#NoDAPL Protesters Block Railroad Tracks Near Mandan

It’s a “national day of action” for the #NoDAPL movement, but here in North Dakota it seems like every day we get new antics from the often unlawful, often violent protesters.

Their latest antics have them targeting what they claim is a Dakota Access equipment yard in Mandan, and the protesters even went so far as to block the railroad tracks.

According to a Bismarck Tribune reporter, they popped the tires on a truck near the tracks to block the road:

Protesters have blocked road in with a vehicle. This is the sound of slashed tires going flat pic.twitter.com/Cyvr6sxD1F

— Caroline Grueskin (@cgrueskin) November 15, 2016

“Just talked to a friend who’s a higher up at BNSF and protesters have interrupted train services in the area,” a reader tells me. “They are all over the tracks, hanging from crossing signals, and even spray painting “nodapl” on crossing signal huts.”

I don’t have any verification that the claim about train service being interrupted is true, but it wouldn’t surprise me as in the photos the reader sent (see below) you can clearly see the protesters on the tracks. Which is not only illegal and inconvenient to the people the railroad services, but also stupid and utterly unsafe.

Pepper spray has been deployed against the protests, and as I write this apparently arrests are being made: