Tag Archives: Protests

Pakistan opposition leader Khan says under virtual house arrest

A protester throws stones at police during clashes in Rawalpindi, Pakistan October 28, 2016.

By Asad Hashim and Drazen Jorgic

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan accused the government of placing him under virtual house arrest in Islamabad on Friday as his supporters in nearby Rawalpindi fought running battles with the police.

Police tear-gassed and baton-charged the rock-throwing protesters in Rawalpindi, 20 km (12 miles) from Islamabad, as both sides prepared for his plan to shut down the capital next week to try to force Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign.

There was no immediate report of injuries and the violence eased as darkness fell, but a handful of protesters defying a ban on public gatherings continued to clash with police.

Police also fired tear gas and briefly clashed with protesters near Khan’s house in Islamabad.

The protests added to rising political tension ahead of Khan’s vow to lock down the capital on Wednesday to try to force Sharif to quit because of corruption allegations.

Sharif is also under pressure from his own camp, where relations between his ruling PML-N party and the powerful military have been strained by a newspaper leak about a security meeting that angered army officials.

Khan, a former cricket hero, told reporters outside his home that he had been placed “under almost house arrest” by scores of police officers stationed around his home in Islamabad.

He said he had canceled plans to attend a rally by a political ally in Rawalpindi and urged supporters to instead focus on the mass protests on Wednesday.

“To all my activists, you have to prepare for Nov. 2, you have to escape capture,” he said.

BAN ON GATHERINGS

Khan called for nationwide protests on Friday after 38  activists from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party were arrested a day earlier during a raid by baton-wielding police on an indoor youth rally in Islamabad.

Police said the rally contravened a city order issued hours earlier that banned all public gatherings in Islamabad and Rawalpindi ahead of next week’s protests.

Khan, who led a weeks-long occupation that paralyzed the government quarter of Islamabad in 2014 after rejecting Sharif’s decisive election win, has vowed to contest orders banning public gatherings in court.

Sheikh Rashid, a Khan ally from the Awami Muslim League (AML) party, went ahead with his rally in Rawalpindi on Friday.

TV footage showed the portly AML leader being ferried to the rally on the back of a motorbike through the side streets of Rawalpindi. He then climbed on top of a van, shook his fist in the air to supporters and dared police to arrest him.

Police said they did not have orders for his arrest.

Authorities blocked main roads leading to the Rawalpindi rally with shipping containers and obstructed the rally site with trucks and containers, keeping PTI supporters from gathering there en masse.

VOW TO SHUT SCHOOLS, AIRPORT

Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Mushtaq Ahmed said Khan’s party would need official permission, in the form of a so-called “No Objection Certificate” (NOC), to host any events, including Wednesday’s shutdown strike.

“You need an NOC for anything – whether it’s a media function or a marriage function. Even for a birthday party of more than five people, you need an NOC,” he told Reuters.

Khan has said next week’s protests would bring a million people onto the streets and sit-ins would force the closure of schools, public offices and the main international airport.

Khan’s latest challenge to Sharif’s government is based on  leaked documents from the Panama-based Mossack Fonseca law firm that appear to show that his daughter and two sons owned offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. Sharif’s family denies wrongdoing.

Holding offshore companies is not illegal in Pakistan, but Khan has implied the money was gained by corruption. He admitted in May that he used an offshore company himself to legally avoid paying British tax on a London property sale.

The ruling party has dismissed Khan’s shutdown plan as a desperate move by a politician whose popularity is waning ahead of the next general election, likely to be held in May 2018.

“Pakistan is going towards becoming a developed country, and the opposition is worried that if this system of development continues until 2018, then by then their politics will be finished,” Sharif told a gathering of party workers on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Kay Johnson; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Venezuela crisis enters dangerous phase as Maduro foes go militant

Supporters of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro shout slogans as they gather outside the National Assembly building during a session in Caracas, Venezuela

By Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS (Reuters) – In a curious convergence of events on the same day last week, four Venezuelan provincial courts issued identical rulings, state governors quickly hit Twitter to celebrate, then the election board emailed a short but bombshell statement.

Opposition hopes for a referendum to recall President Nicolas Maduro were dashed, on grounds of fraud in an initial signature drive. The vote was off.

