Brennon Nastacio – C.S.News

Tag: Brennon Nastacio

DAPL cases dropped by state in record numbers

Defense lawyers: TigerSwan infiltration and police entrapment should be recognized by courts

By C.S. Hagen
MANDAN – After being handcuffed, forced to strip, locked in dog cages, and hauled to jails across the state, hundreds charged with crimes during the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy are finding vindication through North Dakota’s court system.

Officially, 761 people were arrested during the months-long opposition to the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline, and already 114 cases have been dismissed by the state. Eleven people received guilty verdicts; 50 pled guilty – primarily on lesser charges, and three have been acquitted.

The state cannot meet the elements of offenses as charged, defense lawyers say.

“In an attempt to extract guilty pleas, the state is waiting to dismiss each case until the last minute before trial, which has created great hardship and uncertainty for many water protectors,” Water Protector Legal Collective attorney Jacob Reisberg said in a press release. “The No-DAPL water protectors withstood extreme violence from militarized police at Standing Rock and now the state admits that it cannot substantiate the alleged justification for that violence.”

While the Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported 761 people were arrested, the Water Protectors Legal Collective reports the actual number is higher: 854.

A total of 552 cases remain open, Water Protectors Legal Collective staff attorney Andrea Carter said. Last weekend, one of activists involved in arguably one of the most controversial cases also had charges against him dropped.

Less than a week after former Leighton Security Services project manager Kyle Thompson went live on Digital Smoke Signals to speak about his experience working security along the Dakota Access Pipeline route, the state dropped charges against Brennon Nastacio, charged with a Class C felony of terrorism.

Nastacio, 36, a Pueblo Native American nicknamed “Bravo One,” was charged for his participation in stopping Thompson, who wielded a semi-automatic AR-15, on October 27, 2016.

On June 14, Assistant State’s Attorney Gabrielle Goter of Morton County filed a motion to dismiss the charge, which came days before the scheduled deposition of North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Scott Betz, who was instrumental in Nastacio’s prosecution. Depositions were also scheduled for two FBI agents involved in the transfer of Thompson for BIA custody to the Morton County Jail, and for Thompson, according to Nastacio’s lawyers Bruce Nestor and Jeffrey Haas.

“This was a case where Mr. Nastacio acted to protect himself and others,” Nestor and Haas said. “He should have been thanked and not prosecuted for his bravery.”

“The feeling is good,” Nastacio said. “Now I just need to concentrate on my other case.”

Nastacio was indicted on February 8 on federal charges of civil disorder and use of fire to commit a federal crime, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of North Dakota.

Michael Fasig and Israel Hernandez also face felony charges over the same incident. Class C terrorizing charges carry up to a five-year prison sentence.

Myron Dewey, “Strong Thinker,” Paiute Shoshone – wet plate by Shane Balkowitsch

Other salient cases include the state dropping charges against drone operator and owner of Digital Smoke Signals, Myron Dewey, and rap artist Aaron Sean Turgeon, also known as ‘Prolific the Rapper.’

U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland recently agreed to the conditional release of Redfawn Fallis to a halfway house from where she’s being held in Rugby. Fallis’s arrest, which was filmed live, has become one of the movement’s most viewed recordings. Police say she discharged a handgun while being tackled by law enforcement. Officially, Fallis was charged with criminal possession of a firearm or ammunition by a previously convicted felon, according to the United States Attorney’s Office District of North Dakota.

Another reason the state is dropping cases en masse is because of evidence the camps were infiltrated by TigerSwan operatives, who were on a mission to “find, fix, and eliminate” pipeline opposition, according to Nastacio’s lawyers.

“TigerSwan worked closely with law enforcement to infiltrate the camps, produce pro-DAPL propaganda, and aid prosecutions. TigerSwan acted in a supervisory capacity over Leighton Security, Thompson’s employer.”

Aaron Sean Turgeon ‘Prolific the Rapper’ (right) – Facebook page

“As we’re learning that there was some kind of infiltration by either the FBI or TigerSwan, or both, we think it should become an issue in the cases that the state should have to prove that some of those people who were engaging in that kind of activity were law enforcement or infiltrators,” Carter said.

