Demonstrators vowed to continue their protest on Mauna Kea even though 31 people were arrested and charged Thursday with trespassing and blocking work vehicles from reaching the construction site of the planned $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope.
"I will not stop fighting for my mountain," said Lihoa Lavea, 27, after he was bailed out of the Hilo Police Station jail on a charge of obstruction of traffic.
The demonstrators were arrested by officers with the Hawaii Police Department and state Department of Land and Natural Resources and transported to Hilo, where they were charged with petty misdemeanors and released on $250 bail.
While police officers arrested 12 people for obstructing the road near the Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station, DLNR enforcement officers took into custody eight others higher up on the mountain who were obstructing the road and an additional 11 for trespassing after they refused to leave the summit construction site.
The confrontation, which started at about 8 a.m., was mostly peaceful as demonstrators offered virtually no resistance after being warned by police for days about the consequences of blocking the telescope workers.
But at least one person, 70-year-old Moanikeala Akaka of Hilo, didn’t go quietly. "We’re here in the spirit of peace and aloha, and you’re treating us like a bunch of criminals," she said, objecting to being handcuffed. Her arrest and comment can be seen on video posted at bigisland videonews.com.
The "protectors," as they are calling themselves, have been holding vigil at the 9,000-foot level for a week, objecting to the construction of what’s being billed as the world’s largest telescope. They say the mountain is sacred and that the 180-foot-tall project is too massive, threatening sacred shrines and burials and the island’s water supply.
The University of Hawaii approved a sublease agreement for about 9 acres leased from the state last year after the state Board of Land and Natural Resources approved the project in 2013 following a seven-year environmental review that featured more than 20 public hearings.
Astronomers say the Thirty Meter Telescope will be the most advanced and powerful optical telescope on earth, capable of viewing galaxies at the edge of the observable universe, near the beginning of time.
Although legal challenges are still pending in court, the Land Board signed off on a notice to proceed with construction March 6, allowing construction equipment to be hauled to the site last week.
Protesters began to gather along the Mauna Kea Access Road on Thursday, and on Monday they blocked the vehicles of workers for TMT Observatory Corp., the Pasadena, Calif.-based nonprofit heading up the construction. California and Canadian universities are partners in the project, along with scientists from Japan, China and India.
On Thursday an estimated 300 protesters, some of whom flew in from other islands, gathered on the summit road and were trying to block trucks heading to the peak. That’s when the initial arrests were made. After the vehicles were allowed to pass, dozens of others followed the slow caravan up the mountain.
Hawaii Police Assistant Chief Henry Tavares said his officers worked hard this week, talking to both sides and trying to avoid an ugly conflict. When the issue finally came to a head Thursday, he said, his officers practiced the department’s "core value of compassion" in making the arrests.
"We did everything we could do to come to a peaceful resolution," Tavares said.
UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said he was disappointed the disagreement came to this. He said the university followed the letter of the law and that after the permit was issued, the project was upheld in court.
"If the university had a heart, it would be broken," Meisenzahl said. "The last thing we wanted to see is people arrested."
