Police begin removing protesters from Dakota pipeline encampment

Police in North Dakota began clearing a group of Native American and environmental protesters from an encampment near an oil pipeline construction site on Thursday in a move that could escalate tensions in a standoff that has lasted several months.
"Protesters' escalated unlawful behavior this weekend by setting up illegal roadblocks, trespassing onto private property and establishing an encampment has forced law enforcement to respond at this time," Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, said in the statement.
The pipeline has drawn the ire of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and environmental activists who say it threatens the water supply and historical tribal sacred sites