Rubber bullets are still bullets. They can break bones, injure organs, and even kill people.
Pat Boyle knows what a rubber bullet feels like. Boyle works for Unicorn Riot, one of the first media outlets to cover the protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock reservation. On November 21, protesters tried to move burned-out vehicles that had been placed in the road by police to stop people from reaching construction sites. Police responded by attacking the protesters with rubber bullets, concussion grenades, and hoses spraying freezing water. The bullet that hit Boyle in the abdomen left a hole in his press pass.
Reporters have been treated the same way as protesters at Standing Rock – they’re routinely roughed up by police and private security.
In addition to these instances of physical pain, the authorities have used legal intimidation to punish journalists. Seven Unicorn Riot reporters have been arrested while covering the pipeline protests.
On September 3, the invaluable Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! videotaped private security using dogs and pepper spray in an attempt to drive protesters away from construction sites. Days later, she was charged with trespassing, and then, ridiculously, those charges were bumped up to rioting. On October 17, a district judge rejected the rioting charge.
Adam Schrader, a New York-based freelance journalist, was arrested on October 27 at Standing Rock and charged with endangering by fire or explosion, maintaining a public nuisance, and engaging in a riot.
In effect, journalists are also being punished financially. Schrader had to pay a $1,500 bond to get out of jail. It cost him $840 to get his car towed out of the impound lot. And when he got his car back, the $400 voice recorder and the notebook he was using to document the protests were missing.
A lot of big banks have a stake in the Dakota Access Pipeline. Bank of America has loaned $351 million to the project. JP Morgan Chase has invested $313 million. Goldman Sachs, $244 million.
It’s in these big banks’ best interest, as well as Energy Transfer Partners’ (the Fortune 500 company that owns the pipeline), to impede journalists and keep the pipeline protests as unknown as possible. But in the United States, the press has a right to cover important events, and the public has a right to hear about them. We can’t let business interests trump constitutional rights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUZhPMY3oZQ
Featured Image by Desiree Kane via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0
