Climate activists arrested after blocking East Hampton Town Airport
East Hampton police work to free protesters who secured themselves to each other with PVC pipes as they blocked the entrance to the East Hampton Airport on Friday. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
More than a dozen climate activists linked arms Friday through sections of PVC pipe, blocking the East Hampton Town Airport entrance for nearly 90 minutes to try to bring awareness to carbon emissions from private air travel.
East Hampton Town police arrested 13 demonstrators, including film producer Abigail Disney, a philanthropist and activist who’s the granddaughter of a Walt Disney Company founder.
“I think people like me need to stand up much more than we have been,” said Disney, a 63-year-old mother of four and Manhattan resident. “It’s time for us to start giving up a few of the unearned privileges we have.”
Police said at the scene protesters likely would face disorderly conduct offenses and possibly resisting arrest charges. In order to make the arrests, police sawed through the PVC pipe at some points to disrupt the blockade before handcuffing the demonstrators.
Town officials didn't immediately respond to a request for comment later. Aircraft appeared to be landing and taking off during the protest.
New York Communities for Change, a Brooklyn-based group that describes itself as Black, brown and immigrant New Yorkers fighting for social and economic justice, organized Friday’s protest with other activist groups.
“We’re all united here because we’re all affected by the one percent’s reckless consumption,” said Alice Hu, 25, the group’s senior climate campaigner. “We think the moment is now to really make a stand in public to come to the one percent’s doorsteps and disrupt their luxurious Hamptons vacations a bit … Their greed is killing our future.”
Demonstrators held pitchforks as a drummer led chants of “Tax the rich!” and “Billionaires have got to go!” Many wore T-shirts with the slogan “Billionaires what are you saving up for? Hell?” while blocking dozens of vehicles trying to enter or leave the airport on Daniels Hole Road in Wainscott.
Jonathan Westin, 39, director of Climate Organizing Hub, a group that aims to abolish the fossil fuel industry, said billionaires who use the airport "refuse to take action to actually get off fossil fuels.”
“The reality is they’re the ones that have the power to fix the climate crisis and to stop the fossil fuel industry and to stop pumping fossil fuels out of the earth,” he said. “That’s what we want them to understand."
During the blockade, Michael Norbeck, the owner of a Hertz rental car franchise at the airport, said it was hurting his business. He pointed out that Hertz has committed to adding electric vehicles to its fleet.
“The only thing they’re really affecting in my opinion is the local business owner,” the Amagansett resident said of the protesters. “All the billionaires are still coming and going.”
The airport has long been a source of contention locally, largely because of the noise from jets and helicopters during busy summer months. Last year, East Hampton Town got a plan underway to close the public airport and reopen it as a private facility as a way to gain more control over operations.
But that plan stalled in the face of ongoing litigation. A judge in May levied a $250,000 fine against the town, holding the town in contempt for not following a 2022 temporary restraining order barring new restrictions or any steps toward closing the airport.
The climate activists also plan to demonstrate Saturday in Hampton Bays, Sunday in Southampton and Monday in Southampton and Riverhead.
Joe Werkmeister covers the towns of Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island. He is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and previously worked as the editor of two North Fork community newspapers.
