Actress Shailene Woodley was arrested on Monday on charges of criminal trespassing and engaging in a riot while protesting the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.
The star of the “Divergent” movie franchise was taken into custody while walking along a road near the pipeline route. Woodley had been livestreaming the protest on Facebook.
“I was just walking back to my RV … and they grabbed me by my jacket, and they said that I was not allowed to continue,” said Woodley in the video. “They have giant guns, and batons, and zip ties and they’re not letting me go.”
The riot police are arriving
Posted by Shailene Woodley on Monday, October 10, 2016
Morton County Sheriff's Department spokesman Rob Keller says Woodley’s charges carry a maximum punishment of 30 days in jail and a US$1,500 fine.
Keller says 27 of the estimated 300 people in attendance were arrested during protests at two construction sites that prompted the shutdown of a state highway for several hours. No injuries were reported.
Woodley has been an outspoken critic of the $3.8-billion oil pipeline owned by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners. The nearly 1,900-kilometre project will carry about half a million barrels of crude across four U.S. states from North Dakota’s oil fields to Midwest and East Coast markets.
A three-judge federal appeals court panel lifted a temporary injunction on Sunday that had halted work on a disputed section of the project near Lake Oahe.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is at odds with state officials over whether or not sacred sites were destroyed during the excavation phase of construction.
The tribe's protest encampment near the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers has swelled to thousands at times as demonstrators from around the country joined their cause.
“Once again, the government is not paying attention to the people. They are paying attention to corporations,” said Woodley while speaking with fellow protestors.
Nearly two million people have viewed the two-hour long video containing her arrest. Woodley said she was singled out by police because of her fame and large online audience.
“Why am I being arrested and no one else is? Because I’m famous?,” she asked as she was led away by police. “It’s because I’m well known. It’s because I have 40,000 people watching.
With files from Associated Press