For many in the opposition, that settled a years-old debate about the nature of Venezuela’s socialist government, uniting them in conviction they are now fighting a dictatorship.

Their new militancy heightens the risk of unrest as the South American OPEC member of 30 million people grapples with a dangerous economic and political crisis.

“Can anyone in the world now really doubt that Venezuela is living in tyranny?” said housewife Mabel Pinate, 62, dressed in white among thousands of protesters who took to the streets against Maduro on Wednesday.

“We are sick of this. It’s time to toughen up and do what we must to save Venezuela,” added Pinate, whose husband was fired from state oil company PDVSA by Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez and whose two children have gone abroad.

After pinning its hopes on a referendum this year – which could have triggered a presidential election and put them in power after 17 years of leftist rule – the enraged opposition Democratic Unity coalition has taken its gloves off.

It is holding a symbolic political trial of Maduro in the legislature, organizing daily street protests, and shunning talks with the government that had been announced by the Vatican for this weekend.

Recalling tactics that led to a short-lived coup against Chavez in 2002 and a shutdown of the oil industry, the coalition has also called for a general strike on Friday and a march to the Miraflores presidential palace next week.

“We’ve reached the limit,” said Henrique Capriles, a usually moderate opposition leader, calling the government “Satan.”

“Does the opposition have anything to negotiate with the government? Nothing. Why does the government want dialogue? Because the water has risen to its neck,” he said.

Some hardliners, most notably veteran activist Maria Corina Machado and jailed protest leader Leopoldo Lopez’ wife Lilian Tintori, are calling for Gandhi-style civil disobedience.

‘I FEAR NOBODY’

The government is vowing an iron fist.

It says well-known troublemakers, who were behind the 2002 putsch, are again seeking a coup against an elected government, with the help of the United States and compliant foreign media.

“I fear nobody and nothing!” Maduro told red-shirted supporters at one of his daily rallies and TV appearances this week.

The ruling Socialist Party’s No. 2, Diosdado Cabello said any companies heeding the strike call would be seized by workers and the military. “We’re not going to allow craziness.”

Long proud of its democratic credentials after winning numerous elections under Chavez, the ruling Socialist Party says it is the opposition flouting Venezuela’s democracy given that independent institutions shot down the referendum.

Officials also argue that the very existence of protests and virulent public criticism of Maduro prove democracy is alive and well in Venezuela.

Maduro insists the referendum decision was made by independent judges and electoral officials based on technical criteria, and denies the Socialist Party had any sway over the result. But critics say both the judiciary and electoral council have long been in the government’s pocket.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly shot down legislation  passed by the opposition-dominated Congress while interpreting the constitution to favor the executive branch and limit the reach of lawmakers.

And the elections council has steadily shifted the requirements for requesting the recall vote.

Maduro would have faced probable defeat and removal from power if the referendum had gone ahead.

His challenge now is to contain street protests and respond to deep anger among all Venezuelans at the dreadful state of the economy.

Food shortages, long shopping lines and runaway prices have eroded the ruling “Chavismo” movement’s popularity among the poor and seen Maduro’s ratings slide to just over 20 percent.

But as unhappy as they are, disaffected former “Chavistas” are not yet ready to throw their lot in en masse with coalition leaders they still view with suspicion.

“They are all from privileged families. How can they represent me?” said Orlando Diaz, 47, a mechanic and father of four from a slum in western Caracas who has seen work dry up and income tumble during a nearly three-year recession.

“Do I hate Maduro? Yes. He has betrayed the comandante (Chavez), he is a fool. Will I join these people in their crying and marching? No way. Frankly, I don’t know where to turn. I don’t see a future, I just have to find bread for my family today and tomorrow. That’s all I think about.”

The opposition’s challenge is how to incorporate people like Diaz and his neighbors from the gritty hillside Antimano “barrio”, into their street push. On Wednesday, they drew hundreds of thousands nationwide, but students and traditional supporters remained at the vanguard.

Scores of people on both sides were killed during anti-Maduro protests in 2014 and there was new violence on Wednesday, with dozens of injuries and arrests. A policemen was shot dead in an incident the government blamed on demonstrators.

“A recall referendum in 2016 would have meant the automatic exit from power of ‘Chavismo’,” said local pollster Luis Vicente Leon. “Eschewing democratic codes and values, the government preferred to assume … the risk of a popular reaction.”

