Pat Boyle, a Denver-based journalist, was shot in the abdomen last Sunday by a rubber bullet as he reported from North Dakota on a clash between demonstrators and police that would end with 26 protesters sent to hospitals and 300 requiring other medical treatment. One woman was severely injured and underwent emergency surgery on her arm after officers unleashed “less than lethal” weapons, including rubber bullets, icy cold water, and, reportedly, concussion grenades on the crowd. Police were reacting to an attempt by Dakota Access pipeline opponents to tow away burned vehicles that officers had secured in place to act as a highway blockade, preventing access to pipeline construction sites down the road. The rubber bullet that hit Boyle tore right through his press pass, leaving a jagged hole through the words “Unicorn Riot,” his news organization’s name.
Reporter Pat Boyle’s press pass after he was shot in the abdomen with a rubber bullet.
Source: Twitter
This wasn’t Unicorn Riot’s first run-in with police while covering the pipeline conflict, nor was it the media collective’s most serious. Reporters for Unicorn Riot have been arrested three times in North Dakota and twice while covering Dakota Access pipeline protests in Iowa. In North Dakota, at least seven journalists in total have been arrested while covering the clashes, according to a count by the Bismarck Tribune. Others have been stung by tear gas, pepper spray, or rubber bullets.
The arrests of journalists and filmmakers covering the front lines of the Dakota Access pipeline fight highlight the limits of press protections and the central role of police, prosecutor, and court discretion in deciding whether or not members of the press should face legal consequences when covering protests. The arrests and violent crowd suppression tactics also reflect the refusal of police to discriminate between peaceful protesters, aggressive agitators, and journalists.
Unicorn Riot was one of the few media outlets that showed up on April 1, when members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe arrived on horseback to set up a camp called Sacred Stone as a base for prayer and protest against the planned Dakota Access Pipeline, which if completed will transport half a million barrels of oil per day from the Bakken shale region of North Dakota to a hub in Illinois. And the media collective has remained a presence as the standoff reaches into the winter months with few signs of abating.
On Friday, the Army Corps of Engineers issued the Standing Rock Sioux tribe an eviction notice, demanding that thousands of people clear out of a second camp, known as Oceti Sakowin, located on land the Corps controls. “This decision is necessary to protect the general public from the violent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement officials that have occurred in this area, and to prevent death, illness, or serious injury to inhabitants of encampments due to the harsh North Dakota winter conditions.” The letter directed inhabitants to a site farther away from the pipeline construction area, dubbed a “free speech zone.”
“They’re giving us notice because the Corps of Engineers wants to reduce their liability when something serious happens,” said Standing Rock tribal chairman Dave Archambault during a press conference Saturday. “If [the Morton County Sheriff’s Department] wanted to, they would be able to come in and remove us. I don’t think that will happen.”
Nick Tilsen, co-founder of the Indigenous Peoples Power Project, which trains native people in direct action tactics, added, “Indigenous people are here to stay. And we’re not going to move unless it’s on our own terms, because this is our treaty land, this is our ancestral land, this is where our people have been for thousands of years.”
If nothing else, the eviction notice is likely to amplify tensions between pipeline opponents and police. The dynamic will play out on the front lines of protest actions, a space Unicorn Riot specializes in covering. It’s a space that can be legally precarious for journalists, where citizens with grievances meet publicly funded police straining (or failing) to balance law and order with constitutional speech rights. These situations often test the limits of the First Amendment, so video dispatches from the front lines provide distinct information about public life and the use of force to control a dissenting citizenry.
For example, video published by Unicorn Riot and others of tear gas canisters and water cannons sprayed directly into crowds of protesters last Sunday night, when temperatures stood well below freezing, countered police claims that the water was being used primarily to protect people from fire.
By comparison, footage published by the local Morton County Sheriff’s Department of a projectile landing on the far side of the police line came off as tame.
Unicorn Riot’s coverage is sympathetic to the pipeline opponents and is rarely favorable to the police, and its members are often mistaken for activists. They can be counted on to provide live-streams of pipeline protests that are later edited into more easily digestible short pieces. More immersive than mainstream media and more polished than the work of most activist documentarians, the collective’s coverage has been essential to understanding the events in North Dakota.
Yet police have repeatedly questioned the press status of Unicorn Riot reporters, and during mass arrests, they and other journalists have often been swooped up with protesters. “I’m not participating. I’m not building the barricade. I’m not pushing off against the police. I’m not going to pray at the water ceremony. I’m literally there observing,” said Lorenzo Serna, another Unicorn Riot reporter.
“If you come from too radical perspective, your right to report is somehow in question, because you’re outside the ideological frameworks,” said Chris Schiano, who has also been arrested covering the protests. “Most news organizations assume that nation states are legitimate and should exist. We try to report things outside of some of the central assumptions.”
NEW(ER) VIDEO of ND Hwy Patrol targeting & arresting Unicorn Riot journalists covering #NoDAPL actions pic.twitter.com/hBAVHoYwnY
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) September 15, 2016
The first time members of Unicorn Riot were detained in North Dakota was on September 13, during one of the earliest mass arrests. Pipeline protesters had locked themselves to construction equipment, and 26-year-old Chris Schiano came with Niko Georgiades, 34, to film it. By the end of the day, 23 people were arrested, including the two reporters.
As police moved in, Unicorn Riot’s Facebook live-feed was cut off. Facebook told Motherboard it was because of a mistake by an automatic spam filter. In a video of their arrests, Schiano can be seen standing apart from a throng of police clad in riot gear as he points to his press ID before he’s cuffed. Georgiades, filming the arrest, was detained shortly afterward and can be heard declaring, “I’m press, sir. I’m press.”
Georgiades’s press status didn’t count for much: The First Amendment does not protect journalists from trespassing charges. Ultimately, whether or not to arrest a journalist covering a protest on private property is up to the cops, and that day the two men were treated as protesters.
A month later, another Unicorn Riot reporter, 30-year-old Jenn Schreiter, was arrested and charged with trespassing while covering a lockdown at a Dakota Access construction site in Iowa.
Chief Deputy Scott Bonar of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said deputies don’t distinguish between protesters and journalists when it comes to trespassing. “They were told by security and deputies to leave the property. They could have walked to the roadway and did reporting there. They stayed on property and were arrested.”
In response, Schreiter said, “It’s part of the organization I work for, a nonprofit, educational media organization, to report from the front lines. The equipment I had was my cellphone. In order to capture audio and video, I needed to be where the action was.”
When Schreiter’s colleagues went to inquire about the reporter’s whereabouts, a deputy replied, “You don’t have a journalist. You claim you’re press; you don’t even have credentials.”
This AM, when asked about our journalist he arrested, Lee County,Iowa Sheriff Deputy Dakota Foley says "you don't have a journalist" #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/8Mq2t1PlOu
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) October 13, 2016
His words echoed those of Ladd Erickson, the McLean County state attorney in North Dakota who charged Democracy Now host Amy Goodman with trespassing on September 3. Goodman and a film crew had followed a group of people opposing the pipeline onto private land, where they were met with pepper spray and biting dogs.
“She’s a protester, basically. Everything she reported on was from the position of justifying the protest actions,” Erickson told the Bismarck Tribune, arguing that Goodman’s reporting hadn’t noted alleged injuries to private security guards. “Is everybody that’s putting out a YouTube video from down there a journalist down there, too?” The charges against Goodman were eventually changed to rioting, then dropped entirely.
“In the old days you could count on them dismissing those charges,” said Lucy Dalglish, dean of the University of Maryland’s journalism school. “But increasingly public officials are not cutting journalists much slack.”
Dalglish blames the shift on “a lot more people having cameras and saying I’m not a journalist, I’m a documentarian. I’m going to document police brutality. This kind of puts cops on edge. They’re thinking, ‘You’re going to think the worst of me? Well guess what, buddy, I’m going to get you, too.’ Plus, you cannot dismiss the tension that is out there in situations like Dallas, where there is a demonstration and cops end up being assassinated.”
Dalglish agreed that political objectivity is not a prerequisite for calling a product journalism. “This country was founded by a bunch of folks who were crusading journalists. There’s nothing that says you can’t do that,” she said. However, she added, “If [police] see you being really friendly with some folks that they have their eyes on, it probably does put you at risk.”
Water Protectors gather on the Back Water bridge to lead prayer ceremonies.
Photo: Taliesin Gilkes-Bower/RYOT
The project drew early attention for its coverage in 2015 of protests in Minneapolis after Jamar Clark was shot and killed by local police. While covering the shut-down of Interstate 94, Georgiades was arrested along with 33 others. Unlawful assembly and traffic charges were eventually dropped.
“There’s been a lot of times where one of these guys will get arrested and our team is remotely getting us out of jail,” said 33-year-old Andrew Neef, another reporter for the collective. “We keep track of each other and make sure that we’re watching out for each other.”
Unicorn Riot reporters carry cards identifying them as members of the press, but the bullet hole in the card Boyle carried is a pretty good metaphor for how police view the IDs. And a document recently uncovered by the collective via a public records request provides insight into law enforcement’s approach to interpreting press badges. It’s a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) manual that was recently emailed to the director of training for the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, declaring, “Some protesters will attempt to design fictitious media credentials to gain access to events or special consideration by law enforcement.”
At the Oceti Sakowin camp in North Dakota, which serves as a base for opposing the pipeline, volunteers distribute press IDs that give journalists permission to take photos on camp premises, after they attend an orientation. When I was at the camp recently, pass distributors suggested putting the passes away during protest actions, saying that pass carriers seemed to become police targets.
Others believe it’s less about targeting and more about police who decline to discriminate between journalists and activists. “I think that as the boundaries between journalists and non-journalists continue to erode, and any definition of journalism becomes more elusive, journalists have to realize that their rights are not protected by the special realm of press freedom,” said Carlos Lauría, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ program director for the Americas. Instead, he said, reporters should seek protection by “guaranteeing that the rights of free expression are extended to all.”
As of November 14, according to the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, 473 people had been arrested attempting to stand in the oil pipeline’s way. Freelance reporters, documentary filmmakers, producers of movement-building media, and independent activists armed with cellphones have all been swept up in mass arrests that have been carried out almost weekly since October.
Sara Lafleur-Vetter, a filmmaker who has been covering the pipeline fight since August, was charged on October 22 with trespassing and engaging in a riot in one of the largest mass arrests, when 127 were detained. Her camera was confiscated and eventually returned without its memory cards, and she said her bail agreement stipulated that she should not have any direct or indirect contact with Dakota Access pipeline property. “I can still go out,” she said. “I just have to be really careful.”
Serna was arrested that day, too, and issued the same charges as Lafleur-Vetter. It was more than a week before his camera was returned.
“By the time we go to court, we’ll have a new president,” Lafleur-Vetter said. “It’s scarier now. The risks are bigger now.”
Human Rights observers have also been prevented from monitoring protests. Twenty-five people were arrested on November 15 for protesting at a Dakota Access equipment site against the disappearances and murders of indigenous women. Demonstrators blocked a road used to access the equipment yard, and police in turn blocked off a public thoroughfare adjacent to the site, preventing journalists and human rights observers from monitoring the events.
In response, Amnesty International director Margaret Huang wrote a letter to Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier. “Our observers are wearing yellow shirts clearly identifying them as human rights observers and carry with them authorization letters from Amnesty International USA explaining their role in the observation of protests taking place in North Dakota,” she wrote. “Providing access to legal and human rights observers and journalists is a necessary component of policing protests to ensure that police facilitate the right to protest and that the rights to peaceful assembly and association are protected as required under international law and standards.”
The Morton County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Amnesty has visited Dakota Access protests during two other visits. “It’s worrisome and troubling when you have law enforcement really overzealously engaging in mass arrests that are actually geared at shutting down a protest,” said spokesperson Eric Ferrero. “If the whole mindset is that protesters are the enemy, and they’re on some kind of a battlefield, those are not police that are being set up to facilitate peaceful protest.”
“Ultimately our concern is that these interactions chill people’s human rights to free speech,” he said.
Unicorn Riot reporter Neef predicted Donald Trump’s election victory would increase the frequency of protests the collective covers. It has certainly diminished the chances that an executive branch order will halt the pipeline, but he was less sure that Trump would significantly alter the dynamics of the front line. “We might go through more tear gas filters for our gas masks, but it’s pretty much the same stuff that we’re dealing with,” he said.
“There’s a militarized fortress around the drill pad, enforced by mercenaries with automatic weapons, supported by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department,” said Serna. “Where does it go from here?”
Top photo: Members of the Oceti Sakowen security team monitor police activity.
I heard Michelle and Barack were “shocked to their core” by the brutal treatment of peaceful protestors and quashing of the freedom of speech…………
Where does it go from here? The passive resistance movement continues to grow to the point where the violent fascist police are far outnumbered by We the People. It is at that point where they back off, and the people win, without themselves committing acts of violence. That is what peaceable Freedom of Assembly is all about.
I would certainly like to see old-fashioned news organizations like the New York Times and the Washington Post temporarily credential the journalists from Unicorn Riot, so that the reporters, videographers and producers would be wearing press badges with those august old newspapers’ names on them. Then the cooperating newspapers would get to see what local, North Dakota and Federal law enforcement would do to shut the reporting down. If the newly credentialed journalists were arrested while reporting from Standing Rock then there would be one hell of a lawsuit against law enforcement under 42 U.S.C. 1983.
But of course I’m dreaming, because America’s major press organizations seem to be too frightened to send reporters and camera crews to the front lines of the protests.
I guess the first amendment now clearly states “certain tiny areas surrounded by barbwire and armed guards shall be designated Free Speech Zones. In all the rest of the nation, journalists documenting events which corporations and their government agents would prefer to censor shall
be forcibly removed to a Free Speech Zone and if they resist, shall be shot on sight.”
While I’m on the side of the journalists, the far bigger issue here is, well, the issue: stealing of the land from the native people and destroying it (for money). This press issue pales in comparison.
Agreed, completely. But, I suppose, it’s possible that more progress can sometimes be made on tangential fronts. Who knows? Maybe a legal case can even come from this instance of police abuse, if not a similar case. One is surely spoilt for choice.
second.
The Native Americans are the respecters of Mother Earth and Whiteman wold be wise to listen and learn from them. Whiteman’s values system is upside down and will systematically destroy people and land for profits until one day the whiteman will have destroyed all his life support the earth provided. But smart whiteman is not worried because the smart whiteman is trying to figure a way to get nutrition from moondust.
I’m wondering if the projectile thrown at the police was ever identified?
I’m curious because in the Unicorn Riot footage around 1:12, a projectile shot by the police at the protestors is thrown back at the police.
I’m not sure if there are accurate time stamps on the Unicorn Riot and police footage, but it would be interesting to know if the object thrown in the Unicorn Riot footage is the object flying over police in their footage.
It looks like the area is within the 1980 US Supreme Court ruling. If the Sioux own it is this considered eminent domain? Any lawyers out there?
“More than a century later, the Sioux nation won a victory in court. On June 30, 1980, in United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians,[3] the United States Supreme Court ruled that the government had illegally taken the land. It upheld an award of $15.5 million for the market value of the land in 1877, along with 103 years worth of interest at 5 percent, for an additional $105 million. The Lakota Sioux, however, have refused to accept payment and instead continue to demand the return of the territory from the United States.” (From Wikipedia)
The court never ruled that the wasicu have to give the land back, and the wasicu never agreed to do so. So the thieves still own the land as far as their illegitimate laws are concerned.
goes way back. The Dakota territories were deemed reservations prior to the discovery of gold in the black hills. Violating and tearing up treaties and siding with genociders is true American Exceptionalism – exceptional of God’s value system.
If someone embeds himself with bank robbers, can he ride in the car with the robbers, film the robbery for them and then leave in the getaway car, and still claim free speech protections by claiming he’s simply a journalist recording events? Is there any line at al that a journalist cant cross and claim immunity?l
i suppose that you could say if a tree fell in a forest and no one saw it, did it fall? Only if someone told you it did. But, if in order to prevent that knowledge being shared the police shot the person watching the tree, then he didnt. Its just another pointless metaphor. Whereas somebody campaigning for enviornmental benefits for future generations deserves respect.
Considering the lands in question are granted to the Great Sioux Nation, by treaty, and that according to the US Constitution, treaties are the Supreme Law Of The Land, then, in your analogy, the “Bank Robbers” are the Pipeline owners and their militarized, treasonous thugs, and that the job of journalists is to serve as a check on the government, and not merely serve as stenographers…
I guess any “journalists” who embed themselves with the thieves in this case are arguably not Journalists, but Stenographers. However, the article does not mention anyone embedded with the Cops who are Robbers, only those who are embedded with those trying to prevent the robbery.
Wondering what the “popular vote” in the country is in favor of or against the pipeline?
The only thing I’ve seen related to the popular attitude in the country was two statistics. First was that gasoline consumption reached a record high volume this year and second was that Thanksgiving travel volume returned to pre recession levels this year. Both of these oil/energy demand figures are what is driving the building of this and other pipelines so the people have spoken.
The oil that the pipeline will carry is fracked oil that will be shipped overseas. This oil will not benefit the American people at all-just the oil companies. What a rip off. As Americans we should all be concerned about this pipeline. Also, President -Elect Donald Trump owns shares in this pipeline.
Please be more accurate in reporting: these are NOT ‘rubber bullets’ the ARE ‘rubber-COATED bullets.
I want to know more about the treaties. What legal obligation does the U.S. have to honor these treaties?
According to the US Constitution, treaties are the Supreme Law of the Land. Article VI Clause 2.
In other words, the Constitution puts treaties as even more obligitory for the government to follow than the Constitution itself.
Jimmy Dore excoriates Obama and the Democrats for inaction and cowardice, focusing around Sen. Warren who has claimed Native American heritage:
Silent On DAPL: Will Sen. Warren Stand Up For Anything!?
Reply to Cap’n Carny
Excellent observation, Cap’n you’re seeing drama and theater that is to a great degree staged to draw an emotional response.
@Wnt
Don’t give the government any ideas especially about more drones which they would probably want to strap Hellfire missiles onto. BTW none of this conflict is located on Indian land, the camps are on federal and private land and the skirmishes are happening on private land so the BIA has no jurisdiction.
How would you know? Have you read the treaties personally? I highly doubt that you have.
That video is reminiscent of Apocalypse Now.
No man, no woman, no child, no living creature on earth can exist without WATER.
We can live without OIL.
WATER IS LIFE
“We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow the land from our children.” –Native American Proverb
Let’s take a step back here. What is the obvious response? We have people disagreeing about the basic facts; there’s even a claim that it wasn’t a police concussion grenade that blew that lady’s arm off. Rather than guess who’s lying, however obvious it seems, we should *know*. There’s an answer to this, more than a century old – the BIA should send a few agents in, maybe even launch some video drones, observe and neutrally report e.g. releasing all video footage. They should have people on scene to impartially explain what land is public, what land is subject to Indian rights, as the federal government of the U.S. perceives it at least. So where is Obama? If the government is supposed to do anything at all, it’s maintain order, and when 120 people are sent to a hospital that is not even remotely like order.
2sides,N points of view.Whatsapp îs mort disturbing,is that in this video age we cannot see a footage from site!!!When you answer yourself why,well,that’s not much to ask after.i would never live in a “democracy” like the one you’re having lately…still love The USA,but not this one:(((
The Morton County Sheriff is a stone liar as are most of the representatives of “law enforcement” on scene to protect the pipeline.
He’s engaged in a tactic of perception management — aka propaganda — to control the narrative and the beliefs of people who he hopes have no way to compare his false statements with the truth.
The problem is that there are intrepid reporters and observers on the scene and the truth is getting out — if incompletely. Those intrepid truth tellers of course are targets of “law enforcement.” The false narrative put out by the sheriffs department about the assault on water protectors a week ago was almost immediately contradicted by on-scene video which showed that sheriff’s version of events was a total lie.
The stalwart resistance to the pipeline by the Standing Rock Sioux and their many allies has inspired millions of people around the world who support their efforts to protect the water and Grandmother Earth. It’s a struggle that extends far beyond this pipeline and these sites in North Dakota.
The natives of America were exploited and killed. As far as British “colonist” coming over and killing off Indians. “.
A. History is sombody taking the power and ruling
B. Survival of the fittest. somebody dominates. If you can’t fight it you die.
That’s a simple explanation. We colonized America. Eradicated the Indians. The American natives were not nice people. They created warfare and torture umongst themselves. Everybody has a choice… Be kind and love,or be “successful” and take without looking back.
These attention whores first broke across the boundary and then tried to claim a 1st Amendment immunity. Can’t have the cake and eat it too..
But then again, all they want is to have war stories to tell to their fellow spineless buds
Oh, shut up. They have a duty to cover these newsworthy protests.
Every bit of land that these camps are on was promised to the Great Sioux Nation by treaties that are still legally binding. It is the pipeline owners and their treasonous mercenaries who are trespassing.
Dec5 the army or national guard will roll in and the shit will hit the fan the pipeline will go in come hell or high water you will see it happen isn’t worth their life to protest.the Indians have been pushed many times and lost you will see it again
Thank you for your article. My Facebook friends and family have challenged me to read more balanced materials about this conflict. However It is difficult to find balanced materials when the mainstream media don’t show up and the media that are there are presumed to be protesters and the sheriff’s Facebook page is no longer available.
One question about your article. Is it correct that corporate paid security has automatic weapons? I’m thinking you intended to say semiautomtic weapons, but is this correct? Because I don’t believe private citizens (including private security firms) are permitted by law to have automatic weapons.
“I’m thinking you intended to say semiautomtic weapons, but is this correct?”
A semi-automatic is an automatic weapon; it is not full-automatic.
This TAKING action by the power that betrays the rights of individuals ownership of domain and self reliance is NO DIFFERENT than the TEA TAX. And now we have another TEA PARTY.
recall- slavery was a matter of expediency as if expediency had any real value.
SHOOTING PROTESTERS probably – just like in Syria. Just because there is a democracy doesn’t mean it exists in practice. Equal power is something you have to own to use. Human rights are something you have to own to use. As i have said so many times before, it’s all about OWNERSHIP.
this is sad, why do people need to get hit by a rubber bullet and have cold water sprayed on them just so other people can get rich, and the (enforcer) getting nothing???? Now fast forward to a time when the pipeline burst because of I don’t know lets say human error what water are we going to use? I don’t have plans to dehydrating just so some rich guy can get richer. Are we really robots that can’t see? Sad
Things are gonna get even more interesting when the Veterans show up on Dec. 4.
The line between journalist and protestor is indeed very thin. After all, both are there to get the message out. I don’t really like the idea of putting great faith in “press credentials”, which are indeed not that dissimilar from Benito Mussolini’s tongue-in-cheek plan below.
The real issue, ignored in this analysis, is simply that a journalist who is generally uninvolved in “the protest” is uninvolved in “pushing back against the police line”, or any other activity that could even conceivably justify being shot with a rubber bullet.
the line… proximity, appearance, role
one protects
one witnesses
it’s those aspects of roles, like molecules, that make a significant purposeful difference and those differences need to be respected for their differences yet neither parsed and severed as to diminish the rights of the possessor/owner of the role.
The US has copped the attitude that if you cant defend it, you dont own it.
The real issue, ignored in this analysis, is simply that a journalist who is generally uninvolved in “the protest” is uninvolved in “pushing back against the police line”, or any other activity that could even conceivably justify being shot with a rubber bullet.
Journalists doing nothing more than interviewing protesters and/or filming the protest have been targeted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycmX1Os2G7c
Anecdotally speaking, a photojournalist friend of mine was shot with rubber bullets three times (in addition to being gassed) covering the protests in Portland. He spoke with an officer while at the front line, who essentially told him them’s the breaks- if you’re in front, you’re a target, press pass or no. Hard to imagine that’s not SOP in general.
Related to another big story, the establishment wants these journalists to be thought of as fake news, which means police can abuse them just the same as they do the protesters.
When the establishment gets to be the arbiter of what’s legitimate, we are seriously compromised.
Please point out that Obama has done nothing to stop the violence against protesters, nor to challenge the Federal demand that they clear their site. It’s obvious Trump makes a better villain, but it’s Obama who is the indecent fuckbastard dickhead authoritarian right now permitting all this suffering to happen – cowering somewhere hoping timid reporters like you don’t point out that he’s really accountable.
Donald Trump will never fight a pipeline he has invested in:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/26/donald-trump-dakota-access-pipeline-investment-energy-transfer-partners
I wouldn’t expect Trump to be concerned for disenfranchised people or the environment, particularly not when he has specific interests. He’s already wearing his devil horns and belching moderate fire and brimstone, predictably disappointing liberals by not being fascist enough yet (while disappointing some conservatives for the same reason).
Trump will be a bastard about it, no doubt, but Obama is being a bastard, a liar and a hypocrite (he said clearly he would have Native Americans’ back) – and somebody with a major platform should call him out on his ignoring of this opportunity to actually stand up for an oppressed group. He could feasibly be shamed into doing something, even where Trump could not, because Obama’s (laughable and carefully media-managed) reputation and legacy as a good guy matters to him.
The protesters’ only chance is to get Obama so humiliated by his inaction that he does something noble.
Maisie, Amen & Amen! Obummers silence on this whole thing is nothing short of SHAMEFUL!! Besides, as we all know now, he is PRO-Wall ST, (all they got was their wrists slapped and hired to his cabinet,for wrecking the economy in 2007-2008!), he’s PRO- MIC, and LOVES his drones and never charged Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et.al. with war crimes, he’s PRO-BIG COAL, OIL & GAS (& fracking!), He’s PRO-drilling (Arctic and GULF) & Pro-pipelines! Boy did he PLAY the American 99%!! His legacy is great for the 1%, and he’s done crap for the indigenous and poor! 30 million still have no healthcare, inspite of Obamacare! He’s Pro- Big AG, and Pro-Big Pharma! He’s a smooth taking hypocrite, reminiscent of Reagan! Oh, but our “economy ” is growing, unemployment has decreased, well wages are Stagnant and sure the War economy and Fossil Fuel economy is growing! And the Silicon valley and Seattle economies — that’s why all the western state congress people were pro-TPP! I am disgusted — in America, because of people, FAKE PEOPLE (like the FAKE NEWS THEY ALLOW AND DICTATE) like Obummer, Clinton, and Trump! And their corporate handlers!
Have you seen the dividends paid by thls stock. They are huge
Obama has given up on his willingness to stand against human rights violaters. That started when he supported israel’s genocide and land theft. As soon as he did that, IT WAS ALL DOWNHILL FROM THERE.
It’s always the poison you swallow that destroys you.
It started no later than 7/08 when he voted immunity to telecommunications companies that helped GW Bush unconstitutionally spy on US citizens without warrants.
The pipeline protests are being used by the bosses of the militarized police as practice for use on any of us who protest things which the Powers That Be want to do or protect.
It’s practice. And doing it first to “weird ” protesters or the Standing Rock Indian protesters makes it less awful to the general public. Until it happens to them….
No need to quote Rev. Martin Niemoller and his famous statement that “First they came for the Socialists….” Right?
The PTB’s will be coming for any whose protests reach a certain level of support from the general public. Then, the public will be frightened out of joining. Think about Occupy….
