TigerSwan: Crushing Protests for Profit

Cocktails & Capitalism

Have you heard of TigerSwan? This company profits off of the surveillance and suppression of pipeline protests. Staffed with former military personnel from the War on Terror, TigerSwan has developed a hyper-militarized counterinsurgency approach to dealing with protestors resisting fossil fuel projects.

TigerSwan first made a name for itself by monitoring, infiltrating, and disrupting Indigenous-led protests against the development of the Dakota Access Pipeline. A recent article in The Intercept states “To TigerSwan, the emergence of Indigenous-led social movements to keep oil and gas in the ground represented a business opportunity” (Intercept).

Much of what we now know about TigerSwan was recently revealed after the company failed to obtain a security license and was later forced to release over 50,000 pages of documents. The company fought to keep these documents private, which is no wonder since they detail the company’s ruthless targeting of pipeline protestors.

MAIN SOURCE:

“After Spying on Standing Rock, TigerSwan Shopped Anti-Protest ‘Counterinsurgency’ to Other Oil Companies” The Intercept

COCKTAIL PAIRING:

THE FOREST DEFENDER

2 oz White Rum

½ oz Lime Juice

¼ ozSt. Germain Elderflower

¼ oz Celery Juice

¼ ozSimple Syrup

⅛ tsp Matcha powder

Cucumber wheel

Add all ingredients into a shaker, muddle a cucumber, and shake hard with ice. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a thinly-sliced cucumber wheel.

Glassware: