Divergent actress Shailene Woodley was arrested in North Dakota on Monday while protesting a planned pipeline that Native Americans say will destroy sacred land and pollute water. Her arrest was captured on camera and shared on Facebook during a live broadcast.
She had been live-streaming the whole morning and when the cops showed up, she handed her camera to her protest partner: her mother. Woodley tells her mother in the two-hour video, “Record this. Don’t stop.” The arrest occurs in the last 10 minutes.
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is meant to run across the Missouri River and transport crude oil to Illinois. It could contaminate the river water and put the Native American community nearby at risk.
Protesters stood by the Standing Rock to protect clean water access, but Woodley trusts law enforcement singled her out, because she is well-known.
“They grabbed me by my jacket and said that I wasn’t allowed to continue. They have giant guns and batons and zip ties and they’re not letting me go,” Woodley says. When they begin questioning, she asks, “Why am I being arrested and no one else is who was down there? Is it because I’m famous?”
“It’s because you trespassed on the property, so you’re being placed under arrest,” an officer explains.
“Yeah, but so did hundreds of people, we were all down there. When you asked us to leave, we did,” she answers before he handcuffs her.
Over 1.5 million fans watched her Facebook Live video. We hope everything’s good for the kind, brave soul.