Water Protectors Protest At City Council Meeting Over Dakota Access Pipeline

By Stephen Gossett in News on Mar 29, 2017 5:44PM

(Photo by Tyler LaRiviere/Chicagoist)

A group of protesters were escorted from City Council after they rose and called for the city to divest from companies that have ties to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

"I don’t mean to be disrespectful, I don’t mean to be rude, but our water cannot wait," said one protester as the group, four or five in number, was being led from the chamber by security.

The group raised a bespoke sign that read "Chicago Divest From DAPL" as one protester called out for aldermen to support the DAPL protest. One protester shouted that her brother was shot in the face while "on the front lines" in Standing Rock.

Protesters in Chicago have in the past demonstrated at Citibank locations downtown against the bank's funding of the DAPL. Several hundred people rallied in the Loop last month to show solidarity with indigenous peoples in Standing Rock and urge Chicago and other cities to divest from banks that fund the pipeline's construction, which threatens native land in North Dakota. The site was cleared in late February in the wake of President Donald Trump's executive order to advance the building of the controversial project.