“That’s what is getting debated in a lot of these cases, is presence,” Carter said. “There are entrapment issues. Five or more people must be engaged in a riot. If you have one of those five as law enforcement or as an infiltrator, and the state is alleging that someone is setting fires or throwing stuff, what if one of the people present was an infiltrator, and everyone else at the demonstration was peaceful or sitting in prayer, and you have one person instigating who wasn’t even part of that group?”

Bennon Nastacio – Facebook page

During standoffs along the frontlines, police also gave contradictory warnings. Activists were told to leave an area immediately, and then given a different order to pick up items or clean up an area before leaving, which resulted in many people becoming trapped, Carter said.

“They would say ‘go,’ and as people were running to their cars, police were tearing them out of their vehicles. It’s incredible the amount of force they were met with.”

Former City Attorney for Valley City, Russell Myhre, who is now practicing law privately at his office in Valley City, is defending four people against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“I have never seen delays like this,” Myhre, who has been practicing law for nearly half a century said. “Even in high profile cases, there was always this contact with prosecution and the court. Here, there appears to be no reason whatsoever, and I don’t know why they’re not dealing with speedy trials.”

The Dakota Access Pipeline controversy reminds Myhre of the Vietnam War era, he said, which polarized the nation instantly until the mid-1970s when the contention simmered and people began to realize that perhaps, the Vietnam War was not one of the nation’s brightest moments.

Red Fawn Fallis – online sources

“I think this Dakota Access Pipeline is tearing North Dakotans apart,” Myhre said. “North Dakota was a god-forgotten outpost in the United States for many years, but they have found out that maybe they have sold their soul to big oil, and maybe, there is a dark side to this, and they’re just now starting to realize this.”

The lack of speedy trials is a legal tactic defendants can consider, he said. “A trial is scheduled within 90 days after demand for a speedy trial. It could be thrown out by the trial court or appealed to the North Dakota Supreme Court, or it could be brought to federal court for denial of due process and the denial of a right for a speedy trial.”

There is potential that cases could be reopened and appealed, even if found guilty under North Dakota Century Code post-conviction relief laws, Myhre said. The law is a substitute for habeas corpus – after being convicted a defendant can come back in and allege their rights have been violated.

“I think the system is overwhelmed,” Myhre said. “One of the other things is that prosecutors and law enforcement are realizing this is not going the way they wanted it to. Not many are coming forward pleading guilty.”

And law enforcement records are lacking, he said. “Most of these officers did not write up personal reports, which is standard practice. Most of these officers did not write up anything, it was left to one officer in charge of writing things up for everyone.”

Money is another contributing aspect as to why cases are being dropped faster than hot potatoes. The state was denied reimbursement for the $38 million spent during the controversy by the federal government last week. Days later, Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access LLC, offered, once again, to pay the bill.

To compound the issues a federal judge ruled on July 16 that permits authorizing the pipeline to cross the Missouri River less than one mile from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation violated the tribe’s fishing rights, hunting rights, and environmental rights.

“There’s something funky going on in the background,” Myhre said. “And I just don’t know what it is. A lot of it may have to do with TigerSwan and the manipulation of the media. In North Dakota, unless you were a Native American or an extreme liberal, many people were anti protest.

“We’re living in strange times.”

Since the last Standing Rock camp was cleared in February, TigerSwan kept roving teams active in North Dakota until earlier this month. The security company left North Dakota last week, Energy Transfer Partners personnel reported. The security company hasn’t left the oil business, however, and has set up shops along the Mariner East 2 Pipeline, which runs through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Mariner East is also owned by Energy Transfer Partners.

In November 2016, TigerSwan LLC obtained business licenses for the three states, according to state registration records, but its private security license is under review in Louisiana by the Louisiana State Board of Private Investigator Examiners. The Louisiana Secretary of State reports TigerSwan, LLC was established in Lafayette on June 1, 2017.

“It is worth exposing in a court of public opinion, this is who law enforcement is working with, and this is exactly who TigerSwan is, and do you want these cultural things perpetuated domestically?” Carter said. “They [TigerSwan] manufactured some of these instances, they didn’t like the surveillance. They just didn’t want to be under surveillance.”

Second DAPL whistleblower to testify

July 20, 2017 / CSHagen / 0 Comments

Former guard on life along the pipeline and why he is speaking out

By C.S. Hagen
BISMARCK – When Kyle Thompson decided to speak out against tactics used along the Dakota Access Pipeline, it wasn’t because of a change of heart.

“I’ve always tried to look out for the best interests of everyone,” said Thompson, the former program manager for Leighton Security Services, Inc. “Just because I did security for the pipeline, that doesn’t mean that I necessarily wanted the pipeline in the ground. I didn’t really have a view on the pipeline.”

He waited half a year to speak out because he didn’t want his name dragged through the mud any more than it has been in recent months.

“I figured it’s time now, and everyone’s court cases are coming up soon,” Thompson said. “Coming out now didn’t really give people a chance to discredit my side of things. I waited so long so that people couldn’t talk more shit about me. I knew once I came out, there were people on water protector side that hate me, and I get it. There’s a lot of people that got charged that were just trying to help each other out.”

Thompson, 30, took his first step on July 12 during a live feed with Myron Dewey, owner of Digital Smoke Signals, promising information pertaining to security work along the Dakota Access Pipeline. Less than a week after Thompson went live, the state dropped charges against Brennon Nastacio, the Pueblo Native American who was arrested for terrorizing after disarming Thompson while the security employee was en route to Standing Rock’s main camps.

Kyle Thompson (right) – Facebook page

Thompson was on his way to photograph burning trucks, he said, property he was charged to protect, when he was run off the road by another vehicle. He fled, AR-15 in hand, toward a nearby pond where Nastacio and two others approached him.

“It was just me out there, I was by myself,” Thompson said. “He did go overboard a little bit, he had his knife out, and I had my gun on him, I had it out because all these people were coming down on me. I didn’t know what to do, I guess, I did what I had to do to keep everyone back then and there. I’m not necessarily doing this for him personally, I’m just doing it because I don’t believe he should have a felony charge for what he did.

“In his mind he was looking out for the best interest of the people. I’m glad his charges got dropped.”

The decision to speak out was not taken lightly, he said.

“I hate to say I’m coming out, I’m not out for everyone,” Thompson said. “There were some protesters that were aggressive, antagonistic; there were people on both sides doing it. Tensions were high. There are two sides to it: Pro-DAPL and No-DAPL. And if you’re going to be out there, people expect you to be on one side or the other.”

A friend introduced Thompson to the security company in August 2016, and when he began working, TigerSwan was already firmly in command of all security companies involved. TigerSwan operatives led the daily briefings, which were attended by law enforcement, and coordinated intelligence reports.

Soon after he began working for Leighton Security Services, Thompson met Kourtni Dockter, who became a security employee with EH Investigations, and became the first former security worker to blow the whistle on TigerSwan’s illegal activity on June 8.

As a former veteran, serving three tours in the Middle East, Thompson received an honorable discharge in 2013 as a sergeant. He’s also a recipient of the Purple Heart, and he never expected to come back home safely.

“I made it my personal mission to ensure that everyone made it home before I did,” Thompson said. “However, that wasn’t always the case. I always felt I was well prepared, mentally and physically, to do whatever needed to be done to look out for everyone around me.

“The only thing that was difficult for me was having to witness the families of those who never made it back.”

Once, he had to return a friend’s wedding band to family, his friend’s wife, after he was taken off life support in Germany, he said.

Native Americans call Thompson War Eagle, for being a veteran and a warrior. While working security, coworkers called him “DAPL Apple,” for being part Lakota Sioux, or “red on the outside and white on the inside,” he said.

Thompson and Dockter broke up shortly after he was arrested on domestic abuse and drug paraphernalia charges last April. He also quit his job with Leighton Security Services the same month. For approximately three more months, Thompson and Dockter remained apart, but recently patched their relationship, admitting drugs had no more room in their relationship.

“She does mean the world to me,” Thompson said. “I’d do anything for her.”

The couple isn’t in hiding any longer, but Thompson is taking extra precautions to make sure they’re safe.

“Hopefully more of these charges will get dropped,” Thompson said. “So it will prove that I’m not out for anyone. I’m not trying to go against security or law enforcement, I’m not trying to go against the protectors, I’m just trying to do the right thing for the right people.”

While working along the pipeline route, Thompson’s main goal, just as it was during tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, was to look out for everyone involved, he said. “My personal mission was to look out for people in general. I wasn’t really scared. I was more worried about our guys getting surrounded, or overtaken by protesters. I didn’t know the reality of the threat out there, I was more worried about the guys under me.”

Thompson had at least two-dozen employees he oversaw, he said. Never once did he train with TigerSwan or the North Dakota National Guard. He went into the camps twice – more from curiosity than for any kind of mission, he said.

