A months-long protest over the Dakota Access oil pipeline reached its most chaotic pitch yet when hundreds of law enforcement officers moved in to force activists off private property.
(FOX)- Thursday’s nearly six-hour operation dramatically escalated the dispute over Native American rights and the project’s environmental impact, with officers in riot gear firing bean bags and pepper spray.
Donnell Hushka, a spokeswoman for the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, said 141 people were arrested. No serious injuries were reported, though one man was hurt in the leg and received treatment from a medic.
Among those arrested was a woman who pulled out a .38-caliber pistol and fired three times at officers, narrowly missing a sheriff’s deputy, according to State Emergency Services spokeswoman Cecily Fong. Officers did not return fire, she said.
The opposition ratcheted up over the weekend when protesters set up camp on private land owned by Energy Transfer Partners — putting themselves for the first time directly in the project’s path.
The operation to push out the protesters began a day after they had refused to leave voluntarily. Law enforcement repeatedly asked protesters to retreat, at one point using a high-pitched whistle they said was intended to “control and disperse” protesters.
The camp cleared on Thursday is located just to the north of a more permanent and larger encampment on federally owned land which has been the main staging area for hundreds of protesters, including Native Americans from across North America, environmentalists and some celebrities.