Read It: #NoDAPL Lawyers File Class Action Suit Against Morton County Alleging Excessive Force
The National Lawyers Guild, a left-wing legal group, has filed a class action lawsuit against Morton County and Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier alleging the use of excessive force during a #NoDAPL riot earlier this month. The suit is behalf of protesters allegedly injured during the riot.
You can read their press release here, and the complaint below.
With a sense of world class chutzpah, the group is also requesting that law enforcement be enjoined from using “use of SIM, explosive grenades, chemical agents, sound cannons, directed energy devices, and water cannons or hoses, as means of crowd dispersal.” You can read the motion for that restraining order here.
Will this lawsuit succeed? Probably not. In court North Dakota law enforcement can present a wealth of evidence showing protesters throwing rocks and bombs, charging en masse at police lines, shooting cops with slingshots, throwing homemade bombs, and generally behaving themselves like a bunch of violent thugs.
The courts will then likely find that the use of non-lethal crowd control measures like bean bag rounds and tear gas are warranted. Because that’s why the taxpayers spend money on giving cops those tools. So that they can be used when necessary. And any honest observer of the #NoDAPL riots knows they’ve been necessary.
What else are the cops supposed to do? Let thousands of people run roughshod over the private property of south central North Dakota, vandalizing construction equipment and trampling any sense of law and order?
But winning this lawsuit isn’t the point, I’m afraid. The goal here is narrative. This is another negative headline for #NoDAPL’s social media horde to rally around. This is another talking point for clueless celebrities to deploy when they’re telling everyone about how they Stand with Standing Rock.
This is another front on which North Dakota must spend taxpayer dollars and legal resources.
The goal here isn’t to actually win the lawsuit. The goal is to perpetuate the narrative, and keep the State of North Dakota on the offensive.
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