Sheriff's Office Defuses Protest Near TECO

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office was able to defuse a demonstration in front of Tampa Electric Co.'s Big Bend Station off U.S. 41 in Gibsonton after 150 protesters gathered around 2:30 p.m. Aug. 30.

According to the sheriff's Office, three protestors interlocked their arms
and legs using a device known as "the sleeping dragon" and blocked the
roadway to TECO. Meanwhile, two more protestors laid across the road, blocking the roadway interlocked in the sleeping dragon device and another protestor climbed on top of a semi trailer.

Law enforcement personnel arrived for crowd management and specially trained Hillsborough County deputies and Tampa police officers were cut free of the self-made locking devices. There were no injuries to any protestors involved.

Afterward, law enforcement and the protestors came to an agreement that, if the protestors agreed to leave peacefully, there would be no arrests. All of the protesters left the property peacefully.

The protest was led by Earth First!, a radical environmental advocacy group that targeted TECO for being a major sponsor of the RNC and for its use of coal.