greenpeace has really mastered the arrest. In just the past couple of years, Greenpeace has been involved in acts of global lawlessness such as:
- Chaining a Russian oil rig to a dock, resulting in the arrest of 44 Greenpeace activists;
- Hanging a multi-story banner from Procter & Gamble’s downtown Cincinnati building, which led to nine felony arrests (one activist has plead guilty to felony breaking and entering);
- Attaching a “survival pod” to an oil rig in Greenland, two Greenpeace activists were later arrested in Denmark;
- Scaled a Gazprom oil platform in the Arctic Ocean, leading to piracy charges (memo to Greenpeace: relying on Vladimir Putin to be lenient is not a wise strategy);
- Destroying an Australian government experimental wheat trial because the crops were genetically improved, resulting in guilty pleas from two activists and Greenpeace paying AUD$280,000 in reparations (about $250,000 US);
Greenpeace arrests go back years. In 2004 alone 13 activists were arrested boarding a ship in protest of genetically improved foods, 11 activists were arrested outside a Brazilian nuclear facility, and French police arrested three Greenpeace activists in connection with a nuclear power protest.
Law-breaking is apparently a pillar of Greenpeace’s modus operandi. Is this really a “social welfare” organization?