North Dakota County Wants To Arrest A Journalist For Practicing Journalism (VIDEO)

Protesters marching onto the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site (image courtesy Democracy Now Twitter feed)
Protesters marching onto the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site (image courtesy Democracy Now Twitter feed)

By now, you’ve probably heard that a Native American tribe from North Dakota is trying to derail the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. Current plans call for the pipeline to go right through a burial site for the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. It could also potentially endanger the tribe’s access to clean water. Now, a journalist who helped turn the hot lights on the heavy-handed tactics the pipeline’s owners used to stop the protests has been threatened with arrest just for doing her job.

In case you missed it, last Tuesday “Democracy Now!” anchor Amy Goodman dropped a bombshell. She’d been on hand the previous weekend when guards for Dakota Access attacked 500 Native American protesters marching on the construction site in Morton County, south of Bismarck. Watch her full report here.

This report made for horrifying viewing. Things went downhill when Goodman caught a construction worker on tape body-slamming a protester to the ground. Later, security guards turned dogs loose on the crowds, at least two of whom went after protesters on horseback. One protester claimed that a guard sicced a dog on him without any warning, and the dog bit him on the arm. Others sprayed protesters with some sort of mace or pepper spray.

Goodman is a hardened journalist who has seen a lot in her time. She once covered the East Timor independence movement, and was actually beaten by Indonesian soldiers for filming their execution-style killing of Timorese protesters. But she could hardly contain her shock when she saw a dog with blood on its muzzle and nose, and then caught another guard actually loosing his dog into the crowd on tape. Eventually, the dogs pulled back, and Goodman got footage of the carnage. This story went severely viral, and was picked up on a number of mainstream outlets, such as NPR.

There is little doubt that this report played a role in the White House shutting down construction on federal land within hours of a judge denying the tribe’s request for a court order to stop the project. Indeed, the statement from the Departments of Justice, the Army and the Interior explicitly affirmed “the rights of all Americans to speak and assemble freely.”

Late Saturday, Goodman got an unpleasant surprise. Officials in Morton County wanted her arrested for misdemeanor trespassing. Unicorn Riot obtained a copy of the charging documents; read it here. According to an affidavit from state Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent Lindsay Wold, she was able to identify Goodman and protest organizer Cody Hall from video footage as part of a BCI investigation into the protest. Wold noted that Goodman was seen “beyond the border of the fence…interviewing protesters about their role in the protest.” Hall is already in jail on these charges; he is due to appear before a judge on Monday.

Goodman issued a burning statement condemning this move as “an unacceptable violation of freedom of the press.” She was simply “covering pipeline guards unleashing dogs and pepper spray” on the protesters. Unless there is something that Wold isn’t telling us, “interviewing protesters” is not a crime. It’s being a good journalist.

There are two other reasons why these charges have no basis. Wold claims that the protesters “assaulted security guards” on the pipeline construction site. I’d like to see evidence of that, because there is nothing so far that indicates the protests were anything other than peaceful. Additionally, state officials are investigating whether the security guards were licensed to work in North Dakota, as well as their use of dogs.

Goodman’s longtime friend, documentary filmmaker Naomi Klein, says that Goodman cut a trip to Canada short once this story broke.

Hopefully it won’t be long before this attack on free speech is turned back.

Send Goodman some love on Facebook–she’s going to need it.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.