Standing Rock update: Chemical weapons and rubber bullets at Backwater Bridge again

Update Jan 19: Linda Black Elk reports one water protector run down by police snowmobile, "unresponsive on scene. Transported to ER pray for her."

On the 18th of January, as all eyes turned towards the Inauguration and related protests, police again fired chemical weapons and "less lethal" projectiles at water protectors at Backwater Bridge. This bridge has been barricaded for months and police have more than one used a great deal of violence there. One water protector said Standing Rock "looks like a war zone right now."

In other news, a presumably experimental anti-drone missile system has been set up near the idled drill pads by the river, where Energy Transfer hopes to get permission to drill under the river and finish the pipeline under Donald Trump. Energy Transfer has been forced to start the long, slow Environmental Impace Statement process. This buys a lot of time but Trump and his head of the EPA Michael Pruitt will no doubt do all they can to sabotage the review and fast-track an approval without regard for the potential damage the Dakota Access Pipeline will cause when it breaks.

Front-line water defenders warn that the chemical weapon attacks, fire hoses, dogs, and rubber bullets of Standing Rock are the template ALL protesters against fossil fuel extraction and probably all protesters can expect under Donald Trump.Standing Rock is said to look like a war zone on Jan 18, there is no telling how many more such war zones there will be on say, March or April 18.