N.D spent $600K on police gear for protest
Purchases made during height of pipeline protests.
BISMARCK, N. D.—North Dakota lawenforcement purchased more than$ 600,000 worth of body armor, tactical equipment and crowd control devices during the height of protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline, state invoices show.
The purchases included pepper spray, flash- bang and smoke grenades, riot helmets, gasmasks, night-vision goggles, more than 2,000 rounds of non-lethal ammunition and more.
The equipment ultimately made up a small share of the $35 million in policing costs associated with the pipeline, and state offifficials defend the purchases as reasonable for a protest that attracted thousands of “water protectors” to southern North Dakota who skirmished — sometimes violently — with law enforcement.
“There was a legitimate, deliberate plan that was put together that said, ‘OK, how can we do this and do it safe for folks on both sides?’” state Homeland Security Director Greg Wilz said. “At the end of the day we were successful.”
Most of the purchases were in September, October and November of last year, when confrontations near a protest encampment grew most heated. Authorities established their own operations center a short distance away and manned it for months, making 761 arrests. About 75 officers were deployed on a typical day, though the number jumped to as many as 540 during one skirmish.
Invoices show Minneapolis-based police equipment company Streicher’s was paid nearly $ 613,000 for gear.
Protesters who have fifiled an excessive force lawsuit say police became “militarized” by October of last year and point to the use of such equipment, including tear gas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades. They allege a wide range of injuries, including burns, broken bones, eye injuries, and wounds requiring stitches and staples. Among those injured was Sophia Wilansky, a 21-year-old New York woman who underwent several surgeries for a serious arm injury. Protesters maintain shewas injured by a grenade thrown by police, while authorities say she was hurt by a small propane tank that protesters rigged to explode.
“Having police officers showup looking like Stormtroopers, seems in many ways only exacerbated clashes that did occur,” said Lauren Regan, founder and executive directorof the Civil Liberties Defense Center, which is part of the lawsuit. “When police offifficers anonymize themselves, when they put on all that Rambo gear and face shields and no one can identify them, it tends to incite that mob mentality.”
Police say officers were subjected to thrown objects and in one instance gunshots, though they did not report any serious injuries.
Two experts on policing — Michigan State University Intelligence Program Director David Carter and John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Eugene O’Donnell — both said the purchases seemed reasonable.
“(Police) may not have the ready availability of massive numbers of people and resources, so there may be more of a need to go over the top in being ready just because of the geographical factor,” O’Donnell said.
Wilz, the state homeland security director, said North Dakota found no model for responding to such a large protest in a rural area, received no help from federal law agencies and basically came up with its own plan.
Authorities feared guns were in the protest camp based on social media postings, and area stores had alerted police that protesters were buying products such as wasp spray to use against offifficers, he said.