Protesters scale Rapid City grain mill; get arrested

Rapid City’s Chief of Police stated:

“It’s important to note that this nearly six-hour-long demonstration took up a large amount of public safety resources from the Rapid City Police Department, Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, South Dakota Highway Patrol, Rapid City Fire Department, and other supporting organizations during its duration. The July 4th weekend is historically the busiest day of the year for calls-for-service from the public. The demonstration also created a large disruption to the general traffic of the downtown area and hindered law enforcement’s ability to respond to calls for service to include calls for a response to fireworks. The protestors did not gain permission to demonstrate on the private property at 5th and Omaha. The private property owners were alerted and law enforcement worked to engage in removing the climbers from the private property.”

Hedrick went on to say “we’re incredibly thankful for all of the public safety personnel, many of which were forced to work on their day off, who helped ensure this event was carried out in the safest manner possible.

Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom said “local law enforcement made countless attempts to work with organizers of this demonstration. It was clear halfway through the course of the event that organizers intended to deceive us about the plan for and extent of the demonstration.”