Officers douse pipeline protesters in subfreezing weather

Activists call a television station and ask why reporters aren’t covering the pipeline protest. Authorities aimed a water cannon at that bonfire but it was not powerful enough to reach it. He said his daughter had been hit by a concussion grenade thrown by a police officer and that the arteries, medial nerve, muscle and bone in her left arm had been “blown away”.

Amnesty International announced Monday it had sent another delegation of human rights observers to monitor the protest – the fourth time since August they had done so. “In order to keep protesters from crossing the bridge, law enforcement have utilized less-than-lethal means, including launching CS gas”.

In a news conference Monday afternoon, a law enforcement official said the protesters were hurling rocks – or firing them from slingshots – and may have been trying to use camping fuel cylinders as explosives. “We assess out-of-state protest leaders from are planning an event-a-day of illegal activities in hopes of creating more media attention and more money into their coffers – all creating a toxic and unsafe mix of violence and destruction”, the source said. The Standing Rock Sioux say the risk of a pipeline spill threatens their drinking-water source and those of many others downstream on the Missouri River.

Another protester from California said he was calling because local news organizations are not airing what he claims are assaults by police.

The Standing Rock Sioux have been at the center of opposing the pipeline, uniting a number of different interest groups around their cause.

The pipeline will stretch 1,200 miles and carry crude oil from North Dakota to IL. The patrol provides security at the Capitol. The soft lockdown still allows for employees to have access to the building as well as the public for normal business.

A small group of protesters briefly blocked traffic in downtown Bismarck on Monday morning.

The confrontation began at 6pm, near the encampment were the protests against the $3.8 billion pipeline have been ongoing for months.

Keller told the The Bismarck Tribune via email that the state’s Department of Transportation has not checked the bridge for structural safety because of the protesters, and added that the burned out trucks are staying on the bridge because it’s not safe for workers to remove the trucks because of the protesters, who want the vehicles removed. Protesters criticize the barricade as blocking emergency services and suggest it is being used to prevent access to construction sites just north.

Police said they used the water hoses in part for crowd control and in part to put out blazes like this one set by the demonstrators..

Protesters and officers massed at the bridge again later on Monday, but protesters dispersed a few hours later at the request of tribal elders after police warned the crowd that they had identified firearms and that anyone with a weapon should leave.

The police crackdown came in response to attempts by the water protectors – Native Americans and allied opponents of the oil pipeline – to remove barricades established by police on October 27 to block the northbound lanes of Highway 1806, according to Indigenous environmental organizer Dallas Goldtooth. “We’re here to tell TD Bank that destroying indigenous land and poisoning the water of thousands of people is bad for business”, the group said.