Four people protesting the Dakota Access pipeline were arrested Wednesday when they sat down and chained themselves together in a Loop branch of a bank that is one of the lenders financing the project, according to activists.
The four were arrested on suspicion of criminal trespass after entering the property in the first block of West Washington Street a little after 3 p.m. and then refusing to leave, according to a police media notification.
People involved with Illinois Water Protectors, a group that works in the Chicago area to build opposition to the pipeline, said in a statement that a group of people had entered the Citibank, 69 W. Washington, “to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline and the push by the Trump administration to grant the final permit without regard to tribal and public consultation.”
Video from the scene showed that four people who stayed in the bank after they were asked to leave had sat down and chained themselves together before Chicago police SWAT officers arrested them.
The Army on Wednesday granted the developer of the oil pipeline formal permission to lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota, clearing the way for completion of the disputed $3.8 billion project.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which is concerned a pipeline leak could pollute its drinking water, has vowed to challenge the Army's decision in court.
The stretch under Lake Oahe is the final large chunk of work on the 1,200-mile pipeline that would carry North Dakota oil through the Dakotas and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois.
Citibank is one of the lenders on the project, according to statements on the Citgroup, Inc. website. In a statement released Jan. 30 to “stakeholders,” Citibank said that the situation with the pipeline has “the attention and focus of our senior executives.”
“We understand that many stakeholders believe that banks should withdraw the project loan,” according to the statement. “However, we have signed a contract to provide the loan and cannot terminate this contract unilaterally.”
The Associated Press contributed.
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