"I was arrested at a protest Wednesday. The trooper asked me what was in my pockets. He didn't believe me."
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This was the simple caption accompanying a post from the USA on user-generated news website Reddit over the weekend, showing an old-school Monopoly card.
Even more amusingly, a second photo appears to show that the Iowa police officer actually seemed to have taken the card into evidence, along with other items including a e-cigarette and a car key.
"Don't leave home without it," the Redditer posted, before adding, "it didn't work. Bond was $300."
"I also had to pay a poor tax of $15," he joked.
"Did it work as an 'icebreaker' at least?" one commenter wanted to know.
"He laughed. Then he tightened the zip cuffs," the anonymous author said.
The lighthearted conversation belies the deadly seriousness of the issues at stake, with the poster explaining they were arrested in the latest of a series of protests against a $3.8 billion oil pipeline being built across across Iowa.
Videos on social media have shown protesters stopping construction on an Indian reservation.
Local media reported that 30 of about 100 activists were arrested on Wednesday in their effort to disrupt construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which will pump oil across North and South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois to be sold overseas.
Hundreds had gathered in Washington DC days before to air their fears about environmental impacts and about the process called "eminent domain" that allowed the land to be taken from farmers and Native Americans.
The Sioux people have submitted a lawsuit against the federal agency that approved the pipeline, claiming a lack of consultation, according to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
This committee stated on Thursday that the Standing Rock tribe should have a say as the pipeline would affect security of and access to drinking water for millions of people.
"It would also destroy archaeological, historical and sacred sites of the Sioux," it said.
"The world is watching what is happening in North Dakota."
The judge is expected to rule on the lawsuit on September 9.
Before they released the dogs... You can see them mace everyone..frontlines!!Posted by Nataanii Means on Saturday, September 3, 2016
