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LA Pipeline Protesters Break out 'Sleeping Dragon' Move Against Police

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They aren’t wailing like banshees or being violent. But these protesters have found yet another way to annoy the locals and cause problems.

In Louisiana, protesters against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline have been employing a number of tactics for years in their attempt to stop the final part of its construction. But one move in particular is getting a lot of attention lately.

According to The Daily Caller, Iberville Parish Sheriff Brett Stassi has been dealing with the protesters and their methods of demonstrating.

“They pick a piece of machinery, a piece of the pipeline, and they attach theyself (sic) to it,” Stassi told The Daily Caller in a video interview.

“What they call a ‘Sleeping Dragon.'”

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The tactic is found in the Earth First! Direct Action Handbook. It describes how protesters can make it difficult for law enforcement to remove them from a protest site by holding hand through barrels and pipe.

It is then time-consuming and difficult for law enforcement to extricate the protesters and get them off the site.

Stassi told The Daily Caller that one big problem with the protesters is that many aren’t even local people.

“We’ve arrested approximately 17 people. Most of these protesters are not even from Louisiana. They come from all over the United States, as far as California,” he said. “We even arrested one from France.”

That may sound odd, but France actually does have a connection to the protesting, in a way. At least the name of a fund-raising group of protesters does.

The Daily Caller noted that the front-runner group of these protests is L’eau Est La Vie and on its GofundMe page, it has already raised more than $70,000 for this particular cause.

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While they are raising money and disrupting construction, the protesters are allegedly leaving trash in their wake — despite their claims of wanting to protect the environment.

They are also living in a moving camp, in the forest, on makeshift tree house-like dwellings, in order to halt construction. The situation is dangerous for them and those who try to move them.

And they are impacting the livelihood of the locals and the economics of the community.

Do you think the Bayou Bridge Pipeline protesters should be arrested?

“The people that work on these pipelines, they have a right to make a living too,” Stassie said.

“(The protesters) are putting the livelihood of some of these workers in jeopardy, and they’re putting their own selves in harm’s way.”

Supporters of the pipeline see the protesters as misinformed. One reason is that the monitored pipeline can be safer than transporting crude oil via other means such as truck and train.

Another is the interest in further protecting the environment. Partnerships with environmentally minded organizations help achieve this.

According to The Daily Caller, the project has gotten a lot of support — and not only from locals, who are not happy with the antics of the protesters.

Despite the protests and lawsuits thus far, the project is expected to reach completion by the end of the year.

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