On Tuesday night, the Morton County sheriff’s department posted a photo of Stein to Facebook, accusing her of “vandalizing Dakota Access Pipeline equipment”.
Advertisement
Stein, and running mate Ajamu Baraka, now sit at 3.2 percent in the Real Clear Politics national average.
Jill Stein will capture headlines and she was charged for doing something that may be wrong in the eyes of the law but right in the eyes of the people. She obliged by writing “I approve this message” in red paint on the blade of a bulldozer. Baraka is accused of painting the word “decolonization” on another piece of construction equipment, the Associated Press reported.
President John Yellow Bird Steele sent a letter to Lynch on Thursday saying protesters have been attacked by private security with guard dogs and that racial profiling is occurring.
The maximum sentence for a class B misdemeanor in North Dakota is 30 days in jail, a $1,500 fine or both.
A spokesperson for Stein told KXMB that she will hold a news conference Wednesday. Reuters reports Saturday’s protests were prompted by the pipeline company bulldozing “sacred tribal sites whose locations had been identified in court documents filed on Friday”. He added that the sheriff’s department is “working up the information through the state’s attorney’s office to pursue charges (against Stein)”. A federal judge is expected to rule this week on whether to issue a temporary injunction the tribe has sought to halt construction.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe are the primary opponents of the four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline.
“The Dakota Access Pipeline is vandalism on steroids”, Stein tweeted.
Advertisement
Stein’s stand was not the first in her protest of environmental issues, including one instance that landed her behind bars in East Texas. Tribe leaders alleged that construction crews have destroyed Native American cultural sites and sacred burial grounds, and the project threatens to taint the area’s water supply.
