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“Environmental and American Indian activists are suing to erase a new South Dakota law aimed at preventing out-of-state agitators from supporting rioters during this summer’s construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
The activists, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota-Western Division, saying the new “riot-boosting” law chills their free speech and might keep legal protesters silent or at home.
“This is one of those laws that is bad for everybody,” said Nick Tilsen, president of NDN Collective, an Indian rights group who is one of the plaintiffs. “It don’t even matter if you’re pro-pipeline. A law like this sets really bad precedent for how the government decides to treat human beings.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, has said she hopes the legislation she signed into law last month “shuts down” the massive protests that nearly stymied construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017. She said she believes the protests were funded by out-of-state liberal donors, such as George Soros, and conducted by professional agitators.
The law creates a civil violation called riot boosting — defined as participating in “acts of force or violence” or directing, advising, encouraging or soliciting anyone who participates in such acts. Companion legislation sets up a fund to pay for state, county and local efforts to police pipeline protests.”
– The Washington Times, Activists sue to erase South Dakota’s new law on preventing ‘riot boosting’.
“The Court goes on to say “the (grievance) of the crime of riot in South Dakota is violence or the immediate threat thereof. As such, it relates to and prohibits certain defined conduct rather than forms of expression. Laws of this nature are needed and necessary to preserve good order and to protect all persons and all property from the violence of a few. They do not violate the constitutional rights of free expression and assembly as those rights end when violence begins.”
Second, there is nothing in these bills that “target” Native American tribal members. There is not a single reference to tribes or Native Americans in the bills. I don’t expect South Dakota’s tribal members to be rioters. Some may peacefully participate. What we saw during the recent North Dakota protests is that many of the protesters arrested were not from North Dakota or South Dakota, but from all over the country.”
– Argus Leader, Noem: ‘Riot boosting’ crackdown has basis in state law.
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Download the 18″x24″ poster (.pdf), Indian Country 52 #14 – Riot Boosting.
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country. Follow the series: Indian Country 52
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