Audio: Dog Handler Involved in #NoDAPL Riot Claims Self Defense
This screen shot from a Democracy NOW! video purports to show security dogs used Sept. 3, 2016, to drive back protestors who had overrun the Dakota Access Pipeline worksite north of Cannon Ball, N.D. Images Courtesy Democracy NOW!
As I write this North Dakota law enforcement is dealing with the latest #NoDAPL riot, but my guest on the radio show today was involved in one back on September 3.
You’ve probably heard of it. It was the one with the dogs. Remember the media narrative about how the evil pipeline security workers set upon the protesters with dogs? Well Bob Frost of Frost Kennels in Ohio – the guy who came to North Dakota with his dogs and dog handlers to work security for the pipeline – tells me that’s not how it went.
“We had nine total people versus hundreds of protesters,” he told me. “It was self defense.”
[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]”Anybody can watch a video that lasts for ten minutes when it lasted an hour and then judge you on that ten minutes,” he told me.[/mks_pullquote]
Frost said he and his dogs and handlers were deployed to private property on the other side of a fence from protesters and that they had “no orders to engage with the protesters.” He said their mission was to act as a “visual deterrent” to protesters crossing the fence.
But Frost says they crossed the fence anyway, breaking it down and charging at Frost, his handlers, and pipeline workers who were in the area. He said they initially tried to leave in trucks, but then stopped to try and hold back the protesters to protect the pipeline workers.
Frost says his team was entirely on the defensive. He said protesters laid under the tires of their trucks to prevent them from leaving. “They pushed us back, we didn’t push them back,” he said.
I asked him about whether or not his personnel was licensed. An investigation by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, cooperating with the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board, concluded that at least some of the dog handlers were not licensed to provide security. That information has been forwarded to state prosecutors for consideration, but Frost says his people were properly licensed.
Back to the September 3 incident, Frost said it has been portrayed inaccurately on social media and in the traditional media. “Anybody can watch a video that lasts for ten minutes when it lasted an hour and then judge you on that ten minutes,” he told me.
Here’s the full audio of our interview:
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