“Babe” star James Cromwell sentenced to jail
James Cromwell, known for his roles in Babe, L.A. Confidential, The Green Mile and The Artist, has been sentenced to seven days in jail after failing to pay a fine for obstructing traffic during a protest in 2015.
The 77-year-old and two fellow environmentalists, Pramilla Malick and Madeline Shaw, were fined $488 for the offense, which occurred at the proposed site of a gas power plant in New York. He was part of a group known as the “Wawayanda Six” who held a sit-in to protest the negative environmental impact the plant would have on the area. The other three activists paid their fines and will not face jail.
“A poisonous, misguided energy policy, driven by a rapacious, deceitful industry, and abetted by corrupt, self-serving political leadership is condemning all sentient life on this planet to a gruesome extinction,” the actor said in a statement to E! News.
“To remain silent in the face of such a cataclysm is to be culpable and complicit. The extraction of fossil fuels has become, in this compromised environment, a crime against humanity. Anyone with a sense of outrage is compelled to resist. Any law that facilitates and justifies such a crime by stifling dissent is unjust. History will vindicate our struggle and excoriate the perpetrators. That is, if there is a history.”
The Competitive Power Ventures plant construction is set to go ahead and will be opened in February 2018.