On Nov. 29 the Morton County Sheriff’s Department announced that it will not allow any more supplies, or potential demonstrators, to reach the campsite where the Dakota Access Pipeline protesters are gathered, reports Reuters. Maxine Herr, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s department, said that retailers have been delivering goods to the protesters, and that from now onward law enforcement “will turn around any of those services.”
The Morton County Sheriff’s Department’s announcement follows the “emergency evacuation” order, for the construction site of the Dakota Access Pipeline, that North Dakota governor Jack Dalrymple issued on Nov. 28. The Morton County Sheriff’s Department’s announcement also follows the filing of a class-action lawsuit against the sheriff by the Water Protector Legal Collective of the National Lawyers Guild. The Water Protector Legal Collective filed the lawsuit because of the excessive force used against protesters on Nov. 20.
The National Lawyers Guild's press release included the following statements:
“Without giving any warnings or opportunity to disperse, officers fired on them with highly dangerous munitions, chemical agents, a water cannon and hoses in freezing weather. More than 200 Water Protectors were injured.”
The Nov. 20 interaction between law enforcement and Dakota Access Pipeline protesters is not the first instance of law enforcement using excessive force against the protesters. On Sept. 4, Democracy Now! released a video of police attacking the protesters with pepper spray and dogs.
The reason behind the push to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline’s construction is the threat that the pipeline poses to the sacred land of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe — especially if the pipeline were to leak or break. From 2009 to 2015, major accidents of oil and petroleum pipelines have increased almost 60 percent, reports the Boston Globe.
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