UBS Protesters Disrupt Downtown Stamford

Written by DJ McAneny.

Stamford Police were kept busy downtown Monday when more than a dozen individuals were taken into custody for causing disturbances at various locations relating to UBS in protest of their mining operations in the Appalachian mountains. 

Police received the first call at around 7 a.m. Nov. 25 from the crane operator at the 66 Summer Street Luxury Apartments construction site. According to Capt. Sue Bretthauer, the crane operator discovered a protestor who had chained themselves to the trap door inside the operator's cabin in such a way that opening the door would cause injury to the person by strangulation, prohibiting entrance by authorities. 

Bretthauer said multiple parties had climbed up to the top of the crane's arm, which she estimated to be roughly 220 feet in the air, and unfurled a banner between 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. that read "UBS, Stop funding mountaintop removal." After a long discussion between officers, who'd traveled up multiple stories to the top of the building to speak with the activists on the crane's arm, all parties climbed down peaceably. 

She said during this time, the crane's arm was not in a locked position and continued to move freely in the wind, causing some concern for the safety of the activists. She noted all were self-described "experienced climbers."

After the parties rolled up their banner, Bretthauer said units on patrol discovered members of the group acting as "spotters" and allegedly communicating with those at the construction site via walkie talkie, including one individual stationed at the Marriott Hotel and two others stationed inside the Bell Street Parking Garage. 

As authorities dealt with taking those members into custody, a call came in from UBS headquarters on Washington Boulevard that multiple parties had arrived and were causing a disturbance at that location. There, Bretthauer said police found several people sitting outside in between concrete barriers along the street in civil protest, as well as three individuals who had "stormed inside."

She said one individual had chained themselves to the front door with a bike lock around the neck, while two others had traveled up a flight of stairs inside and unfurled a second banner reading, "UBS, Divest from Mountaintop Removal," before chaining themselves to each other, also around the neck, and then the stairway railing. 

The members were all part of the protest group Hands Off Appalachia UBS, who describe themselves as a "sustained campaign to get UBS to end all financing of companies conducting mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia."

Bretthauer said police are looking into exactly what charges the activists, totaling around 14 from both locations according to Police Chief Jon Fontneau, may now face. Possibilities include larceny charges for the lost work time at the construction site, trespassing, reckless endangerment or criminal mischief, though Bretthauer assured the charges would be appropriate. 

"We're not going to just tack on a bunch of unnecessary charges because they were protesting," she said. "We're going to look at those statutes and the charges will be appropriate."

Police must now fill out paperwork for each arrest and catalog each of the items recovered, including each individual piece of climbing equipment seized.