> “I think that as the boundaries between journalists and non-journalists continue to erode, and any definition of journalism becomes more elusive, journalists have to realize that their rights are not protected by the special realm of press freedom,” said Carlos Lauría, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ program director for the Americas. Instead, he said, reporters should seek protection by “guaranteeing that the rights of free expression are extended to all.”
that’s wrong! maintaining the distinction between protester and journalist – actor and observer – is crucial. the unicorn riot reporter expressed it well:
> “I’m not participating. I’m not building the barricade. I’m not pushing off against the police. I’m not going to pray at the water ceremony. I’m literally there observing,” said Lorenzo Serna, another Unicorn Riot reporter.
credentials should not be required. any citizen should be able to declare himself an observer and, if she acts accordingly, should be granted the same first amendment press protections as a reporter from any major news organization. the government should not have the right to determine who is and who isn’t a journalist. “journalism” should be defined as an activity; a citizen should be considered a “journalist” whenever (and only when) they are performing that activity. the first amendment protects the right to do something, not be something. instead of a “Committee to Protect Journalists” we need a Committee to Protect Journalism
that boundary is one of ingredients like a cake recipe.
the primary ingredient for this aspect of the entire human makeup is WITNESSING.
It is biblical. Can i get a witness?
thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU ! ! !
i have been fruitlessly banging the drum on this for a while : journalists do NOT ‘deserve’ any protections that us lowly citizens do not enjoy as well… they are OUR proxies, ONLY doing for us what we do not have the time and resources to do ourselves…
as mentioned, WE ALL should have the right to -ahem- peacefully assemble ANY FUCKING PLACE we so choose, observe, and jeer or cheer as our mood suits us…
we are ALL ‘journalists’ in that respect, and the fact that goons for the state do their ILLEGAL AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL best to deter us all from either rrporting on or participating in protests, only demonstrates Empire, not small dee democracy, is in the saddle, and the devil/kops take the hindmost…
Since ND have eyes trained on the Water Protectors and Jeremy Scahill warned from his interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! that their cellphones are being used to track their movements, it seems to me that the cops should know who is a journalist and who is not. In addition, Unicorn Riot’s logo is in the corner of every damn video that they post.
I’m not buying the lax interpretation of journalists vs citizen journalists – and since when is it against the law to photograph police brutality?
Son of a bitch. There is some great worldwide coverage and even our badly misinformed and crappy cable networks are showing updates. Thank you for the great article.
How far back do we have to go back in history to determine why, and how of the polarization we have today. I think it has to be the Dred Scott Case that was decided by the US Supreme Court in 1857. In that case Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled : No Negro has any rights that a white man needs to respect. Today, the American Indian has no rights that a policeman needs to respect. The more times change the more they remain the same.
Not very far.
Newt Gingrich’s ideology when he first came to the House in 1978. The Gingrich revolution solidified the vast partisanship when the Repubs took over the Congress in 1994 and he became House Speaker. So say the ultimate experts, Mann and Ornstein. Read: It’s Even Worse Than it Looks.
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/robert-dieterich-blame-gingrich-extremist-gop-for-poisonous-politics/article_bc007b76-aaa0-11e1-bab9-001a4bcf887a.html
A couple of tidbits:
“The core strategy,” they summarize, “was to destroy the institution in order to save it.”
Gingrich set out to deliberately intensify the public’s hatred of Congress, they write, so voters would buy into the need for sweeping change and throw the bums (the majority Democrats) out.
“His method? To unite his Republicans in refusing to cooperate with Democrats in committee and on the floor,” they write.
Cops do this people of every type. This is what happens in a police state. It’s not unique to the Standing Rock Lakota.
PS – Indigenous/Native Americans. This is not a protest made of Ramachandrans, Guptas and Shrivkumars.
We are all palestinians now.
Just wondering, what’s your issue with “Indian”? That is the term the vast majority of them use themselves over “Native American”. Of course, far more often, most I’ve ever met or known of uses the name of their Nation over both of the former options. But don’t I’ve never heard of an “Indian” actually being offended by the term – only (overly) politically correct white people, for some reason I cannot adequately explain to myself.
This has nothing to do with offense. My issue with “Indian” is that they are not Indians at all. Indians are from India.
And as you pointed out, most indigenous Americans refer to their tribe. No matter how many indigenous Americans incorrectly refer to themselves as “Indians,” it’s still as dumb and wrong as calling Pakistanis ‘Mexicans’. Also, it’s not as if the tribal bands of the Americas created the term ‘American Indian’. It’s a term of historical, geographical and imperial ignorance.
You think your opinion counts more than the opinions of some of these people linked in the article below who state their choices of what they prefer to call themselves or whether or not they chosen to be offended by what some others might call them?
Blackhorse: Do You Prefer ‘Native American’ or ‘American Indian’? 6 Prominent Voices Respond
…
More at the link
“You think your opinion counts more than the opinions of”
Of course not. Where did I say that? Where did I say that people don’t have the right to not care about labels??
I said that no matter how many indigenous Americans incorrectly refer to themselves as “Indians,” it’s still as dumb and wrong as calling Pakistanis ‘Mexicans’.
Riddle me this:
An empire lands in Japan, mistaking it for Norway, and begins to colonize the territory. They mistakenly refer to the native Ainu as Laplanders, expel them from their land, enslave/kill them, and systematically eradicate their culture.
Does it *make sense* to continue to call the Ainu ‘Laplanders’ simply because the misnomer was repeated for years, and some Ainu got a bout of Stockholm syndrome and started calling themselves Laplanders??
Additionally, if one is trying to preserve the dying native culture of the Ainu, is it a good idea to continually obscure their real native cultural name?
I think I lost this to a loose connection, but if I reposted my apologies:
Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_name_controversy – “India” in 1492 was much broader than the area later seized as a colony by the British Empire (which in turn was broader than modern “India” by the area of Pakistan and Bangladesh). India back then referred to, well, basically anything west of the Atlantic. The term is not a misnomer but a holdover, reflecting a historical etymology. It’s certainly no worse than calling the U.S. “America” when Amerigo Vespucci landed in South America, but I don’t hear many Americans complaining.
That article also totally rejects Russell Means’ “En Dios” thing, for what it’s worth.
While you’re correct that India encompassed a much larger territory than it does today, the etymology shows that
‘”India” is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu.[19] The latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River.[20] The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (?????), which translates as “The people of the Indus”.[21]’
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India#Etymology
The only reason that India would/did refer “to […] basically anything west of the Atlantic,” is because A.) Spain, Portugal, Italy, etc. had not charted the oceans. B.) They mistakenly assumed that there was no other continent between them and east Asia. They were trying to reach, and wrongly thought they arrived at, ‘the area around the Indus River.’
So, the term is not at all a “holdover.” It is a complete misnomer. It’s built solely on ignorance.
Yeah, the whole ‘en Dios’ thing is reductio ad absurdum.
Having clarified all that, I’ll pose the same question to you:
An empire lands in Japan, mistaking it for Norway, and begins to colonize the territory. They mistakenly refer to the native Ainu as Laplanders, expel them from their land, enslave/kill them, and systematically eradicate their culture.
