March 18, 2024

Protestor behavior not acceptable

Recently, two protesters were arrested for claiming responsibility for sabotage efforts along the Dakota Access Pipeline project. Sadly, some of the same criminal activity and property damage took place right outside of Newton. This behavior should be strongly condemned by folks on all sides of the political spectrum.

For being activists that claim to be concerned over the safety of pipelines, these professional protestors took an interesting approach by damaging more than $1 million dollars of equipment and valve sites along the project. These political arsonists put themselves in danger, and could have potentially placed the safety of workers and innocent bystanders at risk.

Additionally, if they had been more successful in their reckless protest, they could’ve hurt millions of consumers and manufacturers across the Midwest. Thousands of hardworking, well trained, men and women earned good wages constructing this project. We need reliable ways to transport our vital energy resources and modern pipelines have a proven safety track record.

Thankfully, all of this ended in a humiliating press conference where the activists were arrested in Des Moines as they again began vandalizing property in front of Capitol police. This type of politically motivated violence should not be tolerated, and I hope it does not continue in Iowa or elsewhere across our nation.

Doug Ringger

Newton