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Authorities used rubber-coated steel bullets, concussion grenades, tear gas, and water cannons against unarmed protesters near the Dakota Access oil pipeline in 26°F (-3°C) temperatures over the weekend.
Indian Country Today reports
"We have seen four gunshot wounds, three of them to the face and head", said Leland Brenholt, a volunteer medic.
[...]400 protesters, or "water protectors", attempted to dismantle a police-enforced barricade on State Highway 1806.
[...]"Water protectors are done with the military-style barricades. We are done with the floodlights and the armored military trucks. We are are done with it!" declared organizer, Dallas Goldtooth in a mid-evening Facebook post.
Their action was met with the same militarized response that the Morton County Sheriff's Department has demonstrated on protesters for weeks: the use of armored trucks, less-than-lethal ammunition, tear-gas, mace, and on this below-freezing night, water cannons.
[...]Reports from a coalition of advocacy groups near Standing Rock report hundreds of water protectors were receiving treatment for contamination by tear gas, hypothermia, and blunt traumas as a result of rubber bullets. One person, an elder, was reportedly revived after suffering cardiac arrest, organizers said.
"As medical professionals, we are concerned for the real risk of loss of life due to severe hypothermia under these conditions," read a statement from the Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council.
A more measured take is available from the AP.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday November 23 2016, @05:07PM
Truth. I say this as a vet myself: if someone looks like they even might be about to use deadly force on you, use it first on them. You as a civilian cannot be legally or otherwise expected to be able to tell if grenades are lethal or bullets are rubber.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jcross on Wednesday November 23 2016, @05:44PM
Seems like that strategy hasn't worked out too well for people subjected to say, SWAT raids on the wrong house. Also these days it's likely to get you labelled a terrorist, making you politically toxic to almost all politicians, and potentially reducing your legal rights in the bargain. There was that article the other day about the vet who got his house raided. Do you honestly think the incident would have played out better for him if he'd shot at the cops to protect his home from a warrantless invasion?
(Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday November 23 2016, @07:33PM
Yeah but see he wasn't as elite as The Uzzard. He must, somehow, have deserved that for being some kind of beta leftie pinko cuck. We ALL know TMB here would come out on top of any confrontation like that completely unscathed, with fireworks and spectral American flags exploding behind him as a flight of bald eagles screeches by, bullet casings falling like brass hail around his Liefield-esque silhouette.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 24 2016, @02:32PM
What the fuck is your problem, you gigantic useless cunt? You and people like you are exactly why Hillary Clinton lost: demands for tolerance and respect for you with an endless stream of bitching and whining and namecalling and spite for anyone who disagrees with you. Fucking lose the act. It's over and you lost.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday November 24 2016, @09:41PM
Did you misfire this one? Prematurely extrapolate and aim badly, perhaps? I'm told they have medicine for that :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Wednesday November 23 2016, @08:21PM
Actually in at least one case [foxnews.com] it appears to have worked out fairly well [lacrossetribune.com].
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2) by jcross on Wednesday November 23 2016, @11:12PM
I'm not sure I would call that working out well exactly, and to the extent that it did there was a lot of luck involved. If you were offering people the option of getting paid $600,000 to let someone invade their home and shoot 22 bullets at their family, I would hope most sane people would decline, but what do I know?
But to an extent I think you're right, in that if no shots had been fired I suspect it would've been less likely for the family to get compensation for their broken door and the trauma of a home invasion, and the officers may not have been suspended because "no harm done".