The next presidential election is due at the end of 2018 and most Venezuelans assume another candidate will emerge from within “Chavismo” instead of Maduro. But given the events of recent days, opposition supporters are beginning to wonder if that election will even take place.

(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Kieran Murray)

Ethiopian protesters attack factories in Africa’s rising economic star

Demonstrators chant slogans while flashing the Oromo protest gesture during Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Bishoftu town, Oromiya region, Ethiopia, i

By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Protesters in Ethiopia damaged almost a dozen mostly foreign-owned factories and flower farms and destroyed scores of vehicles this week, adding economic casualties to a rising death toll in a wave of unrest over land grabs and rights.

The violence has cast a shadow over a nation where a state-led industrial drive has created one of Africa’s fastest growing economies, but where the government has also faced rising international criticism and popular opposition to its authoritarian approach to development.

The flare-up followed the death of at least 55 people in a stampede on Sunday when police fired tear gas and shot into the air to disperse demonstrators in the Oromiya region near the capital.

It raises to more than 450 the number of people rights groups and opponents say have been killed in unrest since 2015. A U.S. researcher was killed on Tuesday when her car was attacked by stone-throwers near Addis Ababa.

UC Davis post doctoral student Sharon Gray

UC Davis post doctoral student Sharon Gray is shown November 20, 2014. Photo courtesy of Plant Biology Dept/UC Davis/Handout via REUTERS

The government says the toll cited by critics is inflated.

Fana Broadcasting, which is seen as close to the state, reported on its website that 11 companies ranging from textile firms to a plastics maker to flower farms had been damaged or destroyed, while more than 60 vehicles had been torched.

Dutch firm FV SeleQt said its 300-hectare vegetable farm and warehouse had been plundered. Another Dutch firm, Africa Juice, said its factory had been partially destroyed.

The manager of one of the Turkish companies, textile firm Saygin Dima, told Reuters this week at least a third of his factory was burned down.

Fana’s website showed images of burned-out trucks on the road side, blaming the damage on “perpetrators of violence”, echoing the line taken by the government, which accuses local rebel groups and dissidents based abroad for stoking the unrest.

It said the firms damaged had created 40,000 jobs in a country of 99 million people that has long been blighted by famine but which has been rapidly transforming its fortunes, delivering growth rates that hit 10 percent in fiscal 2015/16.

Demonstrators chant slogans while flashing the Oromo protest gesture during Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Bishoftu town, Oromia region, Ethiopia,

Demonstrators chant slogans while flashing the Oromo protest gesture during Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Bishoftu town, Oromia region, Ethiopia, October 2, 2016. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

STRUGGLING FOR WORK

People from Oromiya, a region at the heart of the state’s industrialization efforts, accuse the state of seizing their land and offering tiny compensation, before selling it on to companies, often foreign investors, at inflated prices.

They also say they struggle to find work, even when a new factory is sited on property they or their families once owned.

“I went to apply for a job at a steel factory that was built on my family’s land but I was turned away when they discovered I was the son of the previous land owner,” said Mulugeta, who asked for only his first name to be used to avoid any state reprisals.

“Most factories give priority to employees from other regions for fear local people would one day stage strikes,” he said, speaking by telephone from Oromiya where he now drives a truck for another company.

In Ethiopia, once ruled by Marxists whose draconian policies drove the nation into a devastating 1984 famine, all land still belongs to the state and owners are only deemed leaseholders, even if they have been living or farming there for generations.

For the state, it means a swift and legally uncomplicated route to ejecting leaseholders to make way for new factories and construction of highways and railways, including a 750-km electrified line opened this week that links the capital of landlocked Ethiopia with Djibouti’s busy sea port.

For the opposition and those turfed out of farm plots where they grow food for their families, it shows how the government that has ruled for quarter of a decade tramples on their rights.

“It is time for the government to change tack,” said Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress. “People are demanding change, but the problem is the only language the government knows is the use of excessive force.”

The government says police have clashed with what it calls “armed gangs” intent on destabilizing the nation. A regional Oromo official accused protesters of hindering efforts to reverse generations of poverty in Oromiya.

