Criminal Activity Disguised as Protesting
This week, as the Line 3 Project continues construction—bringing jobs, economic activity, and a new, safe pipeline in place of the aging one—protesters have crossed the line to engage in criminal activity including vandalism, destruction of property, and harassment of workers.
A group of Tribal business owners, workers and contractors sent a letter to Minnesota Tribal Leaders and Government. The letter, available here, details how lives and work were affected by the protest events that took place at the Enbridge Two Inlets Pump Station site near Park Rapids, MN on Monday. In part:
Protests that disrupt work, damage property, and threaten our employees while claiming to be on behalf of our Native people is creating additional tension and consequences within our tribal communities. They also intentionally create a false narrative that there is no Native American support for this project and the economic impacts and opportunities it brings to our people.
We respect the rights of everyone to express their opinions and to protest. As Native people, making sure our voice is heard is even more important and essential, yet what happened on Monday went far beyond and resulted in Native workers being forced to stop working as their job sites were overrun by protestors.
On Monday, the damage to the Two Inlet Pump Station included extensive vandalism of contractor equipment, construction trailers broken into, and the destruction of environmental safeguards intended to control erosion and protect water quality. Criminals—once they broke the law, they are no longer protesters but criminals—attempted to trap workers while forcefully entering and then occupying the site, trespassing and criminally damaging property.
This destruction of the very environmental safeguards designed to protect water and harassments of workers plainly shows these criminals are not acting to "save the earth" but are criminals intent on causing damage.
The senseless destruction was not first amendment protected free speech but criminal behavior. The actors who did this are criminals and should be treated as such. Below are some pictures taken at the Enbridge Two Inlets pump station site showing the aftermath of the destructive criminal activity.
The damaged equipment is owned by Gordon Construction—a 100% Native owned company based out of Mahnomen, MN on the White Earth Reservation. The equipment will be taken out of work for weeks and cost hundreds of thousands to repair.
This behavior cannot be tolerated and those who broke the law must be held accountable as should those who enable and encourage these law breakers.
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