Here comes the historian, by and through Reddit, to deliver you the most neutral series of events in Pinkertown as pieced together through chat logs of having seen the expulsion from their town live as it happened in chat and through an amalgamation of contradictory statements on Reddit.

This is not attempting to tell you who is in the right or wrong, who did the right thing or the wrong thing, who broke law or enforced it; this is simply telling the series of events as-is, fair for all sides where possible.

Day One

1. About four months ago, HJE discovers a town on their border. At this time, they may or may not already have a vault built. HJE negotiates and comes to an agreement: Deliver a stack of compacted saplings to buy the land from them without fuss, or move out.^[1]
2. Four months pass, and no progress has been made on the payment of the land purchasing fee or moving out of the land. At this point, the vault certainly exists with an accompanying skybunker, bastions, and vaulthole.
3. HJE pearls RasionRulings—a Pinkertown native—after he logs in, whom madillson—the closest to a leader/representative yet found for Pinkerton—claims is their most active person. This was done because Pinkertown has not completed their end of the deal.
4. The rest of Pinkertown logs in after hearing he is pearled, and a dialogue between them and ComradeNick begins. Note that it is unknown at this moment whether it was long-distance, i.e., Nick wasn't actually near them but just in chat range, or if he was there in person for the conversation.
5. Madillson begins an argument with ComradeNick over their land and claims that they shouldn't have to move; supposedly, MtA told them it was unclaimed land and even "MtA's leader" told them so, so they had no reason to expect it was owned and no malicious intent. Arguments are also made about how pearling them is unnecessary and that "pearling someone on site its an act of war [sic]"
6. At this point, they begin asking how long they get to pack up and move out. Madillson asks for a few days, Nick replies to the effect of no, you don't need a couple days, there's not that much even there. Madillson replies that they underestimate how much they've built and that it takes time, especially with their most active guy pearled. RasionRulings says "yes lets ctb our diamonds infront of all the pvp kiddos". Nick tells them at most it'd take a few hours for one guy, one and a half if multiple pitch in. An HJE player confirms so by saying (s)he's done the calculations and spitting hot numbers. Madillson counters by saying they can't be expected to stay up all night for mineman and a fellow townsperson asks for twenty four hours for them to figure out where they can move their belongings to so it isn't sitting in the wild waiting to be stolen and to move it—if anything is left after twenty four hours, HJE can do their thing.
7. The offer is seemingly not acknowledged in chat. At this point, someone says "oof", RasionRulings begins making banter about PvP and getting off our land, and Baes20 seems to start talking. The value of this is unknown, but it feels like it might be pertinent if understood.
8. At this point, HenryDraton tells Pinkertown in global chat that HJE is coming to pearl them and to run south and cross the river to seek shelter in Mount Augusta. Madillson declines, saying they can protect themselves, and turtle up in their skybunker. A lengthy siege begins.
9. At some point, the defenders abandon their skybunker as HJE makes progress towards them and begin to flee across the river to seek shelter as things begin to go south for them. HJE pursues.^[2]
10. The fleeing Pinkertown residents log off in MtA to avoid HJE pearling them; they are logboxed, one of them on the property of Isit2004. This will become relevant later.
11. Depending on accounts, ComradeNick is told that logboxing is not allowed either while building the log boxes or after they are built. Either way, after finding out, Ahri, the HJE diplomat, goes around and removes the log boxes.^[3]

This concludes the events of the Pinkertown Siege itself on May 19, though more actions happen as the next day progresses.

Day Two

1. Disputes about whether the log boxes are still there continue throughout the night and morning between May 19 and May 20 (CDT, UTC -5:00). Eventually, it is resolved that none are left, though confusion will continue throughout the day as people log in and aren't fully aware of the drama.
2. HenryDraton continues to lobby for the freedom of the Pinkerton residents so long as they are in MtA land; other offers of help are also extended, including an offer for pro bono legal help by TheHobbyist on the basis that he does not want to see MtA's constitution trampled over because of drama.
3. HJE fighters continuously camp out the logout spots throughout the day after logboxes are removed, including Ez2clutch camping the logout spot on Isit2004's property in case the Pinkertownian logs back in.
4. An unknown party, presumably HenryDraton, contacts some Yoahtlans—chiefly bbgba—and tells him of the situation. This is presumed to be HenryDraton for the following reason: Hours before bgbba actually says anything about the situation, HenryDraton tells Nick that "Yoahtl is pissed at them."
5. Bgbba arrives in voice and issues a statement to the effect of Yoahtl being upset. Reasons given include a logbox being built on the property of Isit2004, a Yoahtlan ex-pat, on a park dedicated to the founder of Yoahtl, and the involvement of GeneralThomas, whom Yoahtl has claims on. This begins the involvement of bgbba as an individual party.
6. Throughout the day, a bunch of protests happen on the border. At one point, bgbba crosses the river and insists he's here with Pinkertown's permission and returns to MtA's side after being told to desist.
7. Ez2clutch builds a second wooden logbox on Isit2004's property, unreinforced, which HenryDraton promptly removes.
8. The pink banner protest begins. Some Augustans amass on the border along with bgbba wearing pink banners in solidarity with Pinkertown to protest the HJE occupation.
9. Bgbba crosses the river on a bridge during the protests. Vague statements to leave are made, such as "out out out." His presence is mostly tolerated, however, and he protests on their side of the river while building with pink wool. His tolerated presence on their side lasts for about twenty seconds before he returns to the bridgehead. Almost immediately on making contact with the bridgehead, bgbba makes a break for the Pinkertown vault hole. At this point, after bgbba begins to run deeper into HJE territory, HJE pursues. He stands at the vault hole for about ten seconds as HJE stares at him before combat begins. He is then pearled.^[4]
10. After bgbba is pearled, a bunch of irrelevant and rapid drama happens. The climax and ultimate result of this is a long Reddit post by bgbba and a declaration by OrangeWizard that Yoahtl will tolerate his sentence as exists, but if it is extended, it will be seen as an act of war given the current circumstances.^[5][6]
11. A few more protests continue throughout the night, but the majority of the drama dies as the late hours hit.

This is the Pinkertown Decable as known up to now; footnotes below for elaboration and sources. Again, this is not telling you who is right, who is wrong, just what the events are as neutrally as possible. You can figure that out for yourself.

This has been the diary of an amateur lumberjack in MtA.

[1] Varying opinions exist on why this price was done. Some believe it was done to sound easy to do but in practice be near impossible; others believe it was priced this way simply because it's XP ingredients HJE may have wanted and was something reasonably attainable by newfriends.

[2] It is unknown if they immediately pursued the Pinkertown residents or if they chased them after a few minutes to an hour after escaping across the river. EDIT: See seldomshock's comment below for further information on this bulletpoint.

[3] It is disputed as to whether ComradeNick truly did not know or if he simply feigned ignorance after seeing people were serious about not allowing the logboxes in MtA and did not want to be in conflict with them.

[4] Video of the incident: https://youtu.be/RcC8TyhetWM

[5] bgbba post: https://www.reddit.com/r/civclassics/comments/8ky8dn/the_pinkerton_massacre_an_ode_to_those_martyred/

[6] orangewizard post: https://www.reddit.com/r/civclassics/comments/8ky4se/official_responce_from_yoahtl_concerning_the/

Edit: A correction has been made. The period between sapling deal and now was four months, not one.