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by Andrew_Archive
Class action suit filed by National Lawyers Guild against the sheriff for excessive force. Details of some of the injuries: Vanessa Dundon, a 32-year-old member of the Navajo Nation from Arizona, approached the Backwater bridge as the sun was setting, one of the first people to arrive. She watched as pipeline opponents, who identify as water protectors, removed one of two burned-out trucks that had been blocking the highway since a clash with police at the end of October. Officials had since secured the vehicles to the bridge to act as a barrier preventing people from travelling down the road to reach construction sites. The barrier also required a detour for people trying to get from the Standing Rock Sioux reservation to the cities of Bismarck and Mandan. As she watched, tension began to mount between the protectors and police on the other side of a razorwire roadblock. œI did not have time to move to avoid being hit by the [tear gas] canister, she said. œI instinctively closed my eyes and was struck in the right eye by the canister. As she turned to run away she was shot in the back of her left thigh by what felt like a rubber bullet. She fell to the ground, where two people picked her up and carried her to a minivan. œMy eye was bleeding so much that I could not see and I was worried my eyeball was hanging out, she stated.Dundon was eventually sent to a specialist in Plymouth, Minnesota. œDr. Baggins told me the trauma to my eye will likely affect my vision for the rest of my life and it is unclear at this time if I will be able to see out of my right eye again, she said.Mariah Marie Bruce, a 21-year-old from New Orleans, arrived to the police line at around the same time as Dundon. It wasn t long before she was doused with water, her jacket and skirt freezing solid. As tear gas burned her eyes and nose, a flash bang grenade exploded against her genitals. Feeling little pain at first, she stayed in place until the tear gas became too much and she moved toward medics to treat her burning eyes. œAs my body began to warmup, I started to feel the pain in my vagina and abdomen. The pain suddenly worsened and I began vomiting and the medics became very concerned, she stated in a declaration to the court. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital.David Demo, a 25-year-old living in nearby Cannon Ball, North Dakota, of Penobscott heritage, arrived at the bridge around 9 pm. He moved toward the police line, holding a GoPro camera on a stick. After 30 seconds or so of being sprayed with water, a projectile, possibly a rubber bullet, shot into Demo s middle finger, which was holding the camera. œI was there to observe what was going on, and continue the protest against the pipeline. I was not threatening the officers, he declared. In the morning, at the hospital, he was told his knuckles had broken and he would likely need reconstructive surgery.Israel Hoagland-Lynn, a 42-year-old, from California was shot by a rubber bullet in the top of his head. œI dropped to the ground and lost consciousness, he said. He came to and was carried by ambulance to a hospital, where he received 17 staples to the head.Vanessa Bolin Clemens, a paramedic from Virginia and member of the Cherokee Nation, described treating one man for a seizure and administering CPR to another that appeared to be going into cardiac arrest. She described concussions, respiratory injuries, and, in the morning, ringing ears.https://theintercept.com/2016/11/29/sta ... -violence/