Biography | Michael Brune — The First Sierra Club Arrest at This White House Fence

For 120 years the Sierra Club lobbied and sued. On 13 February 2013 its executive director waited at the north fence for the Park Police.

The Club's board had authorized civil disobedience for the first time in the organization's history. The target was the Keystone XL pipeline permit still sitting on President Obama's desk.

The New York Times and the Washington Post both counted about 48 people taken into custody that afternoon.

Among them were Brune, Sierra Club president Allison Chin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Julian Bond, James Hansen, Bill McKibben, and Daryl Hannah.

They were charged with failing to disperse, posted 100 dollars bond, and were released.

The action sat between the State of the Union the night before and a larger Forward on Climate rally on the Mall later that month.

Keystone XL was later delayed, revived, and finally cancelled. The fence is still the fence.

A visitor stands on Pennsylvania Avenue or in Lafayette Square, not inside the grounds. Do not block the sidewalk. Do not photograph uniformed officers at work.

Photo: DJTechYT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons