Leaked documents and public records reveal a troubling fusion of private security, public law enforcement, and corporate money in the fight over the Dakota Access pipeline.
TigerSwan, the private company behind a monthslong, multi-state surveillance operation targeting opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline, illegally provided security and investigative services to the pipeline’s parent company, Energy Transfer Partners, despite being denied a license to do so, a new civil lawsuit alleges. Even after oil began to flow through the contested pipeline, and long after the crowded Dakota Access resistance camps gave way once again to empty prairie, TigerSwan continued its unlicensed security operations in North Dakota.
The allegations are part of a lawsuit the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board filed against TigerSwan and its founder James Reese on Tuesday. Violating the license law is a class B misdemeanor in North Dakota, though local prosecutors have not filed criminal charges.
The complaint against TigerSwan requests an injunction against the firm and its founder, which would prevent them from continuing to illegally operate as a security company in the state. At the time of the lawsuit, TigerSwan continued to deploy personnel “armed with semiautomatic rifles and sidearms” in North Dakota and was still monitoring “persons affiliated with the DAPL protests,” according to the court filing.
Two weeks prior to the initiation of the suit, The Intercept published a selection of more than 100 leaked situation reports prepared by TigerSwan for its client ETP, as well as additional documents obtained via public records request detailing the scale of TigerSwan’s security operation and its close collaboration with law enforcement. Communications to the security board obtained via public records requests show that as late as December, Reese, a former Army Delta Force commander, declared that TigerSwan was only “doing management and IT consulting for our client and doing no security work.” But internal company reports as well as an overview of TigerSwan’s operations that was shared with law enforcement show the company had been doing much more than that since September. Both sets of documents were included in the lawsuit.
The complaint describes invasive tactics used by TigerSwan, including “flyover photography,” “surveillance of social media accounts,” placing or attempting to place “undercover private security agents within the protest group,” and coordination with local law enforcement officials. The security operations overview obtained by The Intercept and cited in the suit states plainly, “All elements are engaged to provide security support to DAPL.”
According to the suit, the security board first notified TigerSwan on September 23 that it was illegally providing security services without a license. The company responded on October 4, stating, “TigerSwan is not conducting ‘private security services’ in North Dakota.” The company simultaneously submitted an application for a license “should such services, which are not present at the time, be required from TigerSwan.”
A mug shot of James Reese from his arrest on July 15, 2015, for assault on a female.
Photo: APEX Police
On December 19, the board notified Reese that it intended to deny his application for a license, citing “positive criminal history for one or more disqualifying offenses,” as well as failure to disclose all arrests and failure to provide sufficient information “for the Board to determine whether a reported offense or adjudication has a direct bearing on Reese’s fitness to serve the public.” Reese’s record shows numerous citations in various states, including several for traffic violations such as reckless driving and speeding, and an arrest for “assault on a female” in 2015, flagged as a domestic violence case and later dismissed. Reese’s wife, Niki, filed a restraining order against him in Florida in 2012, public records show.
On December 27, Reese requested an administrative review of the license denial. “I have never been convicted of any criminal crime in my life,” he wrote to the board. “If I failed to disclose on the application all arrests, this was an oversight by me and my apologies.” Reese went on to describe an incident leading to the assault charge, from July 2015, claiming that his “bipolar” wife had become “belligerent” during a “depression act” and called police on him. Reese also requested a copy of the criminal record reviewed by the board.
Reached by phone, Niki Reese categorically denied ever having been diagnosed with a mental health condition and refuted her husband’s account of the episode in the letter to the board.
“It’s false information. I don’t have any kind of diagnosis,” she told The Intercept. “His allegations that he wrote are completely false.”
The board denied James Reese’s application on January 6. Reached by phone, Reese asked The Intercept not to publish his letter to the board. “Why would you take a private letter like that and send it out to everybody in the world?” he asked. “I’d ask you to leave my family out of this.”
When reminded that he included the allegations about his wife in a letter to a public licensing board, making it part of the public record, he replied, “That was my mistake.”
Reese also claimed there were inaccuracies in a series of stories on TigerSwan reported by The Intercept. “I can’t even begin to start here which facts are wrong,” he said. The only example he pointed to was the investigation board’s allegation that TigerSwan staff were armed — an allegation that the Intercept has not actually made.
“We take our job seriously, we take our client seriously,” Reese added.
TigerSwan did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Energy Transfer Partners declined to comment, referring questions to TigerSwan and the security board. Keegan Pieper, a counsel for ETP, wrote in an email to The Intercept that he was “not aware of this lawsuit.”
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan at a news conference at the Federal Trade Commission headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 4, 2015.
Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
TigerSwan is also facing pressure in Illinois, where the environmental group Food & Water Watch is demanding that the state’s attorney general, Lisa Madigan, launch an investigation into the company’s activities after The Intercept revealed that TigerSwan had infiltrated local activist groups, including some that had little to do with the Dakota Access fight. Food & Water Watch, which worked to highlight the financial interests behind the pipeline, was mentioned repeatedly in the leaked reports.
“We strongly believe that TigerSwan engaged in illegal surveillance activities against me and other employees and supporters of Food & Water Watch (FWW) in a manner that is violates [sic] our state constitutional and statutory rights, including our rights of privacy,” Jessica Fujan, the group’s Midwest director, wrote in the letter. “We now have reason to believe that these infiltrators were recording our conversations, photographing participants and FWW staff and perhaps making videos of our meetings.”
The attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Fujan said that the group had been tipped off about the presence of an undercover agent and that “paid infiltrators are easy enough to detect, but create distraction and even fear among volunteer activists.”
“Hundreds of leaders, many of them volunteers, are working long hours on outstanding campaigns, well within the letter of the law, and winning victories for the environment,” she wrote in an email to The Intercept. “These leaders are owed our constitutional right to privacy, at the very least.”
![CORRECTION - Private security guards allow attack dogs to lung at a protestors after protestors arrived to stop bulldozing of land for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, September 3, 2016. Hundreds of Native American protestors and their supporters, who fear the Dakota Access Pipeline will polluted their water, forced construction workers and security forces to retreat and work to stop. / AFP / Robyn BECK / The erroneous mention appearing in the metadata of this photo by Robyn BECK has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Private security guards allow attack dogs to lung at a protestors after protestors arrived to stop bulldozing of land for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, September 3, 2016.] instead of [A protestor is treated after being pepper sprayed by private security contractors on land being graded for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) oil pipeline, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, September 3, 2016.] Please immediately remove the erroneous mention from all your online services and delete it from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require. (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)](http://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2017/06/GettyImages-599070442-1498673206.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90)
Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
Back in North Dakota, TigerSwan is just one of several security companies hired to monitor the Dakota Access Pipeline that have been targeted by the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board for failing to obtain licenses.
In February, the board launched an administrative action against EH Investigations and its head Jeremie Meisel, threatening to revoke or suspend the company’s license. The board alleged that EH conspired with another company, Leighton Security Services, to hire and deploy unlicensed or unregistered Leighton personnel to provide private investigative services for DAPL in the state. Meisel, EH, and Leighton did not respond to requests for comment.
The board also launched an investigation last fall into the reportedly unlicensed company Frost Kennels after personnel sicced dogs on pipeline opponents who were attempting to stop workers from disturbing land that the area tribe had identified as burial grounds. The board’s lawyer, Monte Rogneby, told The Intercept that the Frost Kennels case “is still ongoing.” Frost Kennels did not respond to a request for comment. Rogneby declined to comment on whether the board is investigating any of at least six other security companies that worked on the pipeline.
In its administrative complaint against EH Investigations, the security board stated that Leighton Security Services employed “a project manager, two deputy project managers, three intel analysts, and three evidence technicians,” none of whom “were properly licensed or registered to provide private security services in North Dakota.” EH allegedly conspired to facilitate the unlicensed work. Administrative complaints are decided by the board itself rather than a court, and the board’s lawyer said the matter is ongoing.
A yearlong investigation into the national landscape of private security licensure in December 2014 by the Center for Investigative Reporting and CNN described “a haphazard system of lax laws, minimal oversight and almost no accountability.”
Kevin Ingram, president of the International Association of Security and Investigative Regulators, noted in an email to The Intercept that “Several states have no regulation at all. Among those that do, it could be the company or the individual or both that require licensure, and the criteria could be vastly different for armed or unarmed security.”
Yet the industry continues to grow. According to a 2014 report by Frost & Sullivan, a marketing research and consulting company, the oil and gas industry spent $19.6 billion globally on infrastructure security in 2013 and was expected to reach nearly $25 billion by 2021.
Simultaneously, law enforcement agencies have established an unprecedented range of formal collaborations with oil and gas corporations in the name of preventing threats to so-called “critical infrastructure,” which in the parlance of national security agencies refers to installations that are important to the domestic economy — a category that includes oil pipelines that have yet to be fully permitted.
“Environmental campaigns are always difficult, given that our opponents are global profiteers like Big Oil & Gas,” wrote Fujan, of Food & Water Watch. “I take our infiltration as a clear sign that polluters in the energy industry know they’re losing public opinion, and the fight for the future of energy.”
Documents published with this story:
TigerSwan Complaint
North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board Records
Food & Water Watch Letter to Attorney General
EH Investigations Administrative Action
To search all TigerSwan documents published by The Intercept, go to the TigerSwan project page on DocumentCloud.
Top photo: People gather at an encampment to join the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s protest against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipe (DAPL), near Cannon Ball, N.D. on Sept. 3, 2016.
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Leaked documents and public records reveal a troubling fusion of private security, public law enforcement, and corporate money in the fight over the Dakota Access pipeline.
about time people are fighting against all in the wrong it’s a long time coming. they will all pay for the wrongs they have done to our people.
Both Industry and corrupt Government Officials should be exposed and challenged in Courts for their abuse of Land and Human Rights they have subjected on residents.
The pipeline was approved and needed security. The only ones breaking the law were the squatters and protesters. Probably Soros, Buffett or Steyer funded reprobates.
TigerSwine should refund all payments to the protesters along with an apology. Military training should never be used against the populace.
ts=a bunch of piss ant loser cowards. Just pathetic…
This isn’t just an isolated incident.
http://www.alternet.org/activism/us-mining-company-defends-deploying-hired-thugs-against-indigenous-farmers-peru
Isolated incident? Does anybody think this is the first time in US history anything like this has happened? What was Pinkerton main source of income? I know most think they discovered the world, and nothing can be learned from the past. But if we where to read the history or the labor movement a hundred years ago we might see how the country survived.
First Amendment of the US Constitution:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Excellent journalism! Thanks and keep up the good work!
Any alleged crime is up to the prosecution, judge, and jury to determine, and no one has been charged with a crime. The pipeline is moving oil and improving American lives. Take your fake news and fake protests elsewhere.
part of the problem is the pipeline is moving oil. we need to get off fossil fuels asap, because climate change will disimprove american lies. and covering up and apologising for criminals doesn’t improve anybody’s life either.
Wrong Cavalho! It’s not necessarily enhancing American lives. Energy Transfer Partners mislead the public to get approval.”
From the Intercept:
But rather than serving the exclusive interests of American consumers, critics point to evidence the oil will go abroad. In December, Congress lifted the 40-year ban on crude oil exports.
“We track [Dakota Access Pipeline] and the export dynamics closely,” says Bernadette Johnson, the managing partner at Ponderosa Advisors, an energy advisory firm. Johnson notes that the pipeline provides a “competitive option” to bring Bakken barrels to the Gulf Coast, where “some of it may be exported.”
The Intercept also reviewed regulatory filings that suggest some of the oil transported by the Dakota Access Pipeline will be shipped overseas.
When reached for a comment, a spokesperson with the pipeline project declined to defend the firm’s earlier statements about “100% domestic consumption.”
You know what would enhance American lives: stop using oil ! I guess most of these protesters always come on foot or by bike to the site of protest ! A great example of such a protester/ environmentalist is IT’s contributer Naomi…she never travels by plane, cultivates her own veggies and certainly never takes a car or a cab to go from point A to point B., she lives ina passive house without hot water, airco and doesn’t use any elecricL appliances. All her books are printed with biological ink on recycled paper and are tranported and delivered by foot to your bookstore or frontdoor…. what a bunch of hippos.
According to resident European Neanderthal, only Pre-Columbian people in the USA should be allowed to criticize the petrol industry’s lick-spittle Pinkerton thugs. What an ass.
What good is it to have principles for others but not for yourself ?
Double Standard Stan.
The lives we should be concerned with enhancing are those of the traditional Natives, first and foremost. And to do that we’d need to give back large areas of land. Additionally, we’d need to shut down most of our industrial society, because the pollution, and the destruction of ecosystems and native species, directly ruins the lives of the traditional Natives.
Screw people who want to drive and otherwise foul our planet! Maybe their lives are enhanced by oil, but the rest of the planet is greatly harmed by it.
The oil from the Bakken is going to Ohio refineries where profits are made by producing gasoline and other products. When oil companies have surplus supplies on hand they may export that crude if it is profitable but every day the US oil industry must import about 4 million barrels to meet demand. The newly lifted ban just allows the Oilcos to address the export import dance without government interference. All of the new oil produced in the US adds to our total production and reduces imports after the import export numbers are balanced.
The US Oilcos also export millions of barrels of refined products to reap the profit from refining and at least some of the Canadian dilbit will be refined and exported.
Gilbert I admire your tenacity but let me give you an analogy to challenge your thinking a bit.
No one was ever committed of crime for allowing nicotine to remain in cigarettes.
Does that mean it wasn’t criminal? It it cost lives, millions, to this day and still counting.
Leaving it up to the courts as the final arbiter is noble, however legal proceedings are structured to favor corporations and these stooges are just that. Bogus security forces have a rich history protecting corporate assets.here is a classic example:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/militia-slaughters-strikers-at-ludlow-colorado
Paid Media.
Thanks again for your great work guys, particularly in this area. Keep it up, much appreciated.
the problem with Lisa Madigan going after Tigerswan is that she supports retaliation against state whistleblowers and other wrongdoing when it fits her agenda. She’s the essential corporate democrat who cannot be counted on to prosecute wrongdoing. If there is any state collusion involved, she’ll actually be defending Tigerswan
On the attack dog lunging at the protestor:
In Florida, the protestor would be allowed to stand his ground and gun down the dog if he feared for his or another person’s life or safety. The exception for law enforcement does not apply to rent-a-cops. Further, Florida law now changes SYG from an affirmative defense to an element of the prosecution’s case. Prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that SYG does not apply.
One hopes that anyone facing TigerSwan in Florida keeps that in mind.
And packs heat. BTW, SYG does not require that you lawfully possess a gun you use in self-defense.
Fuk this cynical band of sociopaths and their wife beater boss.
At first it’s rather amazing that @CragSummers doesn’t an opinion on this until one realizes that this pipeline in no way affects Israel.
this is a great series, and shows what the intercept is capable of.
Reese=Psychopathus Americanus. Now these security firms are coming into the United States and doing what they have been doing in foreign countries which is obeying no laws, respecting no sovereignty, murdering and abusing with impunity. I think we can point to the government of the United States as being primarily responsible for allowing these firms to operate without any controls or regulations.
These mercenaries are becoming common place. Under the guise of being a legitimate firm, they are abusing our rights as citizens. Our nation is in grave danger when we allow these groups of mentally handicapped and sadist people to infiltrate our domestic issues. It is a prelude to what the government is planning. No more protests and if there are, there will be violence against the unarmed protesters.
Fantastic report, people.
It’s pretty clear these people were operating illegally.
Time to enforce the laws and make the punishment commensurate or it will never be viewed as a deterrent. This cannot become just the cost of doing business.
Why, just this morning, AttGen Sessions was talking about making violent criminal behavior a crime (sic).
Security and law enforcement in general is way over the line. They’re turning average US citizens against them. I’m someone who would naturally side with the oil companies in this dispute. Because of the over-the-line security tactics being used, I side with the protesters.
It’s the same thing with the DEA and marijuana. Most Americans want marijuana to be legal for recreational use. 90% want it legal medically. The DEA goes against 90% of Americans and puts it as a schedule I controlled substance and then makes high profile marijuana busts. Most people don’t think “good job DEA”. They think, “what a waste of money and travesty to freedom”.
Americans just want law enforcement to do the will of the people and follow the laws. They don’t want law enforcement and security to be some giant growth industry where people get rich and powerful.
Bryan, you write:
“They don’t want law enforcement and security to be some giant growth industry where people get rich and powerful.”
No Americans in general don’t , however. . .
Are you familar with Fusion Centers?
Google it.
The worst part about this is not the numerous constitutional violations by a private practice, but the complacency and unwillingness for law enforcement to do anything about it. There cannot be a democracy when only corporations get to exercise the law.
not just ignoring it, actively aiding and abetting it. i have the feeling cops are looking at a second career here.
No, the Constitution is to protect the people from government, a private actor is not restrained by it. But if corporations are people, and people that pay others to break the law are guilty of a crime why not arrest the heads of corporations?
This is fake news. People looking for scapegoats.
Gilbert, hardly fake news. Critical infrastructure statues have just pushed interested people,including real credentialed journalists, questioning legitimately what is going on at these sites, especially coal sites, for years. It’s a tactic that is six degrees deep in bogus security companies hired by corporations and supported by usually smaller municipal law enforcement. The companies make massive donations to these local good ole boys and they in turn act like the company’s guard dogs.
Please provide proof of how you consider it to be fake.
“Proof” is up to the prosecution, judge, and jury to determine, and no one has been charged with a crime. The pipeline is moving oil and improving American lives. Take your fake news and fake protests elsewhere.
evidence is up to you to provide, to support your argument.
Any alleged crime is up to the prosecution, judge, and jury to determine, and no one has been charged with a crime. The pipeline is moving oil and improving American lives. Take your fake news and fake protests elsewhere.
Don’t engage with this guy, he’s a troll. There’s already far too much of this in comments on this site, please don’t encourage more.
Scapegoats for what?
A civil lawsuit huh?
What crazy people are willing to do instead of just explaining that pipelines are the most efficient, environmentally sound and economical form of transportation for oil and gas from A to B.
Hmmm, do you think that should have been “explained” to the non-native, Caucasians of Bismark, North Dakota?
I don’t make a distinction between natives and non-natives, or between caucasians and non -caucasians. You apparently deliberately do ! ( or this might be a side-effect of too much Mehdi admiration ) . Everybody should have the same rights, no less no more !
Unfortunately there is a real distinction between the two groups: the citizens of Bismark are much more powerful than those of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation; they were able to use the argument that
the Dakota Access Pipeline was a potential threat to Bismarck’s water supply and the people from the reservation could not.
Moreover, you argue that pipelines are relatively safe. That may even be true, but still: one group could use the argument of a potential threat to the water supply while the other group could not.
But you already knew that, didn’t you.
There is no evidence that the people of Bismark had anything to do with this Army CoE decision based on multiple reasons the Bismark route was unacceptable. The site next to Standing Rock already had 6 or 8 pipelines almost a hundred feet under its placid waters with no problems and offered reduced risk.
wayoutwest, your comment sounds a lot like facts. Are you sure you’re posting it on the right site?
While the protest was going on the little bit of media coverage seamed to say “The Indians are putting their water supply as more important than the oil supply. Can nobody look at a map? Does everybody expect any oil spilled to stay in that area? Oil spilled in that area will travel all the way down the country, into the supplies of many cites and towns…
Really? OK, how about the right to not be invaded, murdered, and have your land stolen? If you agree that everyone should have that right, then you have to distinguish between Natives and non-natives. If you don’t agree, you’re beyond hope.
Too bad, this is Buffetts project. He owns the necessary politicians
Dogs as security? That’s about as Birigham in the 60s as you can get.
What if a security gaurd got in peoples faces with a weapon? Same thing to me. Looks like somone needs to lawfully bring a weapon and feel that their life was in immediate danger and waste one of those dogs. That would get some attention.
Name one law enforcemetn agency in this country that uses dogs in this manner.
Drug dogs sure, but dogs as intimidation. These are some sick people who need to be countered.
“Looks like somone needs to lawfully bring a weapon and feel that their life was in immediate danger and waste one of those dogs.”
First, the dog should not be hurt for doing what he is told to do. A much better idea would be the handler be charged with assault with deadly weapon.
Second, there is no such thing as a “lawful” weapon anyplace but in the hands of law enforcement…
“First, the dog should not be hurt for doing what he is told to do. A much better idea would be the handler be charged with assault with deadly weapon.”
Sure… just as soon as law enforcement jumps on to charging these people with illegal surveillance I am positive they will come after these dog handlers. I’ll take my chances with a solid pepper spray to the dogs face. Dog doesn’t care when its ripping your face off.
“Second, there is no such thing as a “lawful” weapon anyplace but in the hands of law enforcement…”
Not sure how to reply to this one, except that is blatantly false.
“Second, there is no such thing as a “lawful” weapon anyplace but in the hands of law enforcement…”
Not sure how to reply to this one, except that is blatantly false.
Is it? The judge says you can have a gun. The state legislature says you can have a gun. The sheriff says you can have a gun. All is good. BUT IF THE COP ON THE BEAT CAN SHOOT YOU FOR THE SIMPLE REASON YOU HAVE A GUN do you really have a right to own a gun?
James, someone at a protest holding a right to carry permit, legally possessing a handgun, could feel that thier life was in danger and use it on the dog. Waiting to get a an assualat charge doesn’t do anything about the original bell of sick intimidation that can’t be unrung. The handlers are counting on none harming the dogs. Those kind of tactics need to be taken head on using the second amendment as a remedy for people denying people of their first amendment rights while acting at the behest of a corporation.
These thugs are just that, thugs.I say cap the dogs if the use them again.
Speak to them in their own language.
Ok, The judges tell you you have a right to carry a gun. The state legislature says you can carry a gun. BUT, if the JURY says the cop that killed you because you said you had a gun did nothing wrong do you really have a right to carry the gun? I don’t think so.
Shooting the dog, or shooting the handler,(preferred) would lead to a gunfight where one side lacks firepower.
The bell of intimidation can not be unrung, but if we lived in a just society we could be sure it never happened again. If threatening people with dogs is assault, paying the people threatening people with dogs is conspiracy. The board of directors, if they had a SWAT team in their homes, setting off flashbangs and waving automatic weapons around their families while getting arrested would make sure the thugs where put on a real short leash.
Shoot the dog? It’s the handler doing wrong, should be arrested for assault.
And “lawfully” bring a weapon? In this country the only lawful weapons are in the hands of law enforcement.
I don’t think it is uncommon for dogs to be trained/used by law enforcement to detain and intimidate suspects.
Look if somone points a loaded weapon at you then you have the right to defend yourself against the gun owner. You shoot him, not his gun. Dogs on the other hand are animals who don’t understand when you say please don’t bite me, I feel threatened and I will shoot you. You counter the actual threat.
Dude, I don’t know where you are geting your statues to quote relative to having a gun legally, but last I checked there was this federal thing called the Second Amendment.
Here’s North Dakota’s gun laws:
https://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/state-gun-laws/north-dakota/
“Look if somone points a loaded weapon at you then you have the right to defend yourself against the gun owner. You shoot him, not his gun. Dogs on the other hand are animals who don’t understand when you say please don’t bite me, I feel threatened and I will shoot you. You counter the actual threat.”
I agree with what you are saying, but think about it for a second. You are standing with a group, a very small percentage holding guns. You are facing a group, every one of them is armed. The dog does what he is told and scares you, you shoot the dog. Now everybody facing you is threatened by you and has a right to shoot. No matter how many are killed every body that shoots has the same justification.
“Dude, I don’t know where you are geting your statues to quote relative to having a gun legally, but last I checked there was this federal thing called the Second Amendment.”
Where am I getting my info? Let’s look back a few years.
Someplace in Ohio, a area where open carry is legal. A child playing with a toy gun in the park. Cops pull up shoot him repeatedly. Cop was scared, so he did nothing wrong.
Someplace in Louisiana, a area where open carry is legal. A man outside a store with a gun on his belt. A few cops show up, more than one shoot him. Cop was scared, so he did nothing wrong.
In Minnesota, cop stops a driver for bad tailight. Driver “I have a permit and gun” BANG! BANG! BANG! Cop was scared, so he did nothing wrong.
Now sure, one thing all have in common, the person shot was black, but if you wave your copy of the second amendment at a cop he can say I thought it was a gun I was scared, so I did nothing wrong. This morning on the radio I heard somebody say juries don’t want to convict the cops because they don’t want the cops to hesitate when coming to protect them. Not sure it would not be better to have the cop hesitate when ready to shoot.
This is how DEATH SQUADS and STORM TROOPERS get started. Plenty of historical examples and current examples today. Congress and Obama laid the foundation for the for them by passing and signing the NDAA. Add in the immunity of US soldiers from war crimes.
http://www.alternet.org/story/127080/time_to_dump_that_bush-era_law_permitting_an_invasion_of_holland_to_%22rescue%22_u.s._soldiers
and voila – the solution for murdering protesters in the US is almost here.
Great investigate work on this! Perhaps not so surprisingly the major newspapers and media outlets across the United States are still blacklisting this story. Nothing from the NYTimes, WaPo, the slew of corporate cable news channels – dead silence. The Guardian allowed an op-ed but apparently has no reporters covering the story:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/28/surveillance-standing-rock-policing-native-lands
That’s almost as creepy as the behavior of TigerSwan, the North Dakota police and their FBI liason itself. Perhaps it’s time to re-read Peter Matthiessen’s In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, about the rigged prosecution of Leonard Peltier decades ago by the FBI:
There are no words that I know of to describe how evil, immoral, and disgusting this country is. I really wish I could have gotten citizenship in Germany when I tried to move there about 20 years ago. Hell, I wish I’d known people in Europe when Reagan was elected in 1980, I’d have left for good then.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse is a really good book. Another one is Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. There are also good movies like Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (HBO TV movie by Daniel Giat), Incident at Oglala (documentary), and Thunderheart (fiction). If your heart, gut, and mind are in the right place, you’ll support traditional Natives. If not, no amount of attempts at intellectual persuasion will convince you. This is another area where George Lakoff is right; this is not about facts, it’s about having a moral attitude.
And if you need a tad bit more healthy paranoia, make sure you read an earlier Intercept series, The FBI’s Secret Rules, one article of which is ‘The FBI Gives Itself Lots of Rope to Pull in Informants”.
J Edgar Hoover is still alive and well.
“Over two previous presidential administrations, the FBI, enabled by complacent congressional oversight in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, has transformed itself from a criminal law enforcement organization into an intelligence-gathering operation whose methods are more similar to those of the CIA and NSA. With 35,000 employees and more than 15,000 informants, today’s FBI is an intelligence agency without a historical peer in the United States.”
https://theintercept.com/series/the-fbis-secret-rules/
Great work.
Keep an eye out for bogus “critical infrastructure” designations by the feds. That’s a huge threat, not only for affording law enforcement new powers but also to stymie renewable energy deployment. A recent FERC case was considering C.I. guidelines that would have prevented solar power developers from accessing information about transmission lines needed to develop their projects — to the clear benefit of existing fossil fuel plants. Even getting basic information about the existence, location and nature of some energy assets is prohibited by C.I. designations. Undefined “national security threats” are common justifications.
Thank you for helping to protect Mother Earth.
Thank you to each of the authors for the incredible work they have done with these articles.
The direct action demonstrators can take some satisfaction in that their actions are creating new security jobs across the country. The dirty oil companies, who the demonstrators depend on to supply fuel to their mobile activists, have the right to secure their infrastructure from illegal attacks. I don’t think privacy laws can protect the activists because they are planning illegal acts.
The activists should know by now that their direct actions are viewed as low level insurrection that could spread to impede critical industry and they should be ready to pay the price for insurrection. Whiny reports and petty lawsuits won’t change this reality, the costs of their illegal activities will continue to increase.
Do they (private contractor’s) have the “right” to secure the dirty oil profiteer’s “infrastructure” with illegal & harmful act’s upon civilly disobedient protester’s? Private ‘Security” Firms should know by now that permit’s and licensure would be needed to carry out above-board services. The fact that they haven’t, or lied in the process of obtaining them, highlights the menace & mayhem they intend to use. The american public needs protection from “private security profiteer’s”. That is what this article is about.
It may have begun overseas in Iraq, but our gov’t & private industry (usually one-in-the-same) have conspired to commit war-crimes. Crimes that the gov’t may want some degree of “removal” from. The idea of bringing that kind of ‘security’ down on the american landscape should scare us all.
I don’t think you can honestly describe this direct action as civil disobedience. This is illegal attacks on business property and personnel on private lands. Civil disobedience is directed at the government in public forums. I don’t think the activists are protesting trespassing or sabotage laws just breaking them to make their attacks.
The oil profiteers aren’t doing so much profiting today with oil at $45/barrel and their security along with the local police is insufficient so they are hiring professionals to handle intelligence gathering but they have no mandate to do policing beyond self defense.
I think most of the people involved in the direct action are just caught up in a lost cause but some are professional agitators and some of the funding for these actions comes from other corporate and political interests who have a stake in its outcome.
Because this is critical infrastructure and the threat is real and growing the response will be appropriate with more surveillance and harsher enforcement of the existing laws.
Beyond the questionable worship of “security jobs” based on stopping legal protests, the fact that you invoke dragging oil from the ground and depositing it into our skies as “critical industry” negates every argument you attempt to make.
I love the old, “but you used oil to driver here, so I don’t know what you’re complaining about.”
Are you trying to argue that the impact of using a small amount of oil (in order to stop more oil infrastructure development) is somehow comparable to building a massive oil pipeline?
