Anti-Mining Activist Pleads “No Contest” to Felony and Misdemeanor Charges

from Penokee Defenders

On Friday September 19th 2014, at the Iron County court house on Taconite St. Krow aka “Katie Kloth” made a non-cooperating plea of “no contest” to two charges with great hesitation and a heavy heart. The charges include, robbery with use of force a class e felony, and party to a crime criminal property damage, a class a misdemeanor. Two other property damage charges were dropped but can still be considered in Krow’s future sentencing.

A “no contest” plea states that you are choosing to not fight the charges but are also not pleading guilty and reserve the right to retract your plea. Krow is confident that the struggle to protect the water and land bases of and connected to the Penokee Hills will continue. Krow holds a disdain for “state coerced cooperation” and believes that no other anti-mine individuals deserve to suffer under the hand of the generalities of unjust law in our “criminal injustice system”.

Gogebic Taconite LLC. and their affiliates still remain unencumbered by the law though G-TAC president Bill Williams has been indicted for crimes against the environment in Spain, as well as being accused by a Bad River Tribal member of forcibly removing a phone from their arms whilst simultaneously injuring them.

As usual, money, political power, and corporate interest to extract resources for the capitalist regime still reign supreme, and have unfairly stacked the cards against Krow in Iron County. Krow is confident that the will of the people and the creatures of the land to stop the proposed iron mine will prevail.

G-Tac believes they will be unimpeded in their efforts to avoid legal penalties and influence the Iron County district attorney to give citizens at risk from deadly mining activities felonies, whilst G-TAC arms unlicensed, illegal para-military to patrol the Penokee Hills before their intended state supported destruction by G-Tac or another purchasing body. They are wrong.

Mining act I will be repealed, Governor Scott Walker ousted from office, and the will and actions and love of the people to protect their land and homes will prevail.

We must stand in solidarity with each other, develop the communities we want to be a part of, and collectively reject state coerced informing and negate state repression whenever possible. Our own community accountability is the only thing which can protect us and enable our ability to continue to organize. We can only move forward with positive intention to continue our fight in the struggle against resource extraction.

to continue to follow and support this case and future organizing efforts see http://www.penokeedefenders.wordpress.com for more information.

More background on Krow’s case