![]() The airport has long been a source of contention locally, largely because of the noise from jets and helicopters during busy summer months. “All the billionaires are still coming and going.” “The only thing they’re really affecting in my opinion is the local business owner,” the Amagansett resident said of the protesters. He pointed out that Hertz has committed to adding electric vehicles to its fleet. “That’s what we want them to understand."ĭuring the blockade, Michael Norbeck, the owner of a Hertz rental car franchise at the airport, said it was hurting his business. ![]() “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. 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.” “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.”ĭemonstrators 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. “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. 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. Aircraft appeared to be landing and taking off during the protest. Town officials didn't immediately respond to a request for comment later. In order to make the arrests, police sawed through the PVC pipe at some points to disrupt the blockade before handcuffing the demonstrators. ![]() Police said at the scene protesters likely would face disorderly conduct offenses and possibly resisting arrest charges. ![]()
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