Cold Shoulder and NYPD at Clinton HQ…
Pepper Spray at Standing Rock

October 27, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

@CNN
"We can't forget our humanity": @MarkRuffalo makes a powerful appeal on behalf of #standingrock protesters

Breaking News: Major Police Assault on Standing Rock Resistance Camp

Thursday, October 27. Today over 100 heavily armed, militarized police launched a major assault apparently aimed at dispersing one of the Standing Rock resistance camps which is located directly in the path where the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is to be constructed. Video shows Standing Rock resisters courageously standing up to pepper-spraying riot police backed by armored vehicles.

The scene about an hour ago on Hwy 1806 as policr attempt to force Oceti Sakowin Sioux tribes to allow DAPL on their treaty land. #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/wG4SXXrKAE
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) October 27, 2016

The confrontation is taking place across North Dakota’s Highway 1806, and Democracy Now! (Oct. 27) reports that “Water protectors have set up a blockade of the highway using cars, tires and fire,” and that police are “flanked by multiple mine-resistant ambush protected military vehicles (MRAPs), a sound cannon, an armored truck and a bulldozer. There have also been reports from water protectors that the police presence includes multiple snipers.”

At this writing, the state of this critical battle is not yet clear, but the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe issued a statement concluding, “We won't step down from this fight. As peoples of this earth, we all need water. This is about our water, our rights, and our dignity as human beings.”

Everyone needs to express clear, unequivocal, and public support for the fighters at Standing Rock, who are not only defending the lives, water, and humanity of the Standing Rock tribe, but standing up against centuries of genocide against all Native peoples in America, and standing up against the further destruction of the earth’s environment. Stay tuned to revcom.us for further coverage.

Clinton says “It’s all about the kids” but let’s look at how she treated a delegation of youth from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. They made the long trip to New York City to rally support, and to present a simple letter to Hillary Clinton at her headquarters asking her to support their struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

At the very moment when "the whole world was watching" a new police assault on the water protectors at Standing Rock, broadcast live on CNN, Hillary Clinton's office refused to even accept the letter. Instead the building management called in dozens of pigs who forced the delegation and their supporters out into the street. This cold-blooded would-be leader of the "free world" made a very conscious statement to these youth and everyone who stands with them: a big fuck you.

The DAPL threatens the water supply of the reservation. The construction desecrates burial grounds held sacred by the Native people in the area. The battle to defend the water at Standing Rock has been hit with vicious police brutality -- dogs, clubs, and arrests -- reminiscent of the attacks on protesters in the South during the civil rights era. And in the face of this, the people have stood firm and the battle to stop DAPL has won support from people around the U.S. And around the world.

Hillary Clinton says "America was always great." Always? She is talking about the history of a country built on land stolen from the Native peoples through genocide, among other great crimes. She talks about being all about "the children." But she is aspiring to be commander-in-chief of a system that has created a world of hell for child sweatshop workers in Pakistan, that backs up the bombing of schools and hospitals in Palestine and Yemen, and a country with no future for Native youth in the U.S.A.

So the history of Native Americans and the Standing Rock tribe, broken treaty after broken treaty, what is taking place at Standing Rock right now, and Hillary Clinton’s refusal to even accept a letter from the youth of the tribe point to one thing: America was NEVER great.