His daily routine included driving between construction sites, relaying information, scheduling, and ensuring construction workers were brought to safety, he said.

“I would do whatever I could to get the workers out,” Thompson said. “They knew where my heart was at.”

Soon after the October 27 incident with Nastacio, Thompson was involved in an argument with a TigerSwan operative, he said.

Brennon Nastacio and Kyle Thompson on October 27, 2016 – online sources

“They talked down on our company,” he said. “We were just tasked to watch out for construction workers and equipment, but it kept getting under my skin and our guys were actually doing more reporting than anyone else at the time. I was always on top of it, we weren’t out there for any other reason.”

During a morning meeting he decided he’d had enough.

“One day it just got to me, and I said f*ck it, I don’t need this and walked out. We didn’t work for the other security elements. We didn’t work for DAPL directly, even from the beginning the owners of the company and my boss told me not to get affiliated too much with other security elements.

“They didn’t want to get tied up with anything illegal or have any more headaches.”

Leighton Security Services is an active private security company based out of Texas. Kevin Mayberry, the owner and president, feels confident his company left as good an impression as possible on locals and Standing Rock leadership and activists. Leighton Security Services was subcontracted to EH Investigations and two other companies along the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“Kyle is a good dude,” Mayberry said. “We’ve done a lot for Kyle and his family, and he did do a good job while he was out there, and then he went south a little bit. He’ll get his life straightened out.”

Mayberry’s company steered clear of the drama while in North Dakota, he said. “We told our people to stay away from that crap. There was a lot of stuff up there that happened that’s 100 percent true,” Mayberry said. “And there’s a lot of stuff that went on up there that is 100 percent false. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly who did what, but I was made aware of different situations and we put two and two together and figured out who it was.”

Two trucks burned at Backwater Bridge – photo by C.S. Hagen

He once received an anonymous email from someone claiming to be a TigerSwan employee who leaked that the international security company was actively trying to sabotage other security companies in the area and shift blame, Mayberry said.

“TigerSwan didn’t have a license, and everyone they used didn’t have a license and we wondered for months how they were even operating up there,” Mayberry said. “They had hundreds of guys who were carrying weapons and all types of military equipment that wasn’t even licensed to carry in that state. Energy Transfer didn’t know half the crap that was going on.

“TigerSwan was out there running crazy.”

TigerSwan Inc., with offices in Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, India, Latin America, and headquartered in North Carolina, has won more than 13 contracts with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security since 2014, worth more than $9 million, according to USASpending.gov.

TigerSwan, its founder James Reese, and EH Investigations currently face civil lawsuits filed by the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board, a governor-appointed committee that licenses and regulates private security industries in North Dakota.

When called to a site that included activists, Mayberry said that Standing Rock leaders and activists showed him and his company respect.

“We would go out there and they wouldn’t do anything to us, we were just doing our job,” he said. “But if any other security company went out there, we would have to like break it up. They respected us and we respected them.”

When asked about illegal tactics used by TigerSwan or other security companies, Thompson said he needed to wait to testify in court. Intelligence reports were an integral component of daily security briefings he attended.

“TigerSwan controlled the way the meetings went, it was common knowledge that they were running the show,” Thompson said.

He has only one regret, he said. “I wish I could go back to October 27 and not drive up to take that picture. It’s almost embarrassing because people think I was doing so much more.”

Despite working odd jobs since working security for DAPL, Thompson isn’t uncertain about his future. He is quietly confident, answering questions briefly but succinctly.

“My plans for the future will continue to be to help others in need,” Thompson said. “I’ll do whatever I can in my power to achieve that goal.”

Cover of HPR Magazine - December 21, 2016

More Than News is Fake News

December 22, 2016 / CSHagen / 0 Comments

Fake news is on the rampage across the nation, including inside the Peace Garden State

By C.S. Hagen
FARGO – The time-honored Fourth Estate, governments’ watchdog for centuries, faces an enemy more brutal than any dictator.

Fake news.

Governments, police departments, and corporations all spread their versions of truth, propaganda, that many in the Peace Garden State accept as irrefutable truth. Their reports must be scrutinized at least as much as private reports if journalists are to live up to the title first given by British politician Edmund Burke in 1797.

