Climate protestors were arrested after storming the green and dispersing colored powder at the Travelers Championship golf tournament.
Six climate protestors were arrested after they disrupted the Travelers Championship golf tournament in Cromwell Sunday afternoon. [emphasis, links added]
The protestors, 51-year-old Sayak Mukhopadhyay, 45-year-old William Regan, 31-year-old Jeffrey Marsar, 25-year-old Lydia Wooley, 55-year-old Mark Graham, and 35-year-old Emily Smith, were all charged with first-degree criminal mischief, first-degree criminal trespassing, and breach of peace.
Channel 3’s cameras were rolling when they charged the green and dispersed a colored powder.
“They came down from the stands over there with a bunch of chalk stuff just pushing a narrative,” said Rocco Postizzi, an eyewitness.
The protestors wore shirts that said “no golf on a dead planet” and a symbol that was part of a group called the Extinction Rebellion. [Other media outlets are reporting it was Just Stop Oil. —CCD Ed.]
“These are climate activists that disrupted this because they knew there were a lot of eyes on this tournament,” said Kenneth Gray, a professor at the University of New Haven and a former FBI agent.
Gray said the group was based out of the United Kingdom and has a strong stance on climate change.
“Their message is that fossil fuels should stop being used so they are targeting events like music events, and golf tournaments to get a lot of eyes on them and get their message across,” he continued.
Play was disrupted for about 10 minutes as police cleaned up the green and course officials assessed the powder.
Runner-up Tom Kim and champion Scottie Scheffler said they had never seen something like that on a golf course.
“Definitely a little bit weird; I saw one person out of the corner of my eye and I saw about five police officers sprinting around. From my point of view they got it taken care of pretty dang fast,” Scheffler said.
“Who prepares for someone, for four people to run with? I don’t know what they had, but they left a lot of marks on the greens, which is not right for us players, especially when two guys are trying to win a golf tournament,” said Kim.
Read more at WFSB/MSN
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