James Cromwell finally speaks out after jail sentence

After he was sentenced to a week in jail for refusing to pay a fine over a 2015 protest, James Cromwell has finally broken his silence over his punishment.

According to E! Online, Cromwell feels that "to remain silent in the face of such a cataclysm is to be culpable and complicit."

Adding, "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," Cromwell said in a statement provided by Protect Orange County.

Adding, "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."

 

For the unversed, the Emmy-award winning star and environmental and animal activist was detained for taking part in a demonstration near a construction site of a power plant in upstate New York and blocking its entrance.

The environmental rights group Protect Orange County said the plant uses controversial fracked natural gas and "creates unacceptable health and safety risks to the public."

A judge found Cromwell and five other protesters guilty and fined each of them 250 USD plus a 125 USD surcharge in June. Three of the people, including the actor, refused to pay and were sentenced to a week in county jail.

Cromwell's sentence is set to begin on July 14.

James' attorney stated that actor's "conscience does not allow him to pay those who are corrupt and destroying the planet."

This is not the first time Cromwell has been involved in such matter, in 2013, Cromwell was detained at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for interrupting a Board of Regents meeting to help protest a school study that PETA had said involves "abusive experiments" of cats.