Weird.
Also, in regards to “critical industry.” People have been living on this continent for at least 10,000 years, and we haven’t needed this pipeline yet. I really doubt we need it now.
The whole civilization you and everyone else depends on to survive is powered by fossil fuels There are fossil fuels on everything you touch and in much of it also, weird but true.
Mostly small groups of stone age peoples lived here before Europeans came and some did quite well while others starved. Even today’s Indians depend on industrial civilization and I doubt many would give up its benefits. Stone age life was harsh, unpredictable and short. Ted Turner would be upset if people started killing his bison even if they were on foot.
climate change is going to make things real harsh, again, so if you don’t want that you support getting off fossil fuels.
Agreed. But the amount needed can only provided if we are willing to have an open mind and look at nuclear again. Breader-Reactor plants could be made to provide safe clean energy. The water that is “hot” could be re-used over and over allowing waist to be minimal. Watch:
https://youtu.be/e6h0apG1a2s
Good effort, thanks for showing the corporate hench men’s connections. One wonders how far this “collaboration” between our “law enforcement” forces and corporate thugs can subvert human rights and Constitutionally recognized rights of all people.
Should contacts between citizens and these hybridized forces devolve into violence or other lawlessness,evidence preservation and investigation will most likely be conducted by the partnered police. This would seem to provide an opportunity to “shift blame”.
This article points out a problem alliance that has existed to protect corporate lawlessness for many decades. Some might see a carryover from slavery, a system that we seem to have a hard time shaking. What with jobs that pay so little that govt has to provide housing and food assistance, and damn it, if you are poisoned by the discharge of industry, it’s on you.
Should one protest such treatment (within your rights as a citizen), look forward to being spied on and harassed by private thugs working with law enforcement to keep that boot on the neck of liberty.
This is where you and others lose their tether with reality . There is no constitutional right to trespass, damage others property or injure people doing their jobs. There are well defined constitutional rights protecting private property. The majority of the demonstrators at the DAP were practicing protected peaceful speech by occupying and demonstrating on public land addressing activities on private land nearby.
The Warrior societies and others broke with the majority and planned direct actions and along with embedded photojournalists produced a video drama edited to gain support for their cause. It worked as your uninformed rhetoric shows with many easily manipulated observers seeing the Cavalry massacring the Indians.
The direct action against the guards at the construction site with the dogs is a clever example of manipulation to portray the guard’s defense as thuggery and violent aggression. Photos show about 200 hostiles trespassing onto the construction site some with 6 foot long coup-sticks. They surrounded the two dozen guards and cornered them. The guards ordered the hostiles to leave the site but they just became more aggressive and the dogs were released providing an excellent photo-op for the propagandists.
Some of the guards were injured in this encounter and required medical attention along with one of the dogs so this wasn’t peaceful demonstrators exercising their rights. The law enforcement officers brought in to handle these militants were not going to get too dirty wrestling with these hostiles so they used non-lethal weapons which produced more excellent propaganda videos of the bloody victims who were actually the aggressors in the drama.
The terrorism rhetoric used by this security firm is hype and salesmanship for their product but continuing militant actions will make it easier for surveillance and even repression of non-violent protest.
Wayout West, thank you for your considerate analysis. My only thought is remember what happened with Blackwater in Iraq? Rent-a -thugs are not restrained by the same standards as most law enforcement agencies that should be protecting and upholding the peace on public lands anyway. They like the Cincinnati campus cop are wannabes, and as our main character in this story reveals, testosterone driven vigilantes with an excuse to use a weapon or abuse people who they diametrically oppose both philosophically and politically. Lethal combo for potential ignition, however, using career sworn officers who have pensions on the line seems to prove to be a little more less combustionable. The stooges have to be held to the same standards or more yahoos like this clown above will see a future to facilitate thier unrestrainable aggression at the hands of people excersing their first amendment rights.
If any of these security personnel had left the construction site and attacked the demonstrators I would use the word thug to describe them. I don’t know if the charges of their carrying rifles is true but if it is it is a big problem because fear can trigger overreaction.
Again, the direct action demonstrators were not exercising protected first amendment rights once they trespassed onto private property.
Hey Wasicu: ALL of the land in the U.S. that you call private property was STOLEN from the Natives. So screw you! It is YOU who have no right to be here, not Natives.