Does it *make sense* to continue to call the Ainu ‘Laplanders’ simply because the misnomer was repeated for years, and some Ainu got a bout of Stockholm syndrome and started calling themselves Laplanders??
Additionally, if one is trying to preserve the dying native culture of the Ainu, is it a good idea to continually obscure their real native cultural name?
This is not like naming variables or breeds …
Much taxonomy in your education?
Do you see no use in nomenclature??
According to dictionary revision conventions, usage is primary – over “correctness”, even. Hence, we end up with wacky new words from colloquialisms and terms like Indian referring to a separate concept from the more correct meaning.
Sure, but we’re not dim enough to think that referencing specific objects/concepts/data via nomenclature is irrelevant. Language is not arbitrary. It has a specific function…to concisely, and more importantly, correctly convey a message/emotion.
Words evolve in 2 ways (with slight overlap):
1.) Phonetic ways (due to biological changes in the respective vocal/auditory regions or general and certain anthro-linguistic variations)
e.g. Hindhu – Sindhu – Indus – Indoi – India
2.) Sociological ways (due to changing cultural norms/interactions or other anthro-linguistic variations)
e.g. Someone (uneducated or famous) mispronounces/misuses a word and that usage proliferates (among the uneducated or fans).
Someone changes the meaning of ‘bad’ to ‘good’ as a counter-cultural statement (see – 1990s).
People mistake one thing for another.
Etc.
Though they may become validated by updated dictionaries, not all word evolutions are good or beneficial to the purpose of language. Some obstruct, confuse or violate the purpose of language.
In the case of ‘American Indians,’ the term stems from and validates a geographical/anthropological mistake. It also serves to obscure the differences between tribes, the real tribal names, and the fact that they settled here thousands of years before anyone else.
I tried to elucidate my perspective and the importance of this case in my thought experiment/question. Maybe you’d like to answer it:
An empire lands in Japan, mistaking it for Norway, and begins to colonize the territory. They mistakenly refer to the native Ainu as Laplanders, expel them from their land, enslave/kill them, and systematically eradicate their culture.
Does it *make sense* to continue to call the Ainu ‘Laplanders’ simply because the misnomer was repeated for years, and some Ainu got a bout of Stockholm syndrome and started calling themselves Laplanders??
Additionally, if one is trying to preserve the dying native culture of the Ainu, is it a good idea to continually obscure their real native cultural name?
I don’t care if the Ainu call themselves “The Carrot Stick Bunch”, it’s not going to affect their culture one way or another.
On a related note, do you know of any “real native cultural name” which any indigenous American peoples used to refer to all indigenous Americans collectively? (That one’s rhetorical.) “Indians” just happened to be the first term popularized to express the concept.
Also, who’s to say it’s an obfuscation in some way? Are there people out there who read into the name and mistakenly believe they came from India?
So, I guess my answer to your question is, yes, it makes sense. I’d go so far as to say, it hardly matters at all. As a rule of thumb, so long as a word has a specific meaning according to common usage, it’s a useful construct. I guess, that’s why we do things the way we do with words.
‘I don’t care if the Ainu call themselves “The Carrot Stick Bunch”, it’s not going to affect their culture one way or another.’
To believe that, you’d have to lack sufficient knowledge of cultural anthropology and the sociological implications of language. Names not only reflect cultural norms, they reinforce them. Do you sincerely think that labeling an entire group of people “ni**er” doesn’t have an affect on their psyche? Every time you see the term “American Indian,” you’re not seeing the tribal name, and you’re not seeing any reference to their indigenous heritage.
‘On a related note, do you know of any “real native cultural name” which any indigenous American peoples used to refer to all indigenous Americans collectively?’
Absolutely, coincidentally…”lakota” and/or “Ik?é Wi?hášta” to name a couple. There are many more. The fact that you don’t know, or don’t think it’s relevant, that there are indigenous names to describe indigenous people illuminates the exact problem I’m describing.
“Indians” didn’t “happen” to be the first popularized term. It was a term brought by imperialism and reinforced through forced assimilation. Do you think that systematic language erasure/cultural genocide wasn’t practiced in the states??
“Also, who’s to say it’s an obfuscation in some way?” Logic.
“Are there people out there who read into the name and mistakenly believe they came from India?” I don’t know and that’s not the primary problem of the name. As I mentioned earlier, those who read the name aren’t reading the actual name that would tell them even the slightest bit about the people to which the name refers. It’s what they’re *not* seeing…hence “obscure”.
“As a rule of thumb, so long as a word has a specific meaning according to common usage, it’s a useful construct.” You’re proving my point. “Indian” no longer has a specific meaning according to common usage. It once did, but not since the bastardization of the term.
*effect*
The problem for these demonstrators/rioters and these so called journalists is that most people don’t care about their complaints. This Thanksgiving travel returned to pre recession levels and gasoline consumption set a new record high this year. This and other pipeline construction are being driven by this consumer demand not the pipeline companies or the oil producers. They will profit from them but without new demand they wouldn’t be built.
The sometimes violent attacks by the Indian demonstrators and the often bloody actions by the cavalry make great drama and draws attention and donations but the pipeline is already built except for this small section. Even if the demonstrations succeeded in getting it moved it will still cross the Missouri River and the oil will flow to those demanding it, consumers.
Activists who demonstrate on private land are illegally trespassing as are journalists and they enjoy no first amendment protections which only partially protect demonstrators on public land.
I support the gathered tribes and the peaceful prayer circles practiced away from the private construction sites but the smaller warrior contingent is after drama, outrage and news coverage that only blood and injury will produce and they are playing their part in producing it.
A compelling statement from the Department of the Interior… Thanks for that.
” these so called journalists ”
They can’t be “journalists” because they are telling a story you don’t want told …
OK
Actually, the land belongs by treaty to the Lakota Sioux. In the U.S. Constitution it states that “This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby”
Now consider: ” The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation was originally established as part of the Great Sioux Reservation. Article 2 of the Treaty of Fort Laramie of April 29, 1868 described the boundaries of the Great Sioux Reservation, as commencing on the 46th parallel of north latitude to the east bank of Missouri River, south along the east bank to the Nebraska line, then west to the 104th parallel of west longitude. (15 stat. 635).
The Great Sioux Reservation comprised all of present-day South Dakota west of the Missouri River, including the sacred Black Hills and the life-giving Missouri River. Under article 11 of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, the Great Sioux Nation retained off-reservation hunting rights to a much larger area, south to the Republican and Platte Rivers, and east to the Big Horn Mountains. Under article 12, no cession of land would be valid unless approved by three-fourths of the adult males. Nevertheless, the Congress unilaterally passed the Act of February 28, 1877 (19 stat. 254), removing the Sacred Black Hills from the Great Sioux Reservation. The United States never obtained the consent of three-fourths of the Sioux, as required in article 12 of the 1868 Treaty. The U.S. Supreme Court concluded that “A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history.” United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, 448 U.S. 371, 388 (1980).
It seems to me the Sioux are not the ones trespassing by any legitimate legal standards.
