The Green Party Presidential Nominee faces criminal charges after allegedly vandalizing construction equipment at an energy pipeline site with hundreds of other protesters.
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier of North Dakota announced Tuesday his office’s intention to file charges against Jill Stein and others for spray-painting bulldozers and other equipment being operated by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners. Though not currently incarcerated, Kirchmeier said he is “working up the information through the state’s attorney’s office to pursue charges (against Stein),” according to the Bismarck Tribune.
Stein’s official campaign Twitter account confirms and promoted the act, Tuesday.
State of ND may charge me with vandalism. Will they charge the oil company that razed sacred burial grounds? #NoDAPL https://t.co/PAYmyN2FCm
— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) September 6, 2016
Morton County reports that the incident occurred at or around 10:30 A.M. Tuesday where protesters numbered up to 300, according to the 25 first responders to arrive on the scene. Agitators were reportedly on horseback, wearing masks and carrying hatchets in some cases. No arrests were made at the time.
According to the Bismarck paper, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II lauded the alleged acts as reminiscent of the Civil Rights Movement saying, “It was illegal but it was the right thing to do.”
The North Dakota construction site has been a flashpoint for violent, environmental protests since Labor Day weekend, sending multiple private security employees and their service dogs for medical treatment, Breitbart Texas recently reported:
Various videos and local reports have confirmed that “hundreds” of Native American protesters and supporters of the Standing Rock Sioux turned violent at a construction site under the management of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners near Cannon Ball, ND. The Associated Press reported that four private security guards and two dogs were injured in the incident as a result, according to the Morton County Sherriff’s Office. Though protesters have asserted through a variety of mediums that they were the ones first attacked, many of their own videos purport to show the opposite occurred.
A spokesperson for the Dallas pipeline company told the AP that violence first began when protesters breached a fenced security perimeter and “attacked” the construction crew on the site. Videos uploaded by protesters and supportive media purport to show that the few private security guards were armed only with radios, pepper spray and leashed dogs while unidentifiable objects were hurled at them.
The pipeline is to span from the Bakken and Three Forks oil production areas 1,168 miles through South Dakota and Iowa to Patoka, Illinois, for refining and distribution. The 30-inch, $3.8 billion line is expected to facilitate a maximum daily capacity of 570,000 barrels of crude. Energy Transfer Partners hopes to see the asset online by fourth quarter 2016.
Logan Churchwell is the Assistant Editor and a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. You can follow him on Twitter @LCChurchwell.
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