A new group, recently recognized as the Fifth Estate, consisting of bloggers, non-mainstream journalists, and social media, received steroids with the Internet’s birth. Some argue the Fifth Estate was conceived in 1975 with the birth of a periodical by the same name in Detroit, Michigan.

Their information is fast, sometimes live; the reporters savvy, willing to go where few mainstream journalists dare. They’re typically biased, covering only one side of a story, and their reports are clicked on social media platforms such as Facebook.

Comet Ping Pong pizzeria – online sources

Fake news reports on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram led to the December 5 arrest of Edgar Welch after he read that Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in northwest Washington, was harboring young children as sex slaves as part of a child-abuse ring led by Hillary Clinton.

Fact-checker Snopes.com recently unveiled what they believe is a hoax about a terminally ill child dying in Santa Claus’ lap, first printed by the Knoxville News-Sentinel and later by USA Today.

Closer to home, information disseminated by both sides of the Dakota Access Pipeline contains far less humor, but is on a par nationwide for conspiracy theories, retired rancher and former candidate for the North Dakota House of Representative Tom Asbridge said.

Misinformation is “to a very large extent at the state and county level here,” Asbridge said. “I don’t think the protesters have figured out how to do it very well. I would suggest that Morton County is well organized, and they’re getting their press releases way far away from Morton County.

“That’s right here at home,” Asbridge said. “It is so easy today apparently to do fake news. Partly because it is so easy to disseminate stuff, and it goes around the public in an eye blink, and I really don’t know what our defenses are against it when you have a population incapable of thinking.”

Asbridge is a baby boomer, and remembers grade school’s atomic bomb drills and threats of Soviet communist invasion. He believes the CIA’s claim that Russia assisted President-elect Donald Trump’s election is fake news, partly because the CIA is well known to be a campaign influencer.

The Fifth Estate’s rise heralds a paradigm shift that is altering informational sources, newly elected Governor Doug Burgum said during his first day speech to cabinet members and press.

“There’s a whole battle going on around abundance of information and that’s the world all our agencies in the state have to learn to play in,” Burgum said. “We have to become more sophisticated in how we think about communicating not only with our constituents here, but how do we communicate to the world.” He also called upon the government to “stop defending institutions, and start reinventing them.”

Burgum said the paradigm shift for information is altering the need for brick and mortar schools and universities. Information today can be obtained anywhere, which effectively questions the use behind future houses of learning. “We have to look at everything through a new lens.”

In his first-day message Burgum plans to organize the information and misinformation pertaining to DAPL, and begin meeting with tribal leaders immediately. He further called upon the White House to authorize the easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline. “Failing to finish it will send a chilling statement to those in any industry who wish to invest in our state and play by the rules… If the current administration will not act then I will ask the Trump administration for the same thing.”

The official version

Morton County Sheriff’s Department and the Peace Garden State claim they are following rule of law, and have stated repeatedly no one but police officers have been injured during confrontations because the injuries have not been verified by their own agencies. Activists using live video streams and posted mostly on Facebook heatedly condemn the state’s tactics and their reports on many issues.

To counter the information coming against them, former Lieutenant Governor Drew Wrigley stated before Fargo’s City Commissioners and Mayor Tim Mahoney that there are no verified reports of injured activists. Additionally, Morton County has begun posting video footage primarily featuring Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney describing the situation to viewers. The videos are entitled “Know the Truth,” and are reports coming from what both sides call the frontlines a short distance from the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.

“Protesters are using social media to get their agitator message to the public,” Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said. “‘Know the Truth’ is a series of videos to provide the public with accurate and factual information coming directly from my agency. These are short narratives that will tell you the real story of what’s occurring in our communities.”

The Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported on its Facebook page that false social media accounts have been claiming to be their department, and is working with Facebook and Twitter to disperse accurate information.

“Both organization have been working closely with us to shut down these sites that are promoting false rumors and hatred.”

On November 12, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerburg said his company’s goal is to give everyone a voice.

“After the election, many people are asking whether fake news contributed to the result, and what our responsibility is to prevent fake news from spreading,” Zuckerburg said. “These are very important questions and I care deeply about getting them right.

“We don’t want any hoaxes on Facebook.”

Mark Zuckerburg – Facebook profile

Facebook has begun flagging hoaxes and fake news. “Identifying truth is complicated. While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources, often gets the basic idea right but some details wrong or omitted.”

