Journalist and citizen activist Erin Schrode was peacefully filming an interview with a Standing Rock Water Protector when she was shot in the back with a rubber bullet by militarized police onsite.
Rubber bullets, in spite of their relatively benign-sounding name, can cause death or severe injury.
In one of the few serious coverages of incidents at Standing Rock by the mainstream media, ABC reported on the shooting of Schrode. They included a portion of the Morton County Sheriff's Department's statement: "Authorities used less-than-lethal ammunition to control the situation." The excerpt did not describe the exact nature of the "situation," although it is known that Schrode was simply and calmly interviewing one of the Water Protectors. click here
Comedian Lee Camp, creator and host of the weekly comedy news show Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp on RT America covered the incident, noting that it was clearly a tragedy:
Erin posted her experience on Facebook on Nov 2:
I was just shot. Militarized police fired at me from point blank range with a rubber bullet on the front lines of Standing Rock.
My body will be okay, but I am hurting, I am incensed, I am weeping, I am scared. Peaceful, prayerful, unarmed, nonviolent people on one side of a river; militarized police with armed vehicles and assault weapons occupying treaty land on the other, where sacred burial grounds have already been destroyed.
What is happening here in North Dakota is like nothing I have ever seen in my life, anywhere in the world. This is a fight to protect and defend the water for 17 million people in the watershed downstream to the Gulf, for a livable planet, for Native and human rights, for the lifeforce of us all. We are at the confluence of the movements for civil rights, for the environment, for peace, for justice.
I am proud to stand in solidarity with our Native brothers and sisters -- alongside the water protectors and land defenders -- who put their lives on the line and are facing excessive force, pepperspray and mace, historic trauma, brutal arrest, imprisonment in dog kennels, felony charges, and callous destruction of sacred objects.
This is not about me, but I am here -- and will remain here -- to cover and amplify truth and bravery on the ground with my colleagues Josh Fox of Josh Fox Film, Josue Rivas of Josue' Rivas Fotographer, Jordan Chariton of The Young Turks, Evan Simon of ABC News.
Standing Rock represents the exploitation of a long-oppressed people, illegal land seizure, crude oil transport, media censorship, national security threat, public health crises, and more human rights violations than I can count.
It is inexcusable for the President Obama to say he will "let it play out for several more weeks."
It is unjustifiable for the Attorney General to not be here.
It is unconscionable for mainstream media to not cover this.
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