{"id":296032,"date":"2017-02-22T14:04:02","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T13:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/dapl-protesters-brace-for-police-showdown-as-camp-evacuation-deadline-looms\/"},"modified":"2017-02-22T14:04:02","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T13:04:02","slug":"dapl-protesters-brace-for-police-showdown-as-camp-evacuation-deadline-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/dapl-protesters-brace-for-police-showdown-as-camp-evacuation-deadline-looms\/","title":{"rendered":"DAPL protesters brace for police showdown as camp evacuation deadline looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The deadline for the evacuation of the Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp finally arrives Wednesday, but several demonstrators have declared they will not leave and are bracing for a stand-off with law enforcement. <\/p>\n

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Since last August, the Oceti Sakowin camp<\/a> in North Dakota has served as the base of operations for many Native Americans and environmental activists as they protested the pipeline project which they say threatens the water supply of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Multi-billion dollar investors urge bankers to divest from #DAPL<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The tribe says the pipeline is being constructed on sacred Native American land and will pass through Lake Oahe, their primary source of drinking water. If completed, the $3.8 billion pipeline project will carry oil from northwest North Dakota to Illinois, passing through South Dakota and Iowa.<\/p>\n

Citing concerns<\/a> over spring flooding and environmental risks from \u201chuman waste generated\u201d<\/em> by the camp population, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and the US Army Corps of Engineers set a deadline of 2pm (20:00 GMT) Wednesday for activists to vacate the camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. The camp sits on Army Corps land.<\/p>\n

However some of the protesters say they will not leave the land, setting the scene for a potential showdown with police. There have already been occasional clashes between police and protesters at the camp site.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Army veterans forming human shield to protect NoDAPL protesters at Standing Rock<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Protest leaders have said that approximately 300 people remain at the camp. “A lot of them are going to stay and they’re not going to give up, no matter what army they bring in to make people back off,”<\/em> one of the camp\u2019s leaders Lewis Grassrope told<\/a> Newsweek.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, Maxine Herr told<\/a> USA Today they are aware of some protesters\u2019 plans to remain: “There are certainly those that are planning to stay. As much as they are tearing down, they are building.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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Our hearts are with our Indigenous sisters in #StandingRock<\/a>, who have a hard deadline from the governor to be evacuated at 2pm CST on Wed.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Women’s March (@womensmarch) February 22, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Representatives from the governor’s office have laid out the plan for evacuating the camp.<\/p>\n

“The first priority is life health and safety of everyone in this camp as it relates to potential flooding, and the second is preventing an environmental disaster by getting this camp cleaned up as quickly as possible,\u201d<\/em> Governor Burgum’s Policy Advisor Levi Bachmeier told<\/a> local Fox TV station KFYR.<\/p>\n

Bachmeier said the state and the Army Corps will do everything possible to help people leave the site before the deadline by providing buses.<\/p>\n

He added that a safe zone would be established south of the camp.<\/p>\n

A police notice<\/a> for vacating the camp says buses will take people who are willing to leave to a \u201cTravel Assistance Center\u201d<\/em> \u00a0in Bismarck, North Dakota, where they will get a free health and wellness check-up, a personal hygiene kit and hotel and bus vouchers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published time: 22 Feb, 2017 12:44 The deadline for the evacuation of the Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp finally arrives Wednesday, but several demonstrators have declared they will not leave and are bracing for a stand-off with law enforcement. Since last August, the Oceti Sakowin camp in North Dakota has served as the base of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-296032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}