A horrifying military crackdown occurred Sunday night at the Dakota Access Pipeline, which is an area just outside Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.
The past month has seen a standoff between protesters and law enforcement and the military have now escalated the violence with tear gas, rubber bullets, armored vehicles and other weapons used against the “water protectors”.
These turn of events has resulted in nearly 300 protesters becoming badly injured. An official statement from the Standing Rock Medic And Healer Council said:
“Approximately 300 injuries were identified, triaged, assessed and treated by our physicians, nurses, paramedics and integrative healers working in collaboration with local emergency response. These 300 injuries were the direct result of excessive force by police over the course of 10 hours. At least 26 seriously injured people had to be evacuated by ambulance to 3 area hospitals.”
The water cannons were particularly harsh as it was already sub-freezing temperatures. This is caused many protesters to suffer from hypothermia.
The Police also caused hysteria when they fired a concussion grenade which struck activist Sophia Wilanksy in the arm, tearing it apart. Her arm may now need to be amputated.
Despite the rapid violence escalation, mainstream media have hardly reported on the violent crackdown, and media outlets have appeared rather apathetic.
Here’s a rundown of some of the mainstream news coverage put together by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR):
“The New York Times (11/21/16) gets a failing grade for its headline over a report on escalating police violence against Native American activists and others defending the Missouri River against the Dakota Access Pipeline:
16 Arrested at North Dakota Pipeline Protest
“Sorry, New York Times – when more than 470 people have been arrested opposing the pipeline since August, that’s not the news. Nor did the print edition headline — ‘16 Arrested at North Dakota Pipeline Protest as Tensions Continue’ — add anything.
“No, the news in the story came in the second paragraph, where reporter Jonah Engel Bromwich wrote that ‘officials also defended their use of fire hoses against protesters the night before, despite the below-freezing weather.’
“Perhaps Times editors thought that wasn’t news, because police use of ‘water cannons’ against demonstrators was mentioned in an AP report that ran on the Times website the day before (11/20/16) under the anodyne headline ‘Police, Protesters Face Off at Dakota Access Pipeline.’ If that was the case, editors could have found more pressing information than the arrest count in the eighth paragraph of the latest story:
“Dallas Goldtooth, a spokesman for the Indigenous Environmental Network, said in a phone interview on Monday that the Oceti Sakowin medical team, which had been working in tandem with medics from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, had reported that nearly 200 people were injured and 12 people were hospitalized for head injuries. One protester went into cardiac arrest and was revived by the medic team, he said.
“NPR’s website (11/21/16) likewise reported the story of police violence leading to widespread injuries under an innocuous headline: ‘Police, Protesters Clash Near Dakota Access Pipeline Route,’ as did ABC News (11/21/16) with its ‘Hundreds of Dakota Access Protesters Clash With Police.’ This ‘clash’ framing — also utilized in headlines on CBS (11/20/16) and CNN (11/20/16) — implies a parity between police in military vehicles, employing water cannon, tear gas, pepper spray, rubber-coated bullets and concussion grenades (one of which may have cost an activist her arm), on the one hand, and basically unarmed civilians on the other. (Police say one officer was hit in the head by a thrown rock.)
[…]
“The Washington Post (11/21/16) got the news into the headline, but framed it from a police perspective: ‘Police Defend Use of Water Cannons on Dakota Access Protesters in Freezing Weather.’”
As FAIR succinctly concluded:
“One almost gets the sense that editors writing headlines like these have enlisted themselves on the sheriff’s team, waving spectators away with a ‘nothing to see here, folks.’”
References:
I have to get something straight, I live in England, so we only get to know by what the media allows us to know. last thing I heard 8 dys ago, the riot police had refuse to enter Standing Rock & do what they were being command to do, Dakota judges in the area had made it offence of jail to go near them, plus Obama had made it a law not to touch the area???, hence my confused head, thought it was all over !!!!!
Y’all conspired to get Trump into office in your anonymous masks and with your infantile hacks — now reap the whirlwind and don’t expect any sympathy… or complain about the taste. Especially expect no love from the likes of your Commissar Trump who will reverse all the environmental gains of the last 8 years, and shove any pipe, any where he d@mn well pleases… People who can’t tell the difference between fake news, and those who distribute it, like, “truth inside you,” deserve to suffer.
man.. are you kidding me? who wants trump to get in the office? do you follow the page or you say whatever you want? we were with Sanders 100%.. Our Commissar Trump??? OMG! Fake news?? Why you comment then? Anyway.. Peace!
Truth Inside Of You I’ve seen anti-obama and pro-trump garbage here before. Delete the comment if you’ve got a problem with it, it’s your page after all — be a boss.
The greatest kip in the world that treats its population like this
I saw the photos of the poor woman’s arm !
I don’t have any problem with your comment.. I have problem to say wrong things about the page in public! We never supported Trump in this page! Maybe you didn’t understand right.. Anyway.. Also, there is no boss in our page.. We are several people.. Have a good night!
those cops should be charged with assault.
How kind of you, Mr. Coplen.
You do know that Trump isn’t the president yet, right? All this stuff you’re crying about started under Obama, and it’s still going on under Obama. Get a clue, you imbecile.
The inhumanity to man I can’t help but think that such an urgency for oil has something to do with owing money to another country that’s bigger and wealthier. I don’t think we have the full story. The people have been left out by the powers that be to the real financial shape this country is in this country is beholden to some other more powerful country than they are. Instead of truth it’s being taken out on native people black people brown people.
Robert Coplen what are you talking about … this page is mostly hippy liberal none sense and out right lies.
never have they been pro trump. you are a dip shit and shouldnt be allowed on facebook…
You all know how flipping fake this is so sad really