Despite all evidence to the contrary, North Dakota police and officials continue to claim that their officers never brought harm to the water protectors, despite factual contrary evidence.
Though the Dakota Access Pipeline Protest has been deemed a temporary success, there are still battles of the media to be had, and this is one major one.
A young woman has lost the use of her arm after being hit with a combustion grenade, while another female water protector may permanently lose her eyesight thanks to the “non-lethal” tactics of the oil police. Hundreds others were harmed when police doused protesters with near-freezing water hoses in below freezing weather.
Even after the easement for the pipeline was denied and the police left the scene, they maintained barricades on major roadways, meaning that when emergency transportation and supplies arrived to combat a blizzard in the days following, aides were forced to take hours-long detours in dangerous conditions to reach the camps.
Filmmaker Josh Fox teamed up with Now This to discuss the acts of violence by police that he witnesses with his own eyes.
Fox has been a vocal voice in the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, particularly after his producer Deia Scholosberg was arrested in a separate pipeline protest for merely documenting the activity earlier this year.
As he has seen repeatedly, the water protectors are fighting a lot more than the oil companies; they are also fighting against a biased media that believes police reports without bothering to see the other side.
Luckily for Fox and the water protectors, social media and independent news organizations have been on the ground at Standing Rock, getting the other side of what the mainstream media prefers to ignore.
From outlets like The Young Turks, Unicorn Riots, Now This, and others, we see firsthand the permanent damage these oil police have caused. Though they would rather lie to our faces, those of us paying attention cannot ignore the truth.
Watch.
