Report: Police Use of Water Cannons, Rubber Bullets, Need Safety Standards; White House Deletes Native American Web Content

From Minneapolis protest against use of Hennepin County Sheriffs deputies in North Dakota.

Recent violent clashes over construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) have put a harsh spotlight on law enforcement’s use and abuse of crowd control weapons such as water cannons, rubber bullets, tear gas and concussion grenades.

The growing use of these weapons can do significant harm — not just physical harm, but harm to people’s basic freedoms of assembly and speech. That’s according to a report released last year by the Physicians for Human Rights and the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations.

The report is calling for an international debate on safe standards and guidelines for when law enforcement can use “crowd control weapons” or CCW.

DAPL Updates: Water Cannons Used Against Water Protectors; First DAPL Divestment; UN Critical of Excessive Police Response; ND Cancels Tribal Speech; and More

We have a backlog of updates to report on Standing Rock and the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). (The blog didn’t get much attention the past few days as Healing Minnesota Stories was participating in an incredibly powerful three-day Bearing Witness Retreat, an interfaith event organized by Clouds in Water Zen Center. It witnessed to Minnesota’s participation in the Native American genocide.

Here are DAPL updates from the past few days:

• As tension escalates, a court decision on the pipeline might not come until 2017
• Under freezing conditions, law enforcement uses water cannons against water protectors
• Pressure on banks financing DAPL has first success
• U.N. Human Rights expert denounces abuse of free assembly rights
• North Dakota legislators cancel annual “State of the Tribes” address amid security concerns, damaging tribal relationships
• Scores arrested nationwide in DAPL protests
• Energy Transfer Partners CEO Can’t Promise Pipeline Won’t Leak
• Water is Life: Drought kills 102 million trees in California