#ContainerWall
[Ongoing thread!] [Edit Dec 18: We won! But read the thread or the story on my website]
On my way to the US-Mexico border, where the Arizona governor is building an illegal shipping container wall. Protesters have shut it down for now. I'll be posting photos, depending on cell coverage. Should be there in about an hour and a half, just before sunset.
We just had a visit from Cochise County Sheriff Operations Commander. He showed up in plain clothes, but did not try to hide his identity. He said he had seen online that there was a "concert" here, and thought he had better come check it out.
The protest camp is right next to all the contractor's heavy equipment. They have a security guard here 24/7.
The Cochise County Sheriff is taking an extremely hands off practice toward the protest, despite supporting the wall.
[minor edits for clarity]
This wall is being built at the request of Arizona's outgoing Governor Ducey on public, national forest, land. No environmental review or permit process of any kind has been done.
The Forest Service has declared it illegal and have filed a lawsuit, but not interfered directly. Only the protesters here have stopped ongoing construction.
According to the protesters, federal investigators have come collecting evidence for use in the lawsuit against the governor.
[minor edits for clarity]
AZ Governor's container wall is a barbaric symbol to racism and terrible border policy. It is meant as a middle finger to Biden for stopping the Trump wall.
It's clearly not even really meant to work to stop people. It's simple enough to walk around where it stops at creek beds and it's full of walk through holes.
#border #BorderLands #BorderWall
Morning update!
At dawn the construction crew came back. They said the had orders from the AZ Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to move their equipment to a nearby staging area and to remove the one single container that was not double stacked.
One of the workers thought the logic was that they wanted it removed because it was a "safety hazard" because protesters have been climbing up on top of it.
The main focus of the protests is the environmental destruction created by the building of the AZ Governor Ducey's container wall. It is being carried out willy-nilly, at breakneck speed with no federal permits, despite being on National Forest land.
Or, rather, they were building it until protesters stepped in, and blockaded the construction.
The construction crews have shown no regard for environmental standards, pushing dirt into streams and bulldozing oak trees. #BorderWall #border
The container wall along the US-Mexico border, looking eastward toward Coronado National Monument. Workers can be seen along the top, stringing razor wire.
Protesters have blockaded new container wall construction and shut it down. For now, they have chosen to not risk arrest by interfering with barbed wire installation on the existing containers.
Container wall protest camp at dawn. Shortly after, the workers removed their equipment down the road to their staging area.
It looks like construction will remain halted as long as the protest camp remains here. This is a major victory for protesters. It is rare for nonviolent direct action to have such an immediate success.
Incoming Dem. Governor Katie Hobbs has said she'll stop construction on Jan. 2 when she takes office.
[edited to fix a mistake]
A private security guard watches the container wall protest camp as protesters keep warm around a campfire. To the right, a large stack of shipping containers is stacked in the contractor's staging area. They have set up a large stadium light to illuminate their equipment.
Many new people have arrived, boosting numbers to over a dozen.
The security guards have been cool. We gave them some hot water for tea. They might be good witnesses in case any right wing counter protesters show up.
Dawn at the container wall worksite. The contractor crew has arrived to continue stringing razor wire (foreground rolls), but no new construction will be done as long as protesters are here.
The containers all had frost on them this morning, but the sun is warming things up quickly.
Each container in the wall has a spray-painted number on it. There are 461 of them, 2- high, for a total of 922.
That's 922 containers that will need to be removed.
#ContainerWall.
#BorderWall
#Border
#ContainerWall update Monday, December 12. No work crews today because of snow and rain with much more snow predicted tonight. Protest base camp is enduring the storm and holding the line. The snow has already started.
I drove up and down the wall road to get some photos and up on the ridge to get cell coverage. After tonight's predicted rain and snow, there are road sections that will become impossible because whole drainages ravines are completely blocked.
The #borderlands looking westward from Coronado National Memorial in Cochise county Arizona. The 3 1/2 mile long shipping #ContainerWall divides the US on the right and Mexico on the left.
I can't see any difference, can you?
The land will ultimately endure this insult we've inflicted on it. But in the meantime, for the sake of the people and animals of the borderlands, this emblem of rotten politics has to go.
My camera shoots fascists
Led By Gilded Fools