Dozen arrested protesting Citibank over Dakota pipeline

A dozen people were arrested Monday morning after they took over the lobby of the Citigroup Center in San Francisco’s Financial District during a protest over the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, according to police.

The takeover of the bank lobby at 1 Sansome St., organized by a group calling itself Diablo Rising Tide, was first reported around 8:30 a.m. Monday, according to police.

Twelve people were arrested at 10:19 a.m. after police gave them three orders to leave, police Officer Carlos Manfredi said.

They will most likely be cited and released, Manfredi said.

The group is demanding that Citibank stop financing the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,168-mile crude oil pipeline project.

The pipeline is opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe because of concerns over its impact on cultural, historic and sacred spaces and the threat it poses to drinking water taken from the Missouri River.

Ongoing protests over the pipeline in North Dakota turned violent on Thursday when law enforcement moved to remove and arrest those seeking to block its construction.

Christy Tennery-Spalding, one of those taking part in the San Francisco protest, said in a statement Monday morning:

“I am here today because Indigenous friends and allies in North Dakota are literally risking life and limb to stop this pipeline. … Oil companies and banks like Citigroup do not care about clean water and clean air of impacted communities. These companies only motivation is profit and we’re here today to say, ‘NO MORE!'”