LOS ANGELES- Anti-smart meter protesters from Occupy LA, the Tea Party, Citizens for a Radiation Free Community, and other EMF health and privacy groups held a protest on Wednesday outside the “Networked Grid” – a smart grid conference in Westlake Village near Los Angeles. Those attending the protest vocally opposed smart meters and ongoing utility violations of privacy and health. Some protesters from Occupy LA infiltrated and peacefully disrupted the conference, and were eventually escorted out.
A heavy police presence greeted the protesters- some of those attending said it was overkill for the peaceful protest and reflected a certain level of paranoia amongst civilian law enforcement surrounding this issue. Police forces in Naperville, Illinois and Santa Cruz County, California among other places have arrested peaceful protesters and homeowners, and assisted utilities in violating local laws and people’s civil and property rights during smart grid installations.
Greentech Media (an online industry news source) wrote an almost sympathetic article about the protests, concluding by saying that:
“It certainly makes for some bad publicity for smart meters…. Whether (that publicity is) deserved or not is another question.”
It seems that even the smart grid’s cheerleaders are starting to doubt the wisdom of their grand scheme as health damage reports have intensified and the Stop Smart Meters movement continues to build momentum.
Response to Greentech Media’s article from smart meter discussion groups has been instructive. One observer said:
“The reporting was very fair. It is almost like some people in the industry are starting to distance themselves from the smart meter debacle.”
Discussion returned to the topic of denial- of psychological mechanisms that prevent people from accepting the obvious- that smart meters have blown the lid off the myth that wireless technology doesn’t come with serious risks:
“The question that I continue to ask all of the people who don’t get this is; why would we make it up?”
Someone who has been injured by “smart” meters replied:
“The truth is – we wouldn’t make it up. I would love to go back to my life where I could live in a city, use the technology I used to enjoy, live in my flat, earn an income without constant headaches and not worry about whether there was a wi-fi router on the other side of the wall or a cell tower next to my current home. I would love to not feel like an EMF refugee.
No one would make this up. One couldn’t write this stuff for a movie, yet it is happening over and over to so many people.”
And:
“It’s hard for people to take in that their work is damaging people’s lives, but the truth will eventually come out.
The truth is just too much for most to contemplate. They will eventually get it though. And, it will not be pretty.”
Pingback: Manifestantes Anti Medidor Inteligente Interrompem Conferência de Smart Grid
Pingback: So Cal Activists Speak Truth to Power at Smart Grid Conference | Stop Smart Meters!
I’m very grateful for the protesters and their peaceful but firm, comments. They speak for us being held hostage by the utility company. If you recall–it is not just the one electric-power meter. It is the gas and water. That is 3 meters PER household, and your neighbor, and their neighbor, block after block after block. Think about that– THINK big…
“Opt out?… Well of course shooting our selves is an option… and to think we’ve always used bicarbonate of soda for gas issues. Kind of pricey but then again… please give our regards to the PUC’s of Texas and California.”
“Don’t get in to a piss’n contest with skunks?” Oh well, here we go again, as Hillary Clinton said, “That turtle is on the fence again!”