On December 15, Facebook announced they’re making the process of reporting hoaxes easier, by clicking the upper right hand corner of a post. They’ve also initiated a program to work with third-party fact checking organizations that are signatories to the Poynter’s International Fact Checking Code of Principles.

Poynter, a journalistic training and strengthening organization, said it will base its assessments on five principles: commitments to nonpartisanship and fairness, transparency of sources, transparency of funding and organization, transparency of methodology, and open and honest corrections.

A wanted man

One DAPL controversy that has been the target of polarized reports is the October 27 arrest of Kyle Thompson, a Bismarck man who worked security for Thompson-Gray LLC, according to paperwork found in his truck. Brandishing a semi-automatic AR-15, he was run off the road while speeding toward Oceti Sakowin or the Seven Council Fires camp, was disarmed by activists, and arrested by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Brennon Nastacio – Facebook

Law enforcement released him soon after his arrest calling him a victim; activists said Thompson was an agitator and a terroristic threat. The man who initially disarmed Thompson has made the Morton County Sheriff’s Department’s Top Ten Most Wanted List. Brennon Nastacio, a Pueblo Native American, is the man officials want to arrest. He faces charges of felony terrorizing.

“To be on Morton County’s most wanted list sends me a message that Morton County doesn’t care about the people at the camp,” Nastacio said. “They would have rather let Kyle Thompson come in and shoot everybody at camp than for me to disarm him. I hope they realize that I saved lives that day, and drop this arrest warrant that they have out for me. You know, I approached Kyle Thompson to disarm him because I was concerned about the safety of the camp.”

An injured women

A more recent incident involved New Yorker Sohpia Wilansky, 21, who was hauling water to the front line when a concussion grenade thrown by police nearly took her arm off, Standing Rock Medic Healer Council reported.

Sophia Wilansky – Facebook page photo

Morton County and the Peace Garden State deny the accusation, saying they reported no incidents of activists harmed by law enforcement’s less-than-lethal armaments. Wilansky was injured by an explosion from the activists’ side, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported, even after many eyewitnesses came forward saying that Wilansky was first struck with a rubber bullet, and then targeted by a compression grenade while she was on the ground. Another eyewitness said she was hit first by a rubber bullet, and then by the grenade as she crossed the guardrail south of Backwater Bridge, approximately 30 feet from the frontline.

Bismarck Police Sgt. Noah Lindlow attempted to counter the statements on Morton County Sheriff’s Department “Know the Truth” campaign.

“We’re here today to attempt to dispel some of the misinformation that’s been on social media about the less lethal munitions out at the North Dakota DAPL protest site,” Lindlow said.

He fired a rubber bullet, tear gas, which he called CS gas, threw a flash sound diversionary device, called a concussion grenade. He tossed the grenade 15 feet away, the metal canister exploded, but did not shatter.

Sophia Wilansky’s injured arm on December 13, 2016, 22 days after being hit by non-lethal weapons – Facebook page photo

Many posts on social media and legitimate news sources claimed that Wilansky lost her left arm.

Wilansky posted a picture of her arm on December 13, pointing out the bullet wound from where she was shot “right before I was hit with the grenade,” she said. She has undergone intensive surgeries, black rods are screwed into her bones to hold them in place, she was on blood thinners to halt clots, and veins and skin from across her body has been used to replace and repair tissues in her arm.

You decide

Law enforcement involved in Morton County began preparing for riot control long before many of the arrests began.

According to August 18, 2016 invoices from Streicher’s in Minneapolis, the Bismarck Police Department ordered 255 riot-control ammunition rounds including military-style canister max-smoke grenades, 40mm exact impact sponge rounds, continuous discharge CS gas for riot control – many of which the department ordered as “need a rush for protest.” Streicher’s has been providing gear and tactical products for law enforcement and public safety officials since 1953, according to its website.

Morton County has stated activists are making pipe bombs, and using horses to charge police lines.

Activists stated they were smoking sacred pipes, not making pipe bombs, and the horse show was a traditional ceremony for introducing their horses.

Morton County stated their use of water cannons were to put out fires at Backwater Bridge. Activists stated they made fires to keep warm.

Morton County stated Backwater Bridge is unsafe, and activists are dangerous.

Activists said they’re peacefully protesting and protecting water rights among other issues.

