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ND Pays SD Highway Patrol $518K for Helping Quash DAPL Protests

How much did the South Dakota Highway Patrol spend in supporting state/corporate oppression of free speech at the Dakota Access pipeline protests in North Dakota last fall and winter? $518,154.38, says SDHP spokesman Tony Mangan, an amount that has been fully reimbursed by the state of North Dakota. Mangan says our Highway Patrol expended 8,800 manhour and other resources making life harder for Americans who don’t support Energy Transfer Partners’ endangerment of our water.

SDHP’s expenditures on the Dakota Access protests equal 1.5% of its FY2017 budget.

North Dakota says it spent $40 million on quashing protest enforcing the law during the Dakota Access demonstration, but the former Energy Transfer Partners shareholder now occupying the White House refused to issue the disaster declaration that would have sent FEMA funds North Dakota’s way. North Dakota is now seeking $13.85 million in Federal Law Enforcement Assistance funds… because we should all help pay for the corporate-fascist police state.

Related: Some protest deserves a police response. Des Moines residents Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya admitted last week to vandalizing construction equipment and steel valves in Iowa and South Dakota to delay construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. Reznicek and Montoya are suspects in vandalism reported in Minnehaha County in May. Reznicek called this vandalism “peaceful and viable tactics against corporate atrocities,” then, with Iowa state troopers watching, joined Montoya in taking a hammer and a crowbar to the Iowa Utilities Board sign behind them.

13 Comments

  1. El Rayo X

    I seem to recall a lot of money raised to support the DAPL campers. Do you have a final accounting of how it was spent?

  2. Interesting question, El Rayo. The figure is surely multiple figures, since multiple groups participated. We probably can’t calculate all the individual and in-kind donations (time, rides, camp supplies, etc.) But GoFundMe says that in 2016, accounts related to Standing Rock raised $7.8 million, second only to the Pulse nightclub shooting as a news-related donation draw.

  3. grudznick

    It was all spent on beer, lottery tickets, cigs, and bales of the demon weed.

  4. dave

    and that was only the highway patrols share. ;)

  5. Roger Cornelius

    grudz, you’re a waste of humanity.

    Alcohol and drugs were prohibited at the campsite and was strictly enforced.

  6. Joe Nelson

    What is the arguement/statement you are making here? Or is it just snarky observation?

  7. Roger Cornelius

    Joe Nelson,
    The Rapid City Journal and other media outlets reported this same story. Maybe they too were just being snarky.

  8. Joe Nelson

    Roger,

    From Merriam-Webster:

    Definition of snark
    informal
    : an attitude or expression of mocking irreverence and sarcasm

    Examples of Cory’s snark:

    Mangan says our Highway Patrol expended 8,800 manhour and other resources making life harder for Americans who don’t support Energy Transfer Partners’ endangerment of our water.

    North Dakota says it spent $40 million on quashing protest enforcing the law

    From the AP, which many of the news outlets like the RCJ used:

    SIOUX FALLS | South Dakota has been paid for its help policing protests in North Dakota against the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

    South Dakota Highway Patrol troopers racked up 8,800 hours during the protests. Spokesman Tony Mangan tells the Argus Leader that the agency has been reimbursed $518,000 for hours and mileage.

    American Indian tribes and environmental groups protested the pipeline because they fear environmental harm, a claim Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners rejects. There were 761 arrests in North Dakota between August and February.

    The $3.8 billion pipeline began moving North Dakota oil to a distribution point in Illinois last month.

    A straight forward description of the facts, sans snark.

    I’m certainly amused (most times) when Cory writes snarky blog posts. However, I would rather also get a blog post that has a logical or reasoned argument as to how and why Cory supports or does not support the SDHP being reimbursed; the blog post could even include his thoughts on why the SDHP should or should not have been there in the first place. If he stops at snark, without following it up, then he is akin to a late-night talk show host giving a monologue (as opposed to likes of Jon Stewart, John Oliver, or Trevor Noah who are able to blend their snark with reasons why we should be for or against something.)

    Cory “write[s] to provoke those South Dakotans in place and in spirit to ask questions and have conversations about South Dakota and about how to make our state better.”

    I am asking questions.

  9. Roger Cornelius

    Now who’s being snarky, Joe?
    Of all the South Dakota political blogs Cory writes the most in-depth and researched blogs there are.
    The comment section is reserved for you to make your observations and ask questions.
    Cory isn’t a news writer nor do want him to be, we’ll leave that that to AP.
    If Cory hurts your little ole feeling about his snarkiness, so bet it, it is his blog.

  10. Joe Nelson

    LOL, you’re funny. My feelings were not hurt; just consider me an occasional gadfly who encourages Cory to write to his level of intellectual potential, rather than let his blog and combox devolve into an echo chamber of snark, yellow journalism, and name calling (not that Cory is responsible for what people comment, but he is responsible for what he lets remain as comments).

    As for Cory not being a news writer? I am curious what his thoughts are on that.

  11. Joe, this post documents the dollar value of resources the state of South Dakota deployed to assist in a police-state action against free speech in service of our corporate overlords, which I mock and do not revere. I guess that counts as snark, per the definition you offer.

  12. Donal

    Once again the state of South Dakota has SHAMED itself!!! 30 pieces of silver from the evil corporate demons will not be enough to save you from what you helped to do to mankind. Wow! To be a SDHP who actually participated in this corporate sponsored terrorism committed against those people. You should be hoping that “What goes around Comes around” is not true because otherwise you all are in for some real cosmic payback someday. I wonder what Judas would say about you all have done?

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