Jewish Activist Wounded by Police Rubber Bullet at Dakota Pipeline Protest
Image by Facebook
— Erin Schrode, a self described citizen activist and journalist, appeared to be shot by a rubber bullet while conducting an interview with a Native American man on the sideline of the protests at Standing Rock.
The Native American-led protest is over an oil pipeline that would run near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation on the border of North Dakota and South Dakota. Thousands of pipeline resistance supporters have gathered at the reservation since mid-September.
Schrode, 25, who had been filming her interview, posted a video on Facebook Thursday that shows her in the middle of her interview the day before crying out in pain and falling to the ground following a loud popping noise. People can be seen rushing to her aid. Schrode wrote that police shot her in the lower back with a rubber bullet, though this is not seen on the video.
I was shot by militarized police WHILE interviewing a man on camera at #StandingRock…and here’s the footage. #NoDAPL https://t.co/FfWiSCbiKf pic.twitter.com/4DRwNPkfZ9
— Erin Schrode (@ErinSchrode) November 3, 2016
She described the incident in detail in a Facebook post. “I was just shot. Militarized police fired at me from point blank range with a rubber bullet on the front lines of Standing Rock,” she wrote.
“My body will be okay, but I am hurting, I am incensed, I am weeping, I am scared. Peaceful, prayerful, unarmed, nonviolent people on one side of a river; militarized police with armed vehicles and assault weapons occupying treaty land on the other, where sacred burial grounds have already been destroyed. What is happening here in North Dakota is like nothing I have ever seen in my life, anywhere in the world,” the post continued.
On Sunday, Schrode said in a Facebook post that police claim she was not shot, despite what she describes as dozens of witnesses, as well as the video taken from her cellphone.
“If police are actually unaware that a rubber bullet was discharged and struck an individual, that is a massive issue in and of itself,” she wrote, adding: “I will continue to stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters at Standing Rock, though the thought of being within striking distance of police brings on a wave of terror in a way that it never did prior to Wednesday.”
In June, Schrode lost to incumbent Jared Huffman in the Democratic primary for a House of Representatives seat from Northern California’s 2nd District. Days before the election, Schrode was flooded with anti-Semitic social media and cellphone messages.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
