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Jessica Reznicek Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison for Eco-Sabotage on Dakota Access Pipeline

HeadlineJul 06, 2021

In Iowa, a federal judge has sentenced climate activist Jessica Reznicek to eight years in prison for damaging parts of the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016 and '17. U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger also ordered Reznicek to pay nearly $3.2 million in restitution. In 2016, Jessica Reznicek and fellow activist Ruby Montoya set fire to five pieces of heavy machinery being used to construct the Dakota Access pipeline. The two then moved up and down the pipeline's length, destroying valves and delaying construction for weeks. Their actions were inspired by the Plowshares Movement, which used nonviolent direct action to target nuclear warheads and military installations. Reznicek told Democracy Now! in 2017 she was trying to prevent climate catastrophe while protecting water aquifers in her home state of Iowa.

Jessica Reznicek: “I think that the oil being taken out of the ground and the machinery that does it and the infrastructure which supports it, that this is violent. These tools and these mechanisms that industry and corporate power and government power have all colluded together to create, this is destructive, this is violent, and it needs to be stopped.”

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