HONOLULU — Two men were arrested and a Hawaii state flag was torn Friday when crews and police arrived to a lava field on a Big Island mountain to remove a small wooden house built by demonstrators near the camp where they are blocking construction of a giant telescope, officials said.
Law enforcement officers arrived to clear the area around the structure Friday morning. But the two men refused to leave and were arrested and charged with obstruction of a governmental operation, officials said.
Protesters who oppose the Thirty Meter Telescope planned on Mauna Kea have been camped to block the road to the mountain’s summit since July. A “handful of guys” built the house, or hale in Hawaiian, as a learning center for children, said Andre Perez, one of the protest leaders.
“They wanted to create a space for children to congregate, a teaching area,” he said, adding that the builders knew it wasn’t legal or sanctioned by protest leaders.
