Greenpeace activists arrested near Bush ranch

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer reacted to the Greenpeace sign Friday by saying, "It's a free country."

From CNN's Kelly Wallace and Christy Darden

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- Three Greenpeace activists were arrested Friday after unfurling a banner protesting President Bush's environmental policies from the top of the town's water tower not far from the Bush ranch.

The mayor of Crawford, Robert Campbell, said they would be charged "at least with criminal trespass" for climbing over a fence to get to the water tower and protesting without permission.

"We didn't need all this," Campbell said. "We're upset because they've disturbed the whole town for the whole day and caused a lot of problems."

The protesters hung a banner from the water tower that read "Bush the Toxic Texan: Don't Mess with the Earth" about 10 a.m. ET Friday. They refused to climb down and remove the banner, ignoring demands from the mayor, the county sheriff and the U.S. Secret Service. After a two-hour standoff, the activists -- two women from Washington and a man from Flower Mount, Texas -- came down and were taken into custody by the McLennan County Sheriff's Department. Waco firefighters then climbed the tower and retrieved the banner, carrying it down in a bag. Officials would not let the protesters throw the banner down from the tower.

As authorities dealt with the situation, traffic was blocked on the two-lane road in front of the tower and the Crawford Elementary School.

Andrea Durbin, spokeswoman for Greenpeace, told CNN the protest, the first in the tiny Texas town since Bush became president, was designed to call attention to Bush's environmental policies.

"In just a matter of weeks," Durbin said, the president has "undermined years of environmental progress." She criticized Bush for not supporting the Kyoto global warming agreement, not approving tougher drinking water standards and backing oil drilling on public lands such as the Artic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Durbin said she was "not surprised" by the arrests, since "they were prepared to be arrested. They came out to make a point, and they did that."

Bush couldn't see the banner because he was a few miles away at his family ranch. His aides did not seem fazed by the situation. "It's a free country," said White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.

A handful of townsfolk gathered to watch the spectacle. One Crawford man on the scene, who asked not to be identified, turned to his friend during the arrests at the water tower and said, "When you painted it in high school, nobody even saw it."

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