Citizens, Celebrities fight pipeline production

By: Max Bruns ~Staff Writer~

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photo courtest of redraiders.com | Woodley was arrested Monday for trespassing along with 25 others.

In light of the recent fight to protect copious amounts of North Dakota land from pipeline developers, Oct. 4 served as a blow to protesters’ morale.

Construction resumed for the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota on Oct. 4 The construction resumed on private land near a camp where thousands of protesters have been gathering for months, according to an Oct. 11 article for Fox News.

Camp spokesman Cody Hall said that protesters will continue to discuss nonviolent measures to stop the progress of the pipeline.

“The people are going to stay vigilant. They’re going to fight this pipeline to the very end,” he said.

The protest has attracted many, including some high profile activists.

Shailene Woodley was formerly best known for her starring roles as Hazel in The Fault in our Stars and Tris in Divergent, as well as having a recurring main role in ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Now, however, Woodley has turned social activist and was the only high profile celebrity to be arrested for protesting the pipeline.

Woodley was one of 26 protesters to be arrested for criminal trespassing on the pipeline territory on Oct. 10 an event which she live streamed for Facebook and Twitter, according to a USA Today article.

“We were going to our vehicle which they had all surrounded and (were) waiting for me with giant guns and a giant truck behind them just so they could arrest me,” she said.

“I hope you’re watching, mainstream media,” she said, claiming she was being compliant to orders to leave the premises.

Woodley claimed that law enforcement targeted her specifically because of her high profile and the number of people she has access to through social media.

Woodley stated in her Facebook video that police told her she was arrested “because I’m well-known (and) because I have 40,000 people watching.” Other protesters were allowed to leave. She posted a $500 bail the same day and is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 24.

Woodley is not the only celebrity to speak out against the pipeline, which is already essentially completed in Illinois.

According to EcoWatch.com, Ben Affleck, Ray Fisher, Gal Gadot, Jason Mamoa, Ezra Miller, Leonardo DiCaprio and Susan Sarandon have all stood against this construction project, either via social media or at the courthouses themselves.

According to the USA Today, protestors are mainly concerned about the pipeline’s effect on local ecology and climate change, as well as its destruction of native-owned land. Negative environmental impact and creation of a culture of destruction of native lands are also cited in protests.