Reflecting a new and troubling pattern of repression in law enforcement’s treatment of climate activists, Joanna Smith and Tim Martin, supporters of the climate group Declare Emergency, have been indicted on federal conspiracy charges for a nonviolent climate protest that took place on April 27th at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Smith and Martin were arrested after smearing paint on a glass case (and only on the case) that encloses Edgar Degas’ famous sculpture, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen Years. In footage taken during the April action, Smith is shown holding up her hands coated in red paint and saying, “This art is beautiful, and we’re destroying it with climate change. We need our leaders to take serious action to tell us the truth about what’s happening with the climate.”

Although no direct damage to the artwork occurred or was attempted, and despite the fact that estimated total damage to the installation was in the neighborhood of a mere $2,400, the federal charges brought against Martin and Smith carry a maximum penalty of a $500,000 fine and ten years in prison. The severity of these charges follows a recent pattern of unjustifiably harsh (and possibly illegal) measures taken against climate activists. This seems to be part of a deliberate strategy of intimidation against such groups and their sympathizers.

On Wednesday May 31st, an Atlanta police department SWAT team together with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested three people who had not engaged in climate protest. Those arrested were merely supporters of previously arrested activists. They were trying to organize their legal defense and raise bond money for them – activities protected as part of an accused person’s constitutional right to a fair trial. The charges included “money laundering” and “charity fraud,” words that smack of some sort of underworld conspiracy. These arrests come on the heels of what has been called “capricious and ungrounded” domestic terrorism charges, leveled indiscriminately against protesters of the proposed $90 million Atlanta police training center known as Cop City. Cop City is opposed by environmentalists and many other social justice activists.

In addition, on January 18th of this year, police shot and killed the Venezuelan eco-activist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, known as Tortuguita, near a Cop City encampment. Police claim that Terán fired at them without warning, an allegation at odds with the autopsy that demonstrates that Tortuguita’s hands were raised at the time of death.

The Degas sculpture is universally revered today as a masterpiece, but this was not always the case. When “Little Dancer” was first exhibited in 1881, both the artist and the young model, who was considered ugly, were derided and dismissed by many critics and other commentators. Just as Degas’ motives and methods were misunderstood by his contemporaries, so the actions of climate activists like Smith and Martin are today dismissed as destructive, when in fact their aim is to preserve creation (including artistic creation) from those who would despoil it for the sake of profit.

Declare Emergency released a statement that says, in part, “We understand the value and importance of art in our society, and we also know that it and everything we love is at stake if we don’t tackle the climate emergency with the urgency that it deserves.”

We deeply deplore the federal government’s action against Joanna Smith and Tim Martin and call for the indictment against them to be dropped immediately.

#FreeTheDegasTwo