Shailene Woodley arrested at oil pipeline protest, streams it on Facebook Live

By Sam Barsanti  |  October 10, 2016 | 11:04pm
Aux Features Film

Divergent star Shailene Woodley is quickly establishing herself as one of the biggest political activists of her generation, at least in the sense that she’s famous and seems to care about stuff going on in the world more than other famous people her age do. In fact, just today she received a legitimate political activist merit badge by getting arrested during a peaceful protest of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. Woodley didn’t just get arrested, though, she got arrested while streaming a video of the protest on Facebook Live. As far as Facebook videos go, it’s pretty badass.

Woodley previously made politics-related headlines for passionately standing on the Bernie Sanders train, sticking by that lovable Democratic Socialist even as Hillary Clinton was officially named the presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention. These days, she’s been furthering the ideals of Sanders’ high-minded political revolution by trying to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, which is going to cut through burial grounds belonging to the Standing Rock Sioux Native American tribe. According to Variety, the protest Woodley attended today also included about 125 to 150 other people, with 27 of them—including Woodley—being arrested for criminal trespassing.

The Facebook Live video (which you can see below) is over two hours long, and Woodley is taken away in handcuffs near the end as multiple armed officers in military-type gear look on. Woodley openly wonders why she’s one of the few people being arrested, suggesting that it’s because she has “40,000 people watching.” As she’s being taken away, she calls out: “I hope you’re watching, mainstream media.” At this point, Woodley’s video has over 2 million views.

 
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