Cross posted from DeSmogBlog.
In a chaotic scene Saturday, October 22, law enforcement officers in riot gear used pepper spray and batons to break up a group of hundreds of Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) protesters during a prayer walk near Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
Authorities from multiple states rounded up and arrested more than 100 people on charges including reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, engaging in a riot, assault on a peace officer and resisting arrest.
The number arrested is still in dispute, with one of the frontline protest camps, Red Warrior Camp claiming 141, while the Morton County Sheriff’s Department is counting 126 on Saturday and one additional arrest on Sunday.
Regardless of the final number, Saturday marks the highest number of arrests made in a single day over the months-long protest against the $3.8 billion pipeline slated to carry Bakken shale oil from North Dakota to Illinois. Saturday’s police actions were a sign, protesters say, that law enforcement has escalated its tactics to intimidate and traumatize them.
Temperatures Rising in North Dakota
Hundreds of American Indian Nations and others, who call themselves “water protectors” and are led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, have actively resisted construction of the four-state oil pipeline, claiming that it would cross significant tribal lands and could endanger the water source for 17 million people.
The Morton County Sheriff’s Department maintains that protesters Saturday were trespassing on private property and inciting a riot. The department also said that in a separate action, protesters damaged construction equipment vehicles and cut holes in doors and fused their arms to the door with concrete.
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said the actions of protesters Saturday were “intentionally coordinated and planned by agitators with the specific intent to engage in illegal activities.”
Though activists have admitted that several locked themselves down to equipment, spokespeople from the Sacred Stone and Red Warrior Camps said Saturday’s police roundup and mass arrest was an unprovoked attack.
More about likely lawsuits at DeSmog Blog