Standing Rock Police Turn in Badges-Unproven!
Summary of eRumor:
At least two police officers turned in their badges at the Standing Rock protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline because they don’t agree with actions being taken there, and it’s not what they signed up for.
The Truth:
Rumors that police officers turned in their badges at the Standing Rock protest can’t be confirmed.
The rumor appears to have started in early November with a Facebook post by Ryan Redhawk, a leader of the Standing Rock Rising Movement:
The post was quickly picked up by blog sites and was widely shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media. But these posts misconstrued the original post. Redhawk didn’t actually confirm that any police officers had turned in their badges — he said he heard reports of that, which is not the same thing.
The website True Activist, for example, cited Redhawk’s post in reporting that “At least two police officers turned in their badges today after acknowledging that attacking peaceful protestors is not what they signed up for.” In reality, Redhawk’s post said there were “at least two reports of police officers turning in their badges” — not that “at least two police officers turned in their badges,” as True Activist reported in a story that was shared half a million times.
There’s been no indication that police at the Standing Rock Protests have objected to actions taken against protestors there, or turned in their badges because of it.