You have to realize that the Sioux owned nothing when they were finally conquered and surrendered, the US government owned it all. The lands they were allotted were mostly treaty lands not deeded property although there is some deeded to individuals and much of it was reclaimed by the government when it saw another need for the land. You or I may not like this powerful fact but these conquered tribes had little if any power to change the outcome then or now.
Trying to claim these imagined treaty rights now is like trying to refight the Indian Wars that were lost over a hundred years ago. The government has ceded some small amount of land to some tribes but these lands were given to the tribes not taken by them.
Your reference to the Constitution doesn’t seem to have ever applied to conquered tribes inside the US only treaties with civilized foreign nations. There was never an Indian Nation only relatively small tribes who were conquered and treated as less than civilized peoples.
wayoutwest ,
you also should realized when a nation is conquered no treaty is required. A treaty in this case was used to end hostilities. No declaration of surrender was ever signed. By either side.
Yeah. Might is Right.
Wrong. All of it. But it doesn’t matter. You should have just said “might makes right” and then signed off–no need then for the phony piety.
There is no freedom to travel. The public may not set foot off public land. The Cattlemen’s Association has effectively passed presumed trespassing laws across America. The first thing they did was kill all indians and all buffalo which supported the Indians. Then they put up barb wire fences and ordered all white men off their? property. Now N. Dakota is closing a public travel way and charging the public with tesspassing on public land
I saw two young men (young-mid teenagers) tussling with each other from 9/3 when Democracy Now! reported from there. Extended coverage on Thanksgiving.
Please cite violence by Water Protectors.
Love the Veterans Stand for Standing Rock action.
Ready for action, by reports from their FB page.
Obviously, our color-blind system is working overtime: Bundy Standoff 2 (references ti 1)
From Wikipedia: On December 30, 2015, USFWS staff members at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge were dismissed early from work. With tensions rising in nearby Burns, supervisors left staff with the final instruction not to return to the refuge unless explicitly instructed.[64] Meanwhile, some residents of Burns reported harassment and intimidation by militia members. According to the spouses and children of several federal employees and local police, they had been followed home or to school by vehicles with out-of-state license plates.[67]
They left 2/11/16.
More from Wikipedia on the Bundy takeover of Federal land – investigators found “significant amounts of human feces” at “two large trenches and an improvised road on or adjacent to grounds containing sensitive artifacts” of the Burns Paiute Tribe.[207] A USFWS spokesperson said that the damage risked “the destruction and desecration of culturally significant Native American sites” and called it “disgusting, ghoulish behavior.”[115] The Burns Paiute Tribe condemned the damage;[208] tribal council member Jarvis Kennedy described it as if “someone went to Arlington National Cemetery and went to the bathroom on the graves and rode a bulldozer over them.”[209]
Geez – the Feds were concerned about culturally significant Native American artifacts and lands when they needed ammo (sic) in their federal case against the Malheur takeover.
We know how that that case ended.
Recent news:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Leader-in-Oil-Spills-Buys-Dakota-Pipelines-Energy-Transfer-Co.-20161121-0018.html
Sunoco’s spill rate shows protesters may have reasons for concern about potential leaks at the Dakota pipeline.
Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. is set to buy its competitor Energy Transfer Partners — under fire over the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline — for about US$20 billion, AP reported Monday. Shares for both companies fell in the afternoon by 8-9 percent.
Sunoco Logistics has been found to spill crude more often than any company, with more than 200 leaks since 2010, according to a Reuters analysis of government data.
There is a great publication called Marcellus Drilling News. http://marcellusdrilling.com/
This is one of their headlines – it was higher up the page three or four days ago.
They use this type of “oppressed” language all over the website.
Sierra Club Radicals Sue DTE Energy over NEXUS Pipeline.
First off, a majority of the press these days is freelance and that includes the major mainstream publications and is particularly true of photographers. The situation there is newsworthy regardless of land ownership. No news photographer has ever made a living waiting in the back.
I don’t want to appear to be supporting the police actions at these demonstrations, I’m just writing about the reality of this conflict. I also want to emphasize that I support the peaceful demonstrators .
I would like to see less of what appears to be special interest activism journalism and more honest reporting on the whole situation. The people you refer to as freelancers seem to be there to tell a story from one side of the conflict which I don’t recognize as real journalism. The Cavalry identifies them as hostiles and they are treated as such. The troopers may be overreacting and heavy handed but they are being provoked with illegal, aggressive and violent behavior.
The picture above the headline tells part of the whole story but the freelancers and others only talk about peaceful demonstrators and demonstrator injuries. The burnt vehicles show that not all of the demonstrators are peaceful because they burned these vehicles. Some of them have also inflicted injuries on the cops which is not peaceful and there are reports that IEDs were recovered from the site where the woman’s arm was injured. If the IED report is accurate this is an escalation of the violence and could lead to more bloodshed that is apparently what some of the demonstrators want.
I understand what your saying, and I will agree to disagree on your main point of your comment. Why is it that your saying the police were injured, citing of course no evidence. Your saying that the journalists are painting one side of the story, which is ridiculous, because the police are always going to blame the protestors, and come up with stories of violence to convince people of that. These Demonstrators don’t want violence, the police want it, the oil pipeline company wants it. If you need an example look up the FTAA protest in Miami. The police, not the protestors, turned it into a war zone.
I won’t argue with your statement that the police are going to blame the protesters because the protesters are breaking the law, trespassing on someone else’s land. They also lie and exaggerate but it is faulty logic to assume they always need to lie and exaggerate.
I read everything I find on this conflict and the local and wire reports along with evidence such as the burned trucks, in the picture above, show there is an element of this larger group of Indians that are not peaceful but aggressive and sometimes violent. I read that a woman was arrested for firing a pistol at the cops and there have been many reports of protesters throwing objects at the cops along with numerous vehicles being torched. Even the larger group of older members of the camps have tried to stop these tactics and evacuated children because of the danger they pose.
The first skirmish I saw reported was the one where about two hundred ‘demonstrators’ marched into the construction site that was guarded by the small private force with the dogs. The local report said they were surrounded by the more numerous trespassers and when they attempted to make them leave they were attacked and five or six of them were sent to the hospital for medical attention, some of the dogs also required medical attention. It wasn’t explained whether the dogs were released before or after the attack. I’m sure there are records of the injuries the guards had treated if someone wanted to verify that claim.
The alternate media painted a different picture of this skirmish with depictions of peaceful protesters being attacked without provocation by the dogs and guards. The picture they supplied with the story showed the front line of the protesters marching towards the construction site. What caught my eye was the 6 to 8 foot long prayer sticks some of these guys were carrying, handy weapons if you are expecting or planning for a fight.
they’re being targeted. The British did that in N. Ireland
Legitimate, genuine, and authentic police would not infringe upon anyone’s constitutional rights. It is their sworn and legal duty to uphold everyone’s constitutional rights. Thus any infringer who purports to be police is not legitimate, genuine, and authentic police and should not be considered or recognized as such. They should be treated as usurpers and impersonators.