Activists are butchering buffalo; buffaloes, once an endangered species, are deemed sacred beasts by Native Americans. State politicians primarily Congressman Kevin Cramer R-N.D., made implications that activists were responsible for the butchered buffalo, but the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association reported the case is still under investigation.

Former Governor Jack Dalrymple published an editorial in the StarTribune on December 15 saying mob rule triumphed over law and common sense and a “weak-kneed Army Corps” days after praising the US Army Corps of Engineers and law enforcement agencies during an address before state legislature.

“The Dakota Access Pipeline… has been marred by a steady stream of misinformation and rumor,” Dalrymple stated. He stated that “not one person from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe attended any meetings or public hearings during the 13-month review process.

Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II refuted the argument after posting audio feed of a meeting the tribe attended. He has also been accused of “selling out” the movement by asking people to go home in the face of deadly Dakota blizzards, and for accepting monies from Energy Transfer Partner’s CEO Kelcy Warren, according to the Billings Gazette.

Supplies were being stored in a warehouse belonging to the tribe, but the goods were stored due to the first blizzard when UPS and FedEx delivery semis were unable to make drop offs at the former Oceti Sakowin, now known as the All Nations Camp.

Dalrymple’s office also stated they are in constant contact with the tribe, but after requests for records made by HPR Magazine the governor’s office reported they have had no contact with Archambault during the most intense weeks of the standoff.

Truth

Satirical news websites such as The Onion and the China Daily Show have had their reports circulated across the world, and in at least two cases plagiarized by credible newspapers such as China’s central government’s mouthpiece, the China Daily.

At a glance, websites like the China Daily Show appear legitimate, headlining stories such as “Japan halts porn exports to China over Diaoyu controversy” and “Tainted milk causes Chinese women to ‘grow breasts.’” The design is professional, like any other online news source. A short dig into the site reveals the content is witty satire, and that its office is located in a Ukrainian warship.

In the same light pictures can easily be mistaken for truth. Tampered pictures create rumors. Rumors spark fear. Fear spreads lies, and if enough half-truths are told, people begin to believe, attorney Chase Iron eyes said. Iron Eyes is from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, he ran for congress in 2016, and has recently immersed himself in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“Ignore all the rumors and fear,” Iron Eyes said. “Someone died at camp. They’re flooding the camp. The tribe dropped its lawsuit. The tribe is closing the camp. They’re not letting anyone into camp.”

The only way to truly know what is going on inside the frontlines is to have boots on the ground – something the Peace Garden State has not attempted once since the controversy began, other than to form militarized lines to force activists back from the pipeline route.

What is factual is that to date, law enforcement has arrested 571 individuals since August 10. Only 6.8 percent of all arrested are from the Peace Garden State, 53 percent or all arrested are white and 41 percent are Native American, Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported.

Also true is that the No DAPL movement initiated by Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has gathered more tribes from across the world than any other time in history. The majority of the activists gathered are peaceful, but believe that civil disobedience is necessary to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline. Disagreements between activists and tribes have arisen, mostly between the elders and the youth. Some want to take more aggressive steps against police and pipeline workers; most want peaceful resolutions.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has denied the final easement for DAPL to cross the Missouri River at Lake Oahe, and has initiated a full environmental impact assessment along the pipeline’s entire route.

Energy Transfer Partners has invested heavily into North Dakota’s politicians electoral campaigns; many state politicians have invested personally into Bakken oil and Bakken oil projects. Failure of the pipeline would hurt future infrastructure investments, politicians say, and for some their own pocketbooks.

To combat the spread of fake news, or at the very least, control the inner rumormonger, nonprofit consumer advocate FactCheck suggested a few tips:

Consider the source
Read beyond the headlines
Check the author
Check the date
Check your biases
Consult the experts
Ask yourself: is this some kind of joke?

While the United States battles an addiction to fake news and defamatory information, Canada has laws that protect both sides, but adds importance to “responsible communication on matters of public interest,” a law that does not only apply to journalists, but also to bloggers, and anyone communicating with the public, Julian Porter, Q.C. a specialist in civil litigation stated.

“The best investigative reporting often takes a trenchant or adversarial position on pressing issues of the day,” the Supreme Court of Canada stated in Grant v. Torstar Corporation. “An otherwise responsible article should not be denied the protection of the defense simply because of its critical tone.”

Basically, in Canada, if a journalist reports responsibly, covering both sides to any controversy, they are protected with “qualified immunity” even if they report incorrect information, according to the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.