Dakota Pipeline Protesters Arrested In San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Police in San Francisco arrested a dozen activists Monday morning who blocked the entrance to Citibank headquarters to protest the company's funding of the Dakota Access pipeline.
Members of the Bay Area environmental activist group Diablo Rising Tide started posting photos and video of their protest on social media shortly after 8:30 a.m. Monday morning. The videos showed protesters picketing outside the Citibank building in San Francisco's Financial District as well as blocking access to elevators inside the building at 1 Sansome St.
According to the posts, Citibank is the lead arranger of the largest loan currently funding the controversial Dakota Access pipeline project.
Members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe have been protesting for months to halt construction of the $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline. They worry the project will disrupt cultural artifacts and hurt drinking water sources on the Standing Rock Sioux's nearby reservation and farther downstream because the pipeline will cross the Missouri River.
The Texas-based company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, insists the project is safe. The tribe is fighting the pipeline's permitting process in federal court.
Last week, 126 people were arrested at the site of the growing protest as tensions escalated.
The Diablo Rising Tide protesters tweeted that San Francisco police arrived and gave the first order to disperse shortly after 10 a.m. Arrests began shortly afterward.
Twelve people were arrested at 10:19 a.m. after police gave them three orders to leave, San Francisco police spokesman Officer Carlos Manfredi said.
"I am here today because Indigenous friends and allies in North Dakota are literally risking life and limb to stop this pipeline," Christy Tennery-Spalding, one of those taking part in the San Francisco protest, said in a statement Monday morning.
Tennery-Spalding said, "Oil companies and banks like Citigroup do not care about clean water and clean air of impacted communities. These companies only motivation is profit and we're here today to say, 'NO MORE!'"
