I-69 protestors deface building

About 40 protestors stormed One City Centre on Monday to protest the Interstate 69 project, specifically the intiative to expand the highway into southern Indiana.\nThey wrote slogans with chalk and painted the windows and walls of the building, located at 120 W. Seventh St.\n“Sorry I tore up your building,” was scribbled on a note attached to a janitor’s cart, signed “Brexton,” in the hallway leading to the I-69 office door. The door and windows of the offices were also defaced.\nPolice officers on the scene examined surveillance footage, trying to find positive identification as to who was behind the vandalism.\n“There was a group of I-69 protestors that were out in the downtown area,” Sgt. Daniel Carnes, of the Bloomington Police Department, said. “We’re drawing a logical conclusion that it was probably some of them since this is I-69 related graffiti.”\nGov. Mitch Daniels’ plan to extend I-69 from Indianapolis to Evansville has come under heavy criticism since it was announced. Critics argue it will hurt the natural environment and separate communities along the proposed route.\nInitials “EF” were signed under many chalked notes around the building. “EF” or Earth First, according to its Web site, believes in “using all the tools in the tool box, ranging from grassroots organizing and involvement in the legal process to civil disobedience and monkeywrenching.” Many of the protestors were Earth First members.\nA traveling organizer, who would not give his real name and only wanted to be known as “Longhaul,” said the protest was to inform government officials that 94 percent of Indiana residents are opposed to the I-69 highway project.\n“We’re standing in resistance to I-69 and the Baptist Superhighway,” he said. “And Indiana is a crucial battleground on that because the rest of the states along the route are waiting to find out if Indiana is going to break ground on new terrain, so we’re saying ‘no’ to that.”\nA black Ford Explorer with a Texas license plate parked on Seventh Street had “How’s your MPG asshole?” written along its rear windshield in red shoe polish.\nWitnesses to the protest said the protestors did not appear to be violent or unruly. Protestors blocked two lanes of Walnut Street as they marched through town waiving signs, blowing whistles and chalking streets and buildings.\nOne witness, Jim Ginter, manager of Black’s Mercantile, 221 N. Walnut St., said protestors appeared to be dirty and dressed in tattered clothing.\n“Some were walking barefoot. They almost looked like they came from a commune, just of-the-earth type of people,” he said.\nEarth First held a conference over the weekend in the forests of Spencer, Ind., one protester said. They organized to educate people on things such as “do-it-yourself ethics” and protests throughout the country. The protestors started out the day with a simultaneous banner drop around Bloomington, “Longhaul” said, and carried on in protest around the courthouse and through the town.\n“It was one of many in the long, strong campaigns of resistance against this highway,” “Longhaul” said. “There will be many more.”\nOwen County resident Nancy Winningham passed by One City Centre as police were surveying the scene. She said she saw nothing illegal about the protest.\n“It seemed to me that, since it was done with sidewalk chalk, that was just free speech and not vandalism, since the next rain will take it away,” Winningham said.\nShe added that a proposed route of the I-69 highway project would have destroyed her home and taken her property. She said she believes the highway will only bring in unwanted economy, such as gas stations and chain hotels.\n“I think the I-69 highway is a very bad idea, at least coming through new terrain,” Winningham said. “I don’t think it will do anything to help the local economy, and anyone who thinks that it will ought to drive over to Cloverdale (Ind.) and see that it really hasn’t helped Cloverdale’s economy at all.”\nThe I-69 offices were closed Monday. BPD said officers are still investigating the crime.