Pressure has been mounting from abroad too. U.S. President Barack Obama told his Ethiopian hosts in Addis Ababa last year that greater political openness would “strengthen rather than inhibit” the development agenda. The government said it differed over the pace of any reforms demanded by Washington.

“Economic development has outpaced political change,” said former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and academic David Shinn.

Noting “phenomenal” economic gains, he said: “It is less clear, however, whether the Ethiopian peasant farmer, who still constitutes about 80 percent of the population, has benefited significantly.”

FEELING THE HEAT

Foreign investors are feeling the heat from protesters, not because they are foreigners but because they are among the biggest purchasers of the new land leases from the state.

Ethiopia’s budding tourist industry is also taking a hit. The Bishangari Lodge, on Lake Langano about 200 km south of Addis Ababa, was looted and torched this week.

Resort owner Omar Bagersh said, even before the attack, he had had 90 percent cancellations in the past two or three months. “It is very difficult to convince a tourist to travel to a country that has this kind of situation,” he said.

Investors have been attracted by cheap electricity from Ethiopia’s huge new hydroelectric dams being built, cheap labor, improving transport and tax incentives offered by a financially stretched government hungry for foreign exchange.

New industries have been focused in Oromiya and the nearby Amhara regions, which surround Addis Ababa, a city that now boasts Sub-Saharan Africa’s only light rail metro system and a rapidly rising skyline.

Protests in Oromiya province initially erupted in 2014 over a development plan for the capital that would have expanded its boundaries, a move seen as threatening farmland.

Clashes with police flared in 2015 and this year, although the government has shelved the boundary plan.

Protesters have increasingly focused on broader political issues, accusing the government of stifling opposition. The government, which won a parliamentary election in 2015 in which the opposition failed to secure a single seat, denies this.

(Additional reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam and Edmund Blair in Nairobi; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Protests hit Ethiopia after stampede deaths

A man mourns during the funeral of Tesfu Tadese Biru, 32, a construction engineer who died during a stampede after police fired warning shots at an anti-government protest in Bishoftu during Irreecha, the thanksgiving festival of the Oromo people, in Denkaka Kebele

By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Protests broke out in some areas of Ethiopia’s Oromiya region on Monday, a day after dozens of people were killed in a stampede at a religious festival sparked by a bid by police to quell demonstrations, witnesses said.

Opposition politicians and government officials gave contrasting tolls of casualties that took place during the annual Irreecha festival in the town of Bishoftu, some 40 km (25 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa, where police fired teargas and shots in the air to disperse protesters.

The manager of the town’s government-operated referral hospital said the death toll had risen to 55, with 100 injured, from 52 dead on Sunday. An opposition leader told Reuters the number of dead stood at around 150.

On Monday, witnesses said crowds took to the streets in Oromiya’s Ambo, Guder, Bule Hora and other towns in response to the deaths.

“Shots are still being fired. Everything remains shut – Ambo has been brought to a standstill,” said Mesfin, a university student who did not want to give his full name out of fear of reprisal.

Two other residents of the other towns said scuffles took place between demonstrators and police.

The region’s assistant police chief told journalists that “widespread disturbances” had taken place in several parts of the region.

“Roads have been blocked, while government offices and vehicles have been burnt down. Police are trying to put an end to all this,” said Sorri Dinka, deputy commissioner of the Oromiya Police Commission.

The Horn of Africa country has declared three days of national mourning, with flags flying at half mast throughout the country to pay tribute to the victims.

Sporadic protests have erupted in Oromiya over the last two years, initially triggered by a land row but increasingly turning more broadly against the government. Scores of protesters have been killed in clashes with police since late last year.

The developments highlight tensions in the country where the government has delivered high economic growth rates but faces criticism from opponents and rights groups that it has reduced political freedoms.

The government blames rebel groups and dissidents abroad for stirring up the protests and provoking violence. It dismisses charges that it clamps down on free speech or on its opponents.

Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, said Sunday’s death toll had climbed to 150 people and that some of the victims were shot dead by police, contrary to official claims.

“We are calling on the government to establish an independent inquiry,” he told Reuters.

