NEW YORK — On May 28, the Friday evening before the long Memorial Day weekend, during the time most people are filling their gas tanks on their way out of the city, a group of 200-300 people surrounded the large BP gas station on the corner of Houston and Lafayette in lower Manhattan. The event was organized by several groups including CodePink NYC to protest the BP oil disaster, the biggest in US history.
A man on the street corner was waving a red flag and shouting, “BP is what capitalism is about.” Many gathered there were wearing costumes, especially mermaid costumes, while others carried bottles of either polluted gulf water (the bottles were labeled) or a black oily substance. The gave out leaflets that said 60,000 barrels of oil a day was spilling into the gulf, an oiled seabird that has been cleaned only survives 6 days after release, in 2009 BP was the #1 distributor of oil to the US military (per Newsweek), BP was fined only $50 million after an oil refinery explosion in 2005 that left 15 dead, the projected cost of the clean-up is $33 million for each day the oil spill continues, and the largest amount that BP will have to pay in fines under current legislation is a total of $75 million.
The protestors said:
“Today we are bringing our outrage to BP’s doorstep, denouncing this criminal company that ignored crucial safety issues, cut corners, and spent millions lobbying Congress to fight regulations. BP has a sordid history of recklessly pursuing enormous profits at the expense of worker’s lives and the environment, and it’s got to stop.
We want our government to stop protecting BP and instead protect the fishermen, the coastal residents and the wildlife. We want legislation like the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act which would have spiked the maximum liability for oil companies from a pitiful $75 million to $10 billion – making sure that BP paid for this man-made catastrophe to pass!”
The protest shut down the station. Police put metal barriers around it so that no cars were able to enter during the two hours that the protestors were there.
View Photos From The Event…