Stein reportedly spray-painted the words “I approve this message” on a bulldozer at the pipeline construction site.
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Protesters, who say the project will damage burial sites considered sacred to a nearby Native American tribe and pollute the area’s drinking water, also attached themselves to bulldozers and broke a fence, the department said. Not only was it painted, wires and tubing were cut, a tire was flattened and dirt poured into fuel tanks of several vehicles.
Stein was in North Dakota with dozens of demonstrators to protest the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a almost $4 billion effort to construct a pipeline linking the Bakken shale formation, a large shale oil deposit in the state, with oil refineries on the Gulf coast. Stein tweeted about the vandalism charges, even quoting a tweet showing footage of her spray painting a bulldozer.
US District Judge James Boasberg ordered a partial halt to construction after a violent confrontation between demonstrators and security at the construction site on Saturday.
Officials with Energy Transfer Partners, the lead firm behind the project, had agreed to temporarily suspend work in some but not all parts of the 1,100-mile, $3.7 billion project, pending the outcome of the legal proceedings. It dissects North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa before reaching IL.
“I’m not here for a photo op”, Stein said. Stein’s running mate, Ajamu Baraka, was also charged.
Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party presidential nominee, speaks at a rally in Philadelphia, Wednesday, July 27, 2016, during the third day of the Democratic National Convention.
As protests have grown more heated in recent weeks, police and pipeline opponents also have disagreed over who has been provoking the clashes, which erupted in violence over the weekend.
Though no arrests were made as a result of Tuesday’s actions, [Morton County Sheriff Kyle] Kirchmeier said the sheriff’s department is “working up the information through the state’s attorney’s office to pursue charges [against Stein]”. For Stein, who probably hopes that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, that required vandalism and being arrested on misdemeanor criminal charges.
Stein joined the almost 100 protesters stationed at the planned construction site and participated in the spray-painting of construction equipment.
Despite her campaign efforts, Stein’s very best polling numbers are at about 5 percent.
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Before her East Texas arrest, Stein was arrested outside the 2012 presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney at Hofstra University.