(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by George Obulutsa and Richard Balmforth)

Charlotte police brace for NFL game after release of shooting video

The National Guard arrives as people gather outside the football stadium as the NFL's Carolina Panthers host the Minnesota Vikings, to protest the police shooting of Keith Scott, in Charlotte, North Carolina

By Robert MacMillan and Mike Blake

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Reuters) – Officials in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday geared up for further protests over the police killing of a black man, a day after police released videos of the confrontation that did not show whether the victim had a gun when he was shot.

After nearly a week of protests, city officials were preparing for extra security at a National Football League game between the Carolina Panthers and the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday afternoon, bracing for more demonstrations over the killing of Keith Scott, 43, who police said was armed when officers shot him on Tuesday.

Small groups of police in riot gear stood around Bank of America Stadium as fans arrived about two hours before kick-off in a jovial mood. Officers shook hands with some of them and posed for pictures as a group of about 30 protesters gathered with signs.

“Black lives matter,” the demonstrators chanted. “We don’t need no riot gear. Why are you in riot gear?”

Scott’s death has made Charlotte, the state’s largest city and one of the U.S. Southeast’s most vibrant urban centers, the latest flashpoint in two years of tense protests over U.S. police killings of black men, most of them unarmed.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said his department expects to “expend significant public safety resources” at the arena, which can hold more than 70,000 people.

Charlotte declared the game an “extraordinary event” under its municipal code, giving police the power to stop people from carrying blades, projectiles and other objects into a certain area.

The previous night, hundreds of people marched through the city center on a fifth night of demonstrations that stretched into Sunday morning, including white and black families protesting police violence.

A Panthers fan sympathized with the protesters but did not think they would succeed in changing policing.

“I get the message the protesters are trying to send,” Joe Mader, 24, said. “I think it’s smart that they’re out here. I’m happy to have them here.”

A football fan takes a selfie with police, who are part of a large security presence, outside the football stadium as the NFL's Carolina Panthers host the Minnesota Vikings amid protesting of the police shooting of Keith Scott, in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., September 25, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake

A football fan takes a selfie with police, who are part of a large security presence, outside the football stadium as the NFL’s Carolina Panthers host the Minnesota Vikings amid protesting of the police shooting of Keith Scott, in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., September 25, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake

On Saturday, police released videos showing Scott’s shooting in the parking lot of a Charlotte apartment complex.

Putney acknowledged that the videos themselves were “insufficient” to prove Scott held a gun but said other evidence completed the picture.

Police said officers trying to serve an arrest warrant for a different person caught sight of Scott with marijuana and a gun, sitting in a car in a parking lot.

Both Scott’s family and protesters have disputed the police statements that Scott was carrying a gun.

Police released photos of a marijuana cigarette, an ankle holster they said Scott was wearing, and a handgun, which they said was loaded and had Scott’s fingerprints and DNA.

But Scott’s family, which released its own video of the encounter on Friday, said the police footage showed the father of seven was not acting aggressively and that the police shooting made no sense, with no attempt to de-escalate the situation. The family video, shot by Scott’s wife, was also inconclusive on the question of a gun.

In one of the police videos, a dashboard-mounted camera from a squad car showed Scott exiting his vehicle and then backing away from it. Police shout to him to drop a gun, but it is not clear that Scott is holding anything. Four shots then ring out and Scott drops to the ground.

A second video, taken with an officer’s body camera, fails to capture the shooting. It briefly shows Scott standing outside his vehicle before he is shot, but it is not clear whether he has something in his hand. The officer then moves and Scott is out of view until he is seen lying on the ground.

At least five people who appear to be police officers are seen in the bodycam video. Both videos show Scott moving at a measured pace with his hands at his sides.

Another lawyer for the Scott family, Charles Monnett, said, the family did not know enough of the facts to know whether the officer who killed Scott should face charges.

The two-minute video recorded by Scott’s wife on a cell phone showed the scene of the shooting, but not the shooting itself. In the video, Mrs. Scott can be heard telling officers that her husband has TBI, a traumatic brain injury.

“Don’t shoot him! He has no weapon” she cries as police yell at Scott, “Drop the gun!” Then shots sound.

(Writing by Peter Henderson and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Michael Perry and Andrea Ricci)

Peaceful protest in Charlotte as police chose not to enforce curfew

Protesters walk in the streets downtown during another night of protests over the police shooting of Keith Scott in Charlotte

By Andy Sullivan and Robert MacMillan

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Reuters) – Largely peaceful protests dwindled early on Friday in Charlotte, North Carolina, as police chose not to enforce a curfew prompted by two nights of riots after a black man was shot to death by a police officer.

A crowd of hundreds gathered, chanted and marched for a third successive night in the city of about 810,000 people, demanding justice for Keith Scott, 43, who was shot dead by a black police officer in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Tuesday afternoon.

Scott’s death is the latest to stir passions in the United States over the police use of force against black men. It has stirred broad debate on race and justice in the United States and given rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.

He was the 214th black person killed by U.S. police this year out of an overall total of 821, according to Mapping Police Violence, another group created out of the protest movement. There is no national-level government data on police shootings.

A U.S. Congressman from North Carolina scrambled to apologize after telling the BBC in a broadcast interview that he believed that the protesters were motivated by jealousy.

“They hate white people because white people are successful and they’re not,” Robert Pittenger said in a televised interview late Thursday.

He later apologized on Twitter, saying, “What is taking place in my hometown breaks my heart. Today, my anguish led me to respond to a reporter’s question in a way that I regret.”

The Charlotte Police Department said on Twitter that two officers were treated after they were sprayed with a chemical agent by demonstrators and that no civilians were injured on Thursday.

Despite the brief outbursts, Thursday night’s demonstrations were calmer than those on the previous two nights in North Carolina’s largest city. Rioters had smashed storefront windows, looted businesses and thrown objects at police, prompting officials to declare a state of emergency and a curfew.

A protester who was shot on Wednesday died on Thursday. Nine people were injured and 44 were arrested in riots on Wednesday and Thursday morning.

Scott’s family viewed videos of the episode on Thursday and asked for them to be made public, stepping up the pressure on authorities.

In an interview with Reuters early Friday, Justin Bamberg, one of the lawyers who is representing Scott’s family, said the video shows that the 43-year-old did not make any aggressive moves towards police.

“There’s nothing in that video that shows him acting aggressively, threatening or maybe dangerous,” Bamberg said.

Scott, who suffered head trauma in a bad car accident a year ago, was moving slowly as he got out of the car, he said.

“He’s not an old man, but he’s moving like an old man” in the video, Bamberg said.

Earlier in the day, Bamberg said in a statement that it was “impossible to discern” from the videos what, if anything, Scott was holding in his hands.

Police say Scott was carrying a gun when he approached officers and ignored repeated orders to drop it. His family previously said he was holding a book, not a firearm, and now says it has more questions than answers after viewing two videos recorded by police body cameras.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney has said the video supported the police account of what happened but does not definitively show Scott pointing a gun at officers.

In contrast to the tension in Charlotte, the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was calm after a white police officer was charged with first-degree manslaughter on Thursday for a fatal shooting also captured on video. Police released a video of an unarmed black man, Terence Crutcher, being shot by the officer after his vehicle broke down on a highway.

(Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Scott Malone; editing by Grant McCool)

Charlotte officials urge calm after police shooting sparks protests

Police officers wearing riot gear block a road during protests after police fatally shot Keith Lamont Scott in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Charlotte, North Carolina

By Greg Lacour and Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton

CHARLOTTE, N.C./TULSA,Okla. (Reuters) – Charlotte, North Carolina, officials called for calm and dialogue on Wednesday after the fatal shooting of a black man by police led to a night of violent street protests that injured 16 officers.

The Charlotte violence unfolded as demonstrators in Tulsa, Oklahoma, called for the arrest of a police officer there who was seen in widely viewed videos shooting to death an unarmed black man who had his hands in clear view at the time.

The incidents were the latest to raise questions of racial bias in U.S. law enforcement.

Criminal investigations have been opened in both cities for the shootings, and the U.S. Justice Department has started a separate probe into the Oklahoma incident to see if officers’ use of force amounted to a civil rights violation.

“Our top priority is for Charlotte to remain a safe community for everyone who lives and visits here,” Mayor Jennifer Roberts said at a news conference as she called for patience with the investigation.

A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer killed Keith Scott, 43, who had been seen entering a vehicle with a handgun, Chief Kerr Putney said at the same news conference. Scott was surrounded by police and was shot after he exited the car and did not obey officers’ instructions to drop his weapon, Putney said.

