{"id":14893,"date":"2016-09-08T08:01:10","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T15:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/authorities-to-build-up-presence-before-n-dakota-pipeline-ruling\/"},"modified":"2016-09-08T08:01:10","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T15:01:10","slug":"authorities-to-build-up-presence-before-n-dakota-pipeline-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/authorities-to-build-up-presence-before-n-dakota-pipeline-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Authorities to build up presence before N. Dakota pipeline ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

BISMARCK, N.D. <\/strong>\u2014 North Dakota authorities are recruiting law enforcement officers from across the state to guard the site of a protest in anticipation of an impending federal ruling on whether to block the construction of the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline.<\/p>\n

The buildup, announced Wednesday, comes after a skirmish between protesters and private security guards on Saturday that turned violent; the crowd dispersed when officers arrived, and no one was arrested. Authorities also said they pulled back Tuesday from responding to a report of 150 to 200 protesters, some with hatches and knives, gathered at a construction area on private land because they determined it wasn\u2019t safe to respond.<\/p>\n

A ruling is expected by Friday on the tribe\u2019s challenge of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers\u2019 decision to grant permits to the Dallas, Texas-based operators of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, which will cross North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.<\/p>\n

The local law enforcement department is bracing for a decision that would allow the project to proceed while a spokesman for Gov. Jack Dalrymple said \u201cthe governor has always said the National Guard is an option.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are preparing and planning for all scenarios that may occur in response to the federal court ruling,\u201d the Morton County Sheriff\u2019s Office said in a statement, which didn\u2019t detail how many officers were being added or what their plan is should the ruling allow construction to continue.<\/p>\n

Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II said he is not concerned with the additional law enforcement presence at the site of the protest, where thousands have camped out for weeks, and that the judge\u2019s ruling will not stop the protest either way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not going to be over on this one day, whether he rules in our favor or the company\u2019s favor,\u201d Archambault said. \u201cBoth sides will appeal so this will not be over.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that he saw law enforcement personnel near the protest site Wednesday and said he\u2019s appealing to protesters to remain \u201cpeaceful and prayerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pipeline company, Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding who is providing the private security details, which have been in place since last month, and what they\u2019ve been told to do when facing protesters.<\/p>\n

Already, the Morton County Sheriff\u2019s Office estimated its spending $100,000 a week in overtime costs to monitor the protests, and the North Dakota Highway Patrol is spending $65,000 weekly to do the same.<\/p>\n

But no law enforcement personnel were present Saturday, when tribal officials said construction crews on private land destroyed several sites of \u201csignificant cultural and historic value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Energy Transfer Partners said \u201cassailants broke through a fence and attacked our workers,\u201d and the sheriff\u2019s office said four private security guards and two guard dogs were injured.<\/p>\n

The tribe countered that protesters reported six people had been bitten by security dogs, including a young child, and at least 30 people were pepper-sprayed. Archambault said the protesters were \u201cprovoked\u201d by the company\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

The tribe won some reprieve from construction work Tuesday, when U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered a stop for about 20 miles of the pipeline until he ruled on the tribe\u2019s broader challenge.<\/p>\n

Dalrymple spokesman Jeff Zent said plans are also in the works to \u201cenhance\u201d patrols in Bismarck and neighboring Mandan, about 40 miles from the protest site, but those coincide with an annual powwow that draws hundreds of dancers from around the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BISMARCK, N.D. \u2014 North Dakota authorities are recruiting law enforcement officers from across the state to guard the site of a protest in anticipation of an impending federal ruling on whether to block the construction of the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline. The buildup, announced Wednesday, comes after a skirmish between protesters and private security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14893"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}