When Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein joined in protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, she may have gone too far.
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Stein and her running mate Ajamu Baraka received misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass and criminal mischief, which can result in brief jail time, but typically result in fines.
Stein can be seen on local media outlet video Tuesday shaking a can before spraying something onto the front blade of the bulldozer at a construction site in St. Anthony, North Dakota.
The crude oil pipeline would traverse four states and run through grounds the Standing Rock Sioux consider sacred (but are not protected as part of their reservation).
[Photo by James MacPherson/AP Images] Protesters also chained themselves to bulldozers and broke a fence.
Hasselman said Tuesday that the tribe was “disappointed that some of the important sacred sites that we had found and provided evidence for will not be protected”. The two guard dogs were taken to a Bismarck veterinary clinic, Preskey said. Authorities also said they pulled back Tuesday from responding to a report of 150 to 200 protesters, some with hatchets and knives, gathered at a construction site on private land because they determined it wasn’t safe to respond. She said that pipeline security officials had used dogs and pepper spray on protesters over the weekend. That’s the problem for these American Indian tribes who worry a leak in the pipeline would taint their only source of water.
There were no law enforcement personnel at the site when the incident occurred, Preskey said.
The buildup, announced Wednesday, comes after a skirmish between protesters and private security guards on Saturday that turned violent; the crowd dispersed when officers arrived, and no one was arrested.
In July, NPR reported, the tribe filed a lawsuit arguing that, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorized the Dallas-based company Energy Transfer Partners to build the pipeline, it did not follow proper procedures.
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For weeks, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe has led demonstrations against the massive oil pipeline, which will span at least 1,168 miles, from North Dakota to IL.