“He stepped out, posing a threat to the officers, and Officer Brentley Vinson subsequently fired his weapon, striking the subject,” Putney said, adding that police acted heroically in trying to stem the protests that followed the shooting.

Scott’s family says he was reading in his car and was unarmed. Police said they recovered a gun they said Scott was holding.

Putney said a handgun was seized. “I can also tell you we did not find a book,” Putney said. “We did find a weapon.”

North Carolina allows for the open carry of handguns, including having a pistol in a vehicle.

One protester was arrested, and several were injured in demonstrations that blocked an interstate highway.

Protesters set fires and stoned police cars, he said. Police deployed gas to disperse the crowd.

More protests were expected on Wednesday, and Putney said: “It is time to change the narrative.”

(Writing by Scott Malone and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Easy resolution unlikely for contentious Dakota pipeline

Protesters demonstrate against the Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, in Los Angeles, California,

By Catherine Ngai and Ernest Scheyder

NEW YORK/CANNON BALL, NORTH DAKOTA (Reuters) – A potential rerouting of a long-anticipated pipeline at the center of a protest in North Dakota would be a laborious and costly task, possibly delaying a startup by months and provoking further opposition from Native American and environmental groups who were instrumental in halting construction.

The 1,172-mile (1,886 km) Dakota Access pipeline was slated to start up by the end of the year, transporting more than 470,000 barrels per day of crude oil through four states into Illinois before it hooks up to another pipeline down to Texas.

But in a stunning twist last week, the U.S. Justice Department and other federal agencies intervened to delay construction in what industry and labor representatives called an “unprecedented” move.

The halt on the $3.7 billion project was the result of a groundswell of protest from Native American tribes and environmentalists, some of whom now are vowing to continue the fight until the project is permanently suspended.

While there are a few options for rerouting the line, most still cross either culturally important lands to Native Americans or large waterways. The more extensive a reroute, the more likely it is that regulatory obstacles crop up.

“We’re entering unchartered waters if a reroute happens at this stage and I can’t think of another example of a case where this has happened,” said Afolabi Ogunnaike, a senior analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie. “Should a reroute take place, there are some major challenges.”

Protesters demonstrate against the Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, in Los Angeles, California,

Protesters demonstrate against the Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, in Los Angeles, California, September 13, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

 

North Dakota’s governor, Jack Dalrymple, told Reuters on Friday that he hoped regulators would give the go-ahead for construction to resume shortly. If that does not happen, an alternative solution does not appear to be easy to come by.

Energy Transfer Partners, the company constructing the line, declined to comment. It had said it is committed to completing the project.

The protest is concentrated in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, near Lake Oahe, a large and culturally-important reservoir located on the Missouri River in central southern North Dakota, where the line was supposed to cross.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now needs to decide whether it correctly followed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other federal laws. If they did not, the permit process may need to be restarted, which could take at least 120 days. It is unclear when the NEPA review will be finished.

The other option — rerouting the pipeline — also presents substantial challenges. The surrounding land where the pipeline could cross has a number of national parks or wetlands, commercial and residential uses, or Native American reservations.

An early proposal involved sending the pipeline from the Bakken shale, where more than a million barrels of oil is produced daily, a bit further north and crossing the Missouri north of the state capital of Bismarck. The current crossing is about 30 miles south of the state capital. http://tmsnrt.rs/2cqkRJ7

“Knowing that the destination of the pipeline is to the east and looking at where the majority of the oil is sourced from, at some point, you have to cross the Missouri River,” said Eric Hansen, director of environmental services at Westwood Professional Services, a surveying and engineering firm that works in North Dakota.

Activists have said they will continue their protest, fearing damage to the water supply in the event of a leak, though there are many pipelines in the United States that carry fuel under waterways.

“No one can live without water. We just want this to stop. We won’t leave until it does,” said Valerie Eagle Shield, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, the Native American tribe whose lands would be directly affected.

Energy Transfer Partners preferred the more southerly route eventually decided upon because it was 11 miles shorter and would have less impact on the land, according to a U.S. Army Corps environmental assessment from July. It also cost $23 million less than the first proposed pipeline route.

The path with fewest obstacles, experts say, is even further north, heading from the small town of Stanley, located in the Bakken, due east, avoiding the Missouri River altogether.

