They Are Standing For Us. So Is Martin Heinrich. But Where are Sen. Udall, Rep. Lujan, and Rep. Lujan-Grisham?
Make no mistake: the only thing that might prevent a huge and violent confrontation in North Dakota a week from today, with the Corps of Engineers Eviction Notice set for December 5, will be the members of the United States Senate and Congress who intercede next week and pressure the Army Corps of Engineers to rescind and withdraw their eviction notice to the Standing Rock Tribe and the Water Defenders.
I ask you to call and email Senator Udall and Congress person’s Lujan and Lujan-Grisham, and insist that they make a strong public statement insisting that President Obama stop the drilling immediately and stop the police violence.
You can call or email our representatives using this link for contact info. Ask them to follow Senator Heinrich’s lead and make forceful statements to Obama insisting he stop the pipeline and stop the police violence.
This is Senator Heinrich’s statement:
“Today is Thanksgiving and I cannot help but reflect on our history in these United States and how often it has not lived up to the rosy picture of Pilgrims and Indians sharing a meal in friendly company that I saw in textbooks as a child,” Heinrich said in a statement. “The issues facing Indian Country are many and they are complex, but that should not stop those of us in positions of elected leadership from seeking to make a difference wherever and whenever we can.”
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey just two days ago wrote to the Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, urging the Justice Department to intervene and send federal monitors to Standing Rock “to ensure protesters can peacefully assemble and exercise the First Amendment rights.”
Booker cited the reports of inappropriate police tactics waged against water protectors. Last Sunday night and early Monday morning North Dakota law enforcement shot rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons in frigid temperatures at some 400 water protectors on the Backwater Bridge, the site of a barricade on Highway 1806.
“I am deeply troubled by this tense situation, and particularly by reports indicating that law enforcement may be responding to peaceful protesters near Standing Rock with overly aggressive tactics,” Booker writes. “We now stand at a critical moment in our Nation on police and community relations.”