Police Order Dakota Pipeline Protesters to Leave Restaurant Under Threat of Arrest

Two women who had been protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline claim that a local sheriff and police chief unreasonably ordered them to leave a restaurant in Mandan, North Dakota, on November 21, after having beckoned the women over to talk. Speaking to Storyful, Liz George said she and her fellow diner Kana Newell wrote that they were on their way out of the Rice Bowl Chinese restaurant after a meal when the police officers, having noticed a “WATER IS LIFE” badge on George’s back, asked them to come over to talk. Chief Jason Ziegler of the Mandan Police Department and Sheriff Paul D Laney of Cass County can be identified in the footage here, shared by George on Facebook. She said one of the men asked them how long they would be in the area, to which she replied, “as long as the pipeline is proceeding.” One of the pair, she said, told her the pipeline construction would go ahead as planned. She said they asked him why he believed that, sparking a conversation about how the police and protesters are engaging with each other. She said one the police officers then told her that protesters blocking intersections, as some had done in Mandan that morning, would not win them local support. George said she and Newell tried to explain that it was intended as a statement in opposition to the police’s use of tear gas and water cannon against protesters the night before, causing severe injuries to some. She said Sheriff Laney said he thought the physical attacks on the protesters “needed to be done.” George continued to say that she and Newell had tried to sit and talk constructively, with the aim of bridging gaps in communication between police and protesters. She told Storyful that they tried to explain their positions, answering questions from the police, but the sheriff and the police chief began speaking over them and getting aggressive. She said they were abruptly told the conversation was over, and ordered to leave the restaurant under threat of arrest. George told Storyful that she and Newell were short, women of color, and were “not intimidating” or being aggressive to the police. She said she was shaking and felt unsafe after leaving the restaurant, removing her “WATER IS LIFE” badge for fear of attracting aggression. Storyful spoke to a member of staff at the Rice Bowl restaurant, who said they had seen the two women approach the chief and the sheriff. They said the conversation seemed “normal” but that the women “kept talking” and “harassing” the police, who then asked the women to leave. Storyful is seeking to contact the Mandan Police Department for comment.