However, that would require substantial changes and new state and federal permits, and would make it difficult to gather oil from the Bakken, which is not an issue for the current pipeline path. The state and federal regulatory review for the current pipeline took more than two years, according to North Dakota officials.

“A permitting process is quite complicated,” Hansen said. “As they come up with alternatives, they’ll have similar issues to face and re-permitting for any reroutes.”

In addition, winter is coming, which will make construction a challenge if the situation is not resolved.

Meanwhile, protesters, emboldened by their success, are prepared to take their opposition into the cold winter months, while locals in a section of the line in Iowa are also stepping up their pressure.

“This is a large issue, and why expedite it when we have to sit down and consider the ways to move forward. Why rush?” said Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, in Fort Yates, North Dakota.

(Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington; Editing by David Gaffen and Edward Tobin)

Baltimore police lieutenant acquitted in Freddie Gray death

Lt. Brian Rice in undated booking photo provided by the Baltimore Police Department

By Donna Owens

BALTIMORE (Reuters) – A Maryland judge on Monday acquitted Baltimore police Lieutenant Brian Rice of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office for the April 2015 death of black detainee Freddie Gray.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams handed down his verdict after a bench trial. Rice, 42, is the highest-ranking officer charged in Gray’s death from a broken neck suffered in a police transport van.

Gray’s death triggered protests and rioting in the mainly black city and stoked a national debate about how police treat minorities. The controversy flared anew this month with the deaths of African-American men at the hands of police in Minnesota and Louisiana.

Monday’s verdict is the latest setback for prosecutors, who have failed to secure a conviction in the trials of four officers thus far.

Rice, who is white, ordered two officers on bicycle to chase Gray, 25, when he fled unprovoked in a high-crime area.

Prosecutors said Rice was negligent in shackling Gray’s legs and not securing him in a seat belt, as required by department protocol.

But defense lawyers said Rice was allowed leeway on whether to get inside a van to secure a prisoner. The officer made a correct decision in a few seconds while Gray was being combative and a hostile crowd was looking on, they said.

Williams, who heard the case without a jury at Rice’s request, said prosecutors failed to show the lieutenant was aware of a departmental policy requiring seat belts for prisoners during transport.

“The state did not prove the defendant was aware of the new policy,” the judge said in court.

Only a handful of protesters were at the courthouse for the verdict’s announcement.

Williams previously acquitted Officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson Jr., the van’s driver. A third officer, William Porter, faces a retrial after a jury deadlocked.

(Writing by Ian Simpson in Washington and Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Verdict due in trial of Baltimore policeman over Freddie Gray death

A man participates in a protest in Union Square after Baltimore Police Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. was acquitted of all charges for his involvement in the death of Freddie Gray in the Manhattan borough of New York

Reuters) – A Maryland judge is scheduled to hand down a verdict on Monday in the manslaughter trial of the highest-ranking Baltimore police officer charged in the death of black detainee Freddie Gray.

Lieutenant Brian Rice, 42, is the fourth of six officers to be tried for Gray’s death in April 2015 from a broken neck suffered in a police van. Prosecutors have yet to secure a conviction in the high-profile case.

Gray’s death triggered protests and rioting in the mainly black city and stoked a national debate about how police treat minorities. That debate flared anew this month with the deaths of African-American men at the hands of police in Minnesota and Louisiana.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams has said he will announce his verdict at 10 a.m. EDT. He is hearing the case in a bench trial after Rice waived his right to a jury trial.

Rice, who is white, ordered two bicycle officers to chase Gray, 25, when he fled unprovoked in a high-crime area. The officer helped put Gray, who was shackled and handcuffed, into the police wagon face down on its floor.

Prosecutors said Rice was negligent in shackling Gray’s legs and not securing him in a seat belt, as required by department protocol.

But defense lawyers have said Rice was allowed leeway on whether to get inside a van to secure a prisoner. The officer made a correct decision in a few seconds while Gray was being combative and a hostile crowd was looking on, they said.

Rice is charged with involuntary manslaughter, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. He could face at least 15 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

Williams has acquitted Officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson Jr., the van’s driver. A third officer, William Porter, faces a retrial after a jury deadlocked.

(Writing by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell and Lisa Von Ahn)