Sophia Wilansky Critically Injured During Police Attack at Standing Rock
As reported by Democracy Now!:
In Minneapolis, 21-year-old activist Sophia Wilansky is in critical condition and has been undergoing a series of surgeries, after reportedly being hit by a concussion grenade during the police attack against water protectors fighting the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota Sunday night. Sunday’s attack at Standing Rock included police firing rubber bullets, mace canisters and water cannons in subfreezing temperatures. The Standing Rock Medic & Healer Council reports as many as 300 people were injured in the attack, with the injuries ranging from hypothermia to seizures, to loss of consciousness, to impaired vision as a result of being shot by a rubber bullet in the face. Water protectors say at least 26 people were evacuated from the area by ambulances and hospitalized. Sophia Wilansky was evacuated and airlifted to a Minneapolis hospital. After hours of surgery, she posted on Facebook early this morning that her arm has not been amputated, but she will not know for another week whether amputation might be required. The Morton County Sheriff’s Department is claiming the police are not responsible for her injury. Wilansky is from New York City and has organized against the construction of pipelines, including the AIM Spectra pipeline, in New York and across the East Coast [which passes within just a hundred feet of safety-significant systems at Entergy Nuclear's Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City on the Hudson River]. A prayer vigil is slated for 4 p.m. today outside the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
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And, given Native American Heritage Month (see web post below), we point out that, on the same day's broadcast, Democracy Now! reported on related subject matter, in a story entitled "Sweeping New Rutgers Report Reveals University's Ties to Slavery & Displacement of Native Americans."