XPost: alt.culture.alaska, alt.politics.democrats, alt.politics.liberalism XPost: sac.politics
Anything goes under the Nazi nigger Obama administration. But
don't you touch a hair on any nigger's head.
Tensions over the Dakota Access oil pipeline flared again Sunday
when North Dakota law enforcement used water cannons to disperse
a group of about 400 protesters trying to move past a barricaded
bridge toward construction sites for the project.
As temperatures in Cannon Ball, N.D., dropped into the 20s,
police in riot gear sprayed activists with a hose mounted atop
an armored vehicle and formed a line to prevent them from
advancing up the road, according to the Bismarck Tribune.
Protesters also reported being pelted with rubber bullets, tear
gas and concussion grenades during the standoff, which lasted
until late Sunday night.
A grainy Facebook Live video from the scene shows throngs of
people gathered around the Backwater Bridge on Highway 1806,
with flood lights shining down on the grass and road below and a
haze of smoke and water vapor rising near police vehicles.
The clashes began around 6 p.m., when protesters tried to remove
burned out trucks that had been blocking the bridge since
authorities and activists faced off there in late October.
Police have since set up wire and concrete barriers on the
bridge, which is about a mile south of where the pipeline
developer plans to drill.
Protesters, who call themselves “water protectors,” have argued
that the barricade prevents emergency services from reaching the
Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and a nearby camp they have used
as a staging ground for demonstrations.
Authorities responded after protesters moved one of the trucks
blocking the roadway. The Morton County Sheriff’s Department
said that by 8:30 p.m. an estimated 400 people had arrived to
try to “breach” the bridge and had set dozens of fires in the
area. The department called the situation an “ongoing riot,”
saying protesters were “very aggressive” and were trying to
“flank and attack the law enforcement line.” At least one person
was arrested, the sheriff’s department said.
One of the protest organizers, Dallas Goldtooth, said protesters
started small fires in the area to help warm people who had been
sprayed with water in the freezing cold. He told the Tribune
that some activists tried to remove the burned out trucks to
expose the heavily armed authorities behind them.
“Folks have a right to be on a public road,” Goldtooth said.
“It’s absurd that people who’ve been trying to take down the
barricade now have their lives at risk.”
[U.N. officials denounce ‘inhuman’ treatment of Native American
pipeline protesters]
Another organizer, Tara Houska, told the Tribune that more than
200 people had been hit with tear gas, pepper spray or water
from the hose.
“They’re using everything and anything,” she said. “This has
been weeks and weeks of those vehicles on the road for no
apparent reason, and it’s a huge public safety risk. It’s
putting enormous pressure on the Standing Rock Sioux community
and people who live and work in the area.”
Organizers said the Cannon Ball gym was being used for emergency
relief, with medics from the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne
River Sioux tribes treating people who were injured in the
standoff. Physicians and tribal healers with the Standing Rock
Medic and Healer Council called on authorities to stop using
water cannons against the protesters, saying the below-freezing
weather could cause hypothermia and criticizing the “potentially
lethal use of these controversial methods against people
peacefully assembled,” CNN reported.
The sheriff’s department said water cannons were brought in to
control the crowds and extinguish fires set by protesters.
“There are multiple fires being set by protesters on the bridge
and in the area of the bridge,” department spokeswoman Donnell
Hushka told CNN. “We have firetrucks on the scene. They are
using their fire hoses to put out the fires, wet the land around
so fires don’t spread, and they are also using water as crowd
control.”
The sheriff’s department told the Tribune that the bridge has
been closed since October because transportation officials were
concerned about its structural integrity.
The $3.8 billion pipeline is scheduled to carry crude oil nearly
1,200 miles from North Dakota to Illinois. Construction is
nearly complete, but a planned segment of the project that
crosses under the Missouri River has been a source of contention
for months. The Standing Rock Sioux argue that the pipeline cuts
within a mile of their reservation and could pollute water and
disrupt cultural sites. The tribe has challenged the project in
court, and protesters have camped out near the Missouri River
site for months.
Energy Transfer Partners, the project developer, says the
pipeline transports oil more safely than trucks and will not
harm sacred lands.
In October, a group of activists tried to set up a second
protest camp closer to the area where drilling is planned. They
blocked the roadway with scrap wood, bales of hay and tires and
used abandoned trucks to block the Backwater Bridge. After
repeatedly ordering them to leave, authorities stormed the camp,
using pepper spray, high-pitched warnings and rubber bullets
against those who refused to leave. More than 100 people were
arrested.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning- mix/wp/2016/11/21/police-citing-ongoing-riot-use-water-cannons- on-dakota-access-protesters-in-freezing-weather/
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