In 2016, North Dakota cops got unusually rough with American Indians protesting construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline across the Missouri River, putting lives at risk to protect corporate petro-plunder. Rubber bullets, water cannons in below-freezing temperatures… all “objectively reasonable” police responses, says a judge appointed by Donald Trump as he rules in favor of those war-making cops and dismisses a lawsuit brought by Native protestors injured by police on the night of November 20, 2016:
U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor issued the order granting their request Wednesday, writing that “the Court finds the undisputed and irrefutable evidence in this case could only lead a reasonable juror to conclude the officers’ conduct in this case was objectively reasonable.”
He called the situation that night “unprecedented.”
“The most telling of the entire situation is the fact that officers issued two code red requests and a Signal 100, requesting the assistance of every available officer in the state,” Traynor wrote. “This has never been done in North Dakota history” [Amy R. Sisk, “Judge Sides with Law Enforcement in DAPL Protest Suit Alleging Excessive Use of Force,” Bismarck Tribune, 2021.12.30].
Here south of the border, Kristi Noem never needed an anti-protest law to protect her Big Oil friends from citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. She just needed her big friend Donnie to appoint enough judges to keep the door open for the militarized police state to march all over anyone—especially folks of darker complexions—who dares march against the corporate order.
Follow the money.
If anything defines the Trump era it’s the plutocratic populism Mitch McConnell and John Thune practice to pack the courts at any cost.
It’s just that simple.
A trump judge, 22 caliber at the highest for sure.
Kind of a stretch Mr. Anderson, more like a spitball. Mr. Kurtz is correct, follow the money. trump law is how much you’re willing to pay for not guilty verdict.
Follow The Money …
Brock Lesnar is World Champion, again.
A “Signal 100”? Every available cop in the state? Really North Dakota? I swear our cousins to the north are even more scared of Native Americans than we are.
Thanks, Master.
Those pesky Natives are sitting on “our” oil, dang it. All that land is treaty land that was stolen, so North Dakota has got to keep the Native’s in check, elementary Watson.
I’ve always thought the supporters of Tribal property rights (conservative position) – who happen to be mostly the SRT in this case – have a lot in common with the Bundys and the Jan 6th FBI marks.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/nov/10/jan-6th-detainees-must-receive-due-process/
Recall that during the second Obama term a group of armed thugs, including a retired Air Force master sergeant from South Dakota allied with mormon Cliven Bundy, occupied and ransacked not a courthouse but a national wildlife refuge in none other than Harney County, Oregon.
Today, Montana Republicans are wielding the power of government to stifle free enterprise in a state where freedom is paramount. Now Realtors in Montana are capitalizing on racist paranoia amid Trump’s calls for the End Times. It’s dystopian fantasy run amok.
The Ridiculous Right brands Black Lives Matter and Native American protesters unemployed slackers but a horde of Huns that takes over a federal facility to wait out the End Days and terrorizes Congress are called patriots.
Herr Trump’s first Interior secretary blamed wildfires in the West on those he called “radical environmentalists” despite most acres burned occur on private ranch land in Republican counties. On the final day of Trump’s presidency his last Interior secretary even restored a grazing permit to the Hammond Ranch whose prescriptive burn escaped onto federal land. Only a tiny fraction of public lands offered by the Trump Organization to the extractive industries were even leased yet Republicans see the Biden White House as hostile to their causes especially after the Hammonds’ grazing permits were again rescinded.
Tribal lands under private ownership is a (dummy position)
Religious tribe (not Indians) appears to be responsible for latest Colorado fire.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/christian-sect-burning-shed-focus-of-deadly-colorado-fire-investigation
Religion bad! Bad! I say.
Don’t forget about the vicious German shepherds ripping at frozen and drenched flesh. I went to drop off food and coffee for the protectors and felt my heart break while the daytime activity was preparing for the upcoming battle by practicing how to link arms with white women on the outside in hopes they wouldn’t be as likely to take a hit to the face by the armed mercenaries with all kinds of military bludgeoning tools.
My heart broke when the American dream of my generation turned out to be the same exact dirty, raping, stank breath flesh mutilator profiteer we read about and saw in bleak black and white photos. Only this place had high tech electronics that made it a dead zone so digital devices were unusable to document the tragedy. And assault rifles shot down any drones attempting to bear witness, endangering unarmed, peaceful people in prayer by shooting at anything that looked like it might be recording.
Gratitude to the protectors. Bravery and generosity were so abundant and the punks who came to stomp on the constitution were pure jealous because they lacked any iota of honor and wanted to destroy what they could’t have. Mealy-boned haters following their master’s orders could have filled that black hole inside them by putting down their badge and hopping on the side of love. They were hating themselves while taking it out on the people.
My mom about lost it when I asked her if she still knew any Black Panthers and if they were recruiting. There’s worse things than being on a government bad word list. Like thirst.
In June 1876 Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer left Fort Lincoln in North Dakota to rid the U.S. of the merciless savages gathering in our homelands in what is now Montana. History tells how that turned out. That deadly stumping is celebrated annually by many tribes in the Great Plains.
Dismissal in district court, stating the beating and torturing of U.S. citizens exercising freedom of speech guaranteed in the same documents that referred to ancestors of the water protectors as “merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare” as “objectively reasonable”. Someone should write a movie script!
Unprecedented? More like: Preordained. Expected. Called for. As historically, since 1776 when the Declaration of Independence proclaimed, “… all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”. A few words later, tribal people were defined as “merciless Indian savages”. There is no proclamation of equality for tribal folks in the Declaration. No equality then or now. There is a justification mentioned in 1776 that is applied today; rule of warfare. The telling legal terminology of OBJECTIVELY REASONABLE gives sway to punish, beat, use water cannon in freezing weather, shoot rubber bullets or any torturing means deemed necessary for enforcement purposes. It was perceived in 1776, again in November 2016, warfare is the only legitimate response to confronting tribal people who gathered, speak, and inform the world of what is happening. Yep, warfare. Yep, North Dakota. Yep, South Dakota waged warfare with tribal folks in the 70s and wait with finger on the trigger for another chance to engage in warfare with the tribal folks again.
Dang, knowing history then overlaying it on today’s actions will cause CRT to need CPR in the frontier state of SD. The inept inbred republicans are like-minded in giving voice as long it is in their voice, their version of history, or their definition of history. Worse than an inept, inbred republican is a functional illiterate during election time. Could be the same person in some, if not most, instances.
Hopefully, an appeal will be forthcoming. 45’s federal court picks will trouble the judicial systems for a few decades. RINO Thune and nowhere Rounds continue to rule with acquired Washington moral compasses, encouraging their shameless bootlicking for 45 and that senator from the whiskey-making state.
Meanwhile, a dumbass dubya appointed federal judge in Texass just gave Navy personnel cover to disobey a direct order when he opined they did not have to get vaccinated for covid.
https://www.vox.com/2022/1/4/22866839/supreme-court-covid-vaccination-navy-seals-reed-oconnor-religion-military…
Just what Biden needs, more magat turmoil to disrupt democracy!