Video shows Tribal Rangers in Nevada smashing through a barricade of anti-capitalist climate activists who were blocking traffic to the annual “Burning Man” event on Sunday.
Footage of Sunday’s incident shows about six Seven Circles and Extinction Rebellion activists blocking a rural road in a form of protest by chaining themselves to a trailer. The activists’ road blockage resulted in a miles-long standstill as people attempted to make their way to the popular “Burning Man” event.
The Seven Circles and Extinction Rebellion climate activists were surrounded by signs such as “Abolish Capitalism,” “Burners of the World, United!” and “General Strike for Climate.”
“Get off the highway. This is a state route,” a Nevada Ranger can be heard saying in the video. “Everybody will be arrested if not.”
After warning the climate activists to clear the road, Rangers from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Police Department drove a truck through the blockade. After forcibly removing the trailer from the roadway, the Rangers arrested the activists, while protestors claimed, “We’re non-violent.”
In the video, one Ranger can be seen holding a woman at gunpoint and demanding she drop to the ground. The same Ranger can be heard urging the woman to “stop resisting” arrest later in the video.
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Another Ranger can be heard in the video claiming the climate activists were “trespassing on tribal land.”
According to The New York Post, Seven Circles claimed Sunday’s protest was meant to bring awareness to “capitalism’s inability to address climate’s ecological breakdown.”
The climate activist group added that the protest stood 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.”
