Military-Style Raid Ends Native Prayer Against Dakota Pipeline

[G_j]

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Cops-Break-up-Native-Prayer-Service-Against-Dakota-Pipeline-20160928-0029.html

North Dakota police with military-style equipment surrounded Native Americans gathered in prayer against the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline on Wednesday, disrupting their plan to cross sacred and treaty-protected land in protest of a project they fear will destroy their livelihood.

“ND authorities deploy armed personnel with shotguns and assault rifles, military vehicles, and aerial spray on peaceful Water Protectors gathered in prayer,” wrote the Sacred Stone Camp, the main tribal-led encampment against construction, in a Facebook post.

Officers with military-style armored vehicles and shotguns threatened the protesters, who call themselves “water protectors” for defending the Missouri River from imminent pollution, reported Unicorn Riot. Up to 21 were arrested, the channel reported.

Witnesses filmed the crackdown but said their access their Facebook was blocked. One participant, Thomas H. Joseph II, posted a chilling video narrating the mobilization and his getaway. Helicopters are heard as he says that tear gas is being dropped, and an officer loads his gun as protesters, some on horseback, chant, "We have no guns."

---

“We gathered in prayer un-armed, prayed, sang songs, and attempted to leave," he later wrote in a Facebook post. "No threats, No vandalism, No violence was taken on our part.”

...more...

[Doreen]

1. Odd

Odd, that all of the people worried about immigrants being bad, do not realize that they/we ( not of native decent ) are the ones doing all of the crap they are worried about being done to them.

[2naSalit]

2. It's what they do...

and have done for centuries.

[niyad]

3. welcome to du

[Sunny05]

12. Amen. nt

[Marr]

19. Doesn't that *justify* their fears of immigration?

I hear that point noted rather often, and I get it-- but I also think it sort of makes the xenophobes' point. I mean, the immigrants kind of took over here in a very big way, right?

[niyad]

4. remind me again how the government dealt with the bundy group? you remember, the armed,

dangerous (and dangerously stupid and unprepared) assholes who destroyed sites????

[awoke_in_2003]

22. The Bundy bunch is white

and they weren't threatening corporate profits. In fact, they were trying to increase them (by having the land opened for development)

[niyad]

23. yes, of course.

[Lifelong Protester]

5. Old enough to remember Kent State

It was not a good scene.

[NightWatcher]

6. At Wounded Knee they were slaughtered when the did the Ghost Dance.

[G_j]

7. new chapter

same book..

[3hummingbirds]

8. Raid on Dakotas

Not the first time the government has used military force on peaceful natives. Beyond shameful.

[G_j]

9. Video

[niyad]

20. have you read "an indigenous people's history of the united states" by roxanne dunbar-ortiz?

extremely depressing history of the way the european invaders treated the indigenous peoples, from the beginning--this is just the latest.

[misterhighwasted]

10. Freedom of Religion? Freedom to practice your "faith"?

This is horrible.
How frightening!

I am now truly afraid for them all.

[sagetea]

11. Pray for them/us

They know very well the possible outcome. Join them in prayer, continue the fight as long as it takes. The question is, How much more destruction will it take before EVERYBODY is out there with them? They are right, our water is going away and being poisoned, if we sell out to the oil companies now, it won't stop, they will be everywhere. They are everywhere now...I was out there in N. Dakota when the dog attack happened. The warriors, they are very much aware that they could die, but that is what a warrior does, he/she protects what is a basic human right, water.


Na Ho Cho Ka...go to the center...and pray.

aho`

sage

[BlancheSplanchnik]

17. my heart hurts....

This is horrible!!! And against the cease work order from PBO

[G_j]

27. at this time, Standing Rock

the center of the universe, they key to our future...
it's up to us all!

[sagetea]

28. Indeed it is...

I have a personal video of one of the cops cocking his gun and charging one of the warriors, while the rest of them are yelling "We're unarmed, we're unarmed" from Wednesday.

Amnesty International got a hold of the Sheriff and slapped him with a cease and desist order.

I don't know how to post pictures on here otherwise, I would share those and a great many other videos and pictures.

This is the fight for our lives, it's pivotal.

Aho`

sage

[G_j]

29. Aho

I've seen a video of the cop and the gun. Completely wrong!
Peaceful, prayerful ceremony and protest being confronted with military style equipment and weapons is pure facism.

[Sunny05]

13. K&R. So much for sovereignty.

My God, so much for sovereignty.

[cprise]

14. Cops were ready for them at Facebook, blocked them from posting.

So that's what peaceful protest and free speech have come to in today's America: No live broadcasts if you're a troublemaker.

This more than anything puts Facebook beyond the pale for me.

[niyad]

21. if you are a white "christian", no problem.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

15. K&R

[G_j]

16. this

[Red Mountain]

25. Shame

They should be ashamed. Their families should be ashamed. The community should be horrified.

The weapons are out of place. They brought a sledge hammer to kill a fly.

Embarrassing.

[niyad]

24. . . .

[riderinthestorm]

26. Utterly shameful. SMDH nt