Please stop calling them “clashes”. The only ones clashing are the security guards and law enforcement. The protesters are not initiating violence – they are the ones being attacked. “Clash’ makes it sound like both sides are aggressors.
If this is what ‘democracy’ is like under Obama, then bring on Trump. Sure, he’ll let the pigs smack around native Americans, just like Obama has, but at least he’ll be up front about it. We’ve got 2 more months of listening to his sleazy smooth-talking, and then Obama will ‘retire’ to Goldman Sachs, and continue to promote freedom through war.
Let’s be honest; the primary activity of the police is to protect the powerful from the more numerous weaker in society. The more direct route of a pipeline could have paralleled interstate 94 going through white cities like Bismark, Minneapolis, Madison, Rockford eic., but it was much easier to lay it in Native American and Farm land to avoid having white folks organize. Cities are more populated and more financially capable of opposition, so let’s stick it to the under privileged and less powerful groups.
This seems like a good opportunity for the federal government to take firmer reins on the press by issuing official accreditation to friendly journalists. That way, the police would have a clear indication of who are the real press members and then everyone else would be treated as protestors.
They’ll probably let this chance slip away, but I’m sure that Mr. Trump’s administration will be more on the ball. If the government licenses the press, censoring it will become unnecessary. The First Amendment is a hurdle, but not too high a one.
Excuse me.. If the government licenses the press, censoring it will become unnecessary? Do you realize what you just said. That’s a dimwit statement. How is that supposed to align with a free press? In other words there will be government-approved press? And they can shoot at anyone else?
I believe he’s being sarcastic. It’s in his name, after all. Satire is his game
I think my statement was self evident. A press which is licensed can have its license revoked at any time and so will avoid saying or doing anything controversial. So it isn’t necessary to censor them, completing a nice end run around the First Amendment. And I didn’t say I condoned shooting the non-licensed press. Government should be as oppressive as necessary, but not more so.
The obvious solution is as in Iraq, to embed all journalists with the militarized police and corporate mercenaries, having them sleep and eat and travel together, while all designating all others as enemy combatants, who can be targeted with with rubber bullets, concussion grenades, fire hoses and pepper spray. War for oil abroad, war for oil at home – same rules apply.
Great idea, Benito.
Your words have more frequently matched your wisdom.
From my count, you evoked a laugh and a upward lip curl in the past 24 hours.
There’s no way the Army Corps would have issued that eviction notice without President Obama’s approval – so why is Obama on the pipeline’s side? All evidence is that top billionaire, Warren Buffett, has Obama’s ear on this. Buffett dumped $6 billion into major pipeline partner Phillips 66 some time ago, because his BNSF oil bomb trains kept on exploding, and so he decided to get the oil out using a pipeline. There are plenty of other investors in the Dakota Access Pipeline, but Buffett seems the largest one:
https://www.desmogblog.com/2014/01/02/warren-buffett-bought-stake-pipeline-company-same-day-north-dakota-oil-train-explosion
Google [ buffett phillips 66 BNSF oil pipeline ] for a lot more articles on this dynamic, which the corporate media (and most progressive media) refuses to report on. Buffett has been a major promoter of Hillary Clinton this past year, and was Barak Obama’s meal ticket in the runup to the 2008 election, explaining why Obama isn’t doing anything to stop Buffett’s pet project. So where do you go to find out about this deal? The industry press, financial and oil industry, that is:
Cheaper? Yes. Safer? Not for water supplies or farmland, since those pipelines, full of corrosive crude oil, spring leaks all the time – just lower liabilities compared to the oil trains, especially if you run the pipelines through poor areas (trains run through major cities) and Native American reservations.
Another factor in the Army Corps decision is that a U.S. Veterans for Peace group has called on ex-military people to show up at the Standing Rock camp to aid the protesters, coincidentally on Dec. 5th as well:
That’s probably what the whole group behind this eviction notice – Buffett, Obama, the Army Corps the local politicians, the sheriff, and their corporate masters, etc. – is most worried about, because watching militarized police and corporate mercenaries beat up on peaceful military veterans will play even worse with the U.S. public than the assaults on peaceful Native American protesters have.
Of course, the 3musketterbill,hillarybarack to the service of the wealthy oil– it all goes through and coordinated by the BigBanks !
The secret clintonemail.com to talk to criminals!
Where is all thesupport for all the Grassroots, PresObama always talked about– i see ALL americans?
And hte Kate P, the Maddonna, the Springstein, the Sting, the LadyGagaare sure not getting dirty or going out of their way to help the peons, the n?s, the slaves, etc? HELL NO– all havinge a comfy warm thanksgiving!
So, what really constitutes being a member of the press?
For the benefit of the people the more the merrier is best. Having six media corporate giants controlling much of which involves foreign ownership certainly has not been working to the advantage of the masses.
New tactics need to be employed when taking on a powerful enemy. George Washington did not take on The British army in a traditional line the forces up neatly facing each other. In order to break free of the increasingly oppressive situation and ever escalating reduction of our freedoms new methods must be found and utilized, which can end our present realm of ever increasing neo-feudal serfdom.
What is particularly disheartening is the fact that so many horrible things have been done to the Native Americans, and it appears that the current situation at Standing Rock only proves we have learned nothing other than let’s just repeat the cruelty generation after generation.
Something about the name “Unicorn Riot” doesn’t sound like the kind of thing a legitimate journalist would come up with.
Just an observation, and not a reflection on the motives of the protestors.
The Unicorn is an extreme phallic symbol.
The first step in taking away freedom of the press is asserting that the journalists are not really journalists.
How do the journalists identify themselves? The Unicorn Riot tag pictured doesn’t resemble a press pass I have ever seen.
At a ballgame the press and photographers have large identifying signs. At some of the recent riots, press wore hard hats with “press” in large letters.
Without respect to merit of the protest itself…
If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and is commonly found in the company of other ducks, it’s a duck.
Handing it a home-made “press” card and camera doesn’t make it not a duck. It makes it a joke.
Except that most news outlets carrying even a smidgen of video coverage show the Unicorn Riot logo. Not being recognized by you doesn’t delegitimize their function and role.
It’s definitely not a joke – not to me, not to the Water Protectors, and not to the people who have been on the front lines since April defending all our rights to have clean water, clean air, and not to have their sacred lands destroyed.
I agree that treaty lands belong to the tribes. The USA Govt trying to impose it’s will should be illegal and probably is.
The Indians need a “Lakota Sioux” news channel. Shooting a rubber bullet at an official Lakota Sioux reporter would be earth shaking!
So, what kind of press passes have you seen throughout the years, pal? At a ballgame you were, and you saw the real deal? Maybe the journalists at Unicorn Riot ought to wear those swell Press helmets that you saw, and which instantly confirmed to you that they were the, well, real deal. Looks like they’re going to need flak jackets and fore extinguishers soon enough too.
Journalists= Activists. No difference.
Don’t forget other alternative media journalists have had multiple run-ins with police, as well. Derrick Broze was filming as several officers prepared to tase a horse — and he was tasered instead.