Trump administration rejects request to declare site of Dakota Access Pipeline protests a disaster area

John Sexton

Are left-wing protesters the equivalent of a natural disaster? It may sometimes seem that way but the Trump administration rejected a request by the Governor of North Dakota to declare the scene of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests a disaster area. The Governor was looking for the feds to help with the massive $38 million spent policing the protests. From the Seattle Times...more

How big of a stretch would it be to says the feds should bear some of the cost for this? No stretch at all says Sexton: 

 The claim that the feds bear some responsibility for this is far less of a stretch than it might at first appear. Remember that the main camp where, at its peak, several thousand protesters were living, was on federal land. The police were able to remove the protesters from private land when they tried to set up camp there but were not able to remove people from the federal land. The Obama administration didn’t move to close that land until late November. And even then, the government didn’t enforce the closure.