Posted on 02/21/2017 1:59:13 PM PST by SeekAndFind
By the time you read this the sun will have already risen in North Dakota, where a few hundred dead end protesters are hanging on in what remains of the Dakota Access Pipeline camps. Obstruction of the project essentially collapsed once Donald Trump took office and the Army gave the go-ahead for the final sections of pipe to be laid. Even the Standing Rock tribe has asked the unwelcome visitors to depart, preferring to fight the rest of the battle in court, but the remaining holdouts do not appear to be convinced. (Associated Press)
As dawn breaks over an encampment that was once home to thousands of people protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline, a few hundred holdouts rise for another day of resistance.
They aren’t deterred by the threat of flooding, nor by declarations from state and federal authorities that they must leave by Wednesday or face possible arrest. They’re determined to remain and fight a pipeline they maintain threatens the very sanctity of the land.
“If we don’t stand now, when will we?” said Tiffanie Pieper, of San Diego, who has been in the camp most of the winter.
Using the phrase “a few” is rather deceptive. We’re talking about a couple hundred people still remaining on site. Choosing to remain even when the area is under threat of flooding (as often happens this time of year) and in defiance of federal authorities probably seems noble to some of their more liberal supporters. But the reality is that the battle has been lost and it’s time to pack up and go back home to Boston, California and the various other locations these activists traveled from.
It’s also worth remembering that the remnants of the camp are on federal land owned by the Army Corps of Engineers. All of the pertinent questions have been asked and answered in courts of law. At this point law enforcement has a serious decision to make. If the protesters still refuse to leave today this needs to be the last red line which has been crossed. It’s time to arrest these people, cart them off to jail and bulldoze the remnants of the camp. The media will have a field day with it of course, probably summoning up images of the Kent State shooting and any other iconic scenes which serve their purposes. That is no reason not to proceed.
The fine tradition of protesting actions of the government in the United States has been more than fully respected and permitted over the course of this saga. The conversation was brought before the nation and everyone had their chance to express their opinions. Nobody’s rights have been suppressed and the matter has been handled in regular order, so delaying the project further now crosses the line from freedom of speech to felonious criminal activity.
Deadlines which are not enforced are meaningless and turn law enforcement into a joke. It’s time to clean that camp out and get on with the business of the day.
Any Rachel Corey awards?...................
Rachel Corrie to the courtesy phone...
Maybe a pancake breakfast?
Bring in the National Guard to remove them by force if need be... They are on private land..
Arrest, trial and assination for the Bundy’s and their friends but not for the pipeholes?
Sounds like selective enforcement to me.
Then how would you justify using the national guard on citizens of the U.S. who are not on public property? You just want to see Indians killed, don’t you?
From the article:
“It’s also worth remembering that the remnants of the camp are on federal land owned by the Army Corps of Engineers. All of the pertinent questions have been asked and answered in courts of law. “
If they are Mexican they can be tortillas............
Yep Rachel Corrie came to my mind as well.
Any of these protesters want to play with bulldozers??
But then we all know how the liberals and the media will react if any Rachel Corrie wannabes get out there and get hurt or killed trying to he human shields.
They are on federal land. Bring out the water canons. Hose em down.
““It’s also worth remembering that the remnants of the camp are on federal land owned by the Army Corps of Engineers. “
While it may be Federal Land, it isn’t “owned” by the Army Corps of Engineers!
Bring in a couple of the airport snowblowers. These flakes are full of it anyway so turning them into fertilizer should not be a problem.
The Obama Admin. got away with spraying these protestors with ice water from a fire hose, one week before Christmas! I didn’t hear a word of complaint from the media. Not a word.
There were no after the fact interviews with the families of the hosed down ‘victims’ either. No lawsuits from the ACLU.
True. I was just quoting the article. Should be “managed” (in the most negative sense) by the Army.
It must be nice having someone pay you to sit around a campsite all day.
“True. I was just quoting the article. Should be “managed” (in the most negative sense) by the Army.”
I understood it was a quote, but it’s not accurate. Although for many years, The Army Corps of Engineers have been the EPA in uniform. Like every agency of government, the ACoE needs an enema, because it’s become “the home” for a bunch of “military envirowhackos.” They need to be “redirected” back to doing “real engineering,” not “social engineering.”
And bang a drum.
We are in perfect agreement.
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