According to sources from the scene, Morton County Sheriff’s Department have arrested more than 16 unarmed people during a peaceful protest at the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site.
While unarmed protesters attempted to shut down construction of the pipeline, about 100 police officers, dressed in riot gear, and armed with semi-automatic weapons, arrived at the scene.
As these unarmed protesters prayed, chanted, and some locked themselves to machinery, riot police pointed their loaded guns at protesters and began making arrests. The Morton County Sheriff and police department have not been shy about showing their support of the DAPL through reporting false information and posting memes in support of the DAPL on their Facebook page.
During the video, which is being edited by Facebook and is not available for download, the police began pointing at all media stating that they would be arresting them as well. Weapons were drawn during the recording even though there was no sign of violence from the press or the protesters on the scene.
Also, the North Dakota Highway Patrol refuses to release their correspondences with Energy Transfer Partners, who is the current construction company building the pipeline. Energy Transfer and Morton County Sheriff Department have shown to employ overly violent means to stop protesters.
Recently, Democracy Now published a video of protesters being attacked by dogs provided by the Energy Transfer employed security company, G4.
Monday marked the announcement of false victory from the Army Corp of Engineers who stopped construction of the pipeline at Lake Oahe and the Missouri River crossing but allowed construction to continue everywhere else. During Monday’s announcement, the Army National Guard was deployed to the campground where thousands of water protectors have been camping for months in protest of the DAPL.
This is the video that was released during the arrests:
