The fact that the Fairy Creek protestors are in the woods, intentionally blocking a company from working at their worksite, makes them aggressors. That they are there in violation of a court injunction exposes them as criminals. Harvesting trees, without a license or environmental impact study, makes them not only trespassers and thieves, but also hypocrites. The tampering of equipment and property earns them the title of vandal. Working in the forest with chainsaws, against extreme-fire-danger advisories, demonstrates their recklessness, endangering themselves, the forest, and the surrounding community.
When protestors then resist arrest, in some cases repeatedly, it is apparent that their intention is to deliberately escalate the situation. Escalation is a ploy activists have consistently used – provoke as big a scene as possible in order to push law-enforcement to deploy increased measures against them. To then film the whole thing, edit, and subsequently deliver only one side of the story, in order to fit with a prescribed narrative, is just another tool, among many, in their toolbox. One of the ironies is that many of these protestors are not even residents of the area, are externally funded, and some have travelled clear across the continent to be there.
Protesting is considered a right in the free world, but blocking a legal company, and its employees, from earning a living at their place of employment is not.
Unfortunately, the manpower required to deal with the mess is diverting resources, away from other more pressing crimes and situations, and is costing the public millions of dollars. Taxpayers, the people who actually pay the bills, are fed-up and want the obstructers, who call themselves protestors, gone.