James Cromwell, badass 77-year-old, is headed to jail over power plant protest

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If I live to be 77 years old, I hope to God I am as badass as James Cromwell. Cromwell is 77 years old, an Oscar-nominated actor, and a decades-long activist of progressive and liberal causes. I just spent a few minutes reading his Wiki page with absolute pleasure – he was a member of the Committee to Defend the Panthers, and has praised the Black Panthers on numerous occasions. He’s a long-time animal-rights advocate and a activist for Native American causes. He’s been involved with civil rights causes for decades, and in recent years, he’s been disrupting and protesting a power station in Wawayanda, New York. He was arrested in December 2015 for protesting, then just a month ago, he was arrested again for protesting a Democratic Party event. Well, regarding the 2015 arrest… Cromwell is going to jail!

The Emmy Award-winning Babe and L.A. Confidential actor James Cromwell has been sentenced to seven days of jail time at Orange County Jail, after refusing to pay a $375 fine related to his arrest at a protest in Wawayanda, New York.

The Farmer Hoggett actor was one of six environmental protestors found guilty of obstructing traffic when they staged a sit-in on the site of Competitive Power Ventures’ prospective natural gas-fired power plant in the town. They argued that the carbon emissions that would be emitted by the CPV power plant would pose an imminent threat to the local environment, and accelerate climate change.

Three of the six protestors paid their fine, but along with Cromwell, Pramilla Malick and Madeline Shaw will face prison time, Variety reports. Cromwell said: “If we don’t stay together, nothing will change. Power to the people.”

However, following an appeal, the three defendants now have a new deadline of July 14 to pay their $375 fine.

[From People]

The instinct for many would be “oh, it’s just a $375 fine, someone should pay that on his behalf.” That’s not the point. The point is that he wants to go to jail for his beliefs. He wants this to be the story. He wants to raise the profile of this environmental issue, and he’s going about it in the right way. If he had paid the fine, it would have been a minor story, barely covered by any media outlets. But now the headlines are “77-year-old Oscar nominated actor is going to jail for environmental protest.” That’s exactly what he wanted. Plus, he’s only going to jail for seven days! Thug life, doing time, no snitches.

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14 Responses to “James Cromwell, badass 77-year-old, is headed to jail over power plant protest”

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  1. Incognita says:

    This is the kind of news I like. I don’t know much – if anything – about his views, but I respect that he’s willing to put himself on the line for them. Too many people bleat on about the things they disagree with but then never do anything about it. He does have the luxury of being a white man with disposable income who doesn’t have to get up and go to work to support himself. He’s exactly the kind of person who should take a stand because doing so won’t fuck up his entire world.

  2. Cannibell says:

    That’ll do, James. (Or, on a more serious note, very cool. It’s lovely to see someone stand up for what they believe in, and doubly so when it’s something positive.)

    • Diana B says:

      Babe refference!!! Hell yeah. That man is golden 😍

    • still_sarah says:

      Makes me want to watch “Babe” all over again. And he also did a great Zefron Cochrane in one of those Star Trek movies (before the reboot). In the Star Trek universe, ZC was the man who first rode a rocket into space after the devastating World War III (nuclear). A passing Vulcan ship saw it and went down to investigate. And the rest is Star Trek history! Cromwell was great as the completely reluctant, rockabilly music loving, somewhat boozy “hero”.

  3. Sixer says:

    I love him! One of my favourite people in the world. A United States national treasure.

  4. LadyAnne says:

    Badass indeed !! We need more people like him these days – climate change anyone ?

  5. Ramona says:

    I’ve always wondered why they never got him to play Lincoln. He seemed like the perfect casting especially when he was younger.

  6. CharlotteCharlotte says:

    More of him, please <3

  7. Originaltessa says:

    The amount of money his incarnation and court proceedings is costing tax payers would shock most people. I don’t know why that’s never considered when we applaud celebrities for their “bravery”. He can fight for his cause without taking it out on everyone else. Jmo.

    • Alarmjaguar says:

      One could say the same for all of the poor people who are thrown in jail when they can’t pay very minor fines. The system absolutely sucks and is a massive drain on the taxpayers, but maybe if this gets us talking about it we can think about the system rather than blaming him.

    • Alarmjaguar says:

      Plus, let’s follow the money – most of that public taxpayer funding is going to private corporations who are running our jails and prisons systems

    • Shijel says:

      Right now I’m personally more concerned about climate and I’d be completely fine with my tax money going to the incarceration of someone who fights for the cause (and by going to jail, gets this cause noticed in headlines).

      Then I’d blame the government for incarcerating someone over.. well, this, and 400 bucks. The US is astoundingly eager to imprison people.

      So nah, this isn’t on Cromwell. At all.

    • still_sarah says:

      @OriginalTessa : Since his was likely only one of the many cases heard that day (or any day), he personally did not cost the taxpayers much of anything. Everyone (judge, clerks, cops) would have been there five days a week regardless to deal with all the other cases. I used to work as a criminal lawyer. The courts are always full every day. Cromwell was just one more case.

      @ Shijel : The government is not jailing him over $400 exactly. They are jailing him because he was found guilty of a crime (not a big one) and he won’t cooperate with the relatively reasonable sentence that he received. It’s been my observation that the government is rarely eager to imprison rich white men. Cromwell wants to make a point about the right to publicly protest in America. That’s great but refusal to pay the fine = jail time (he’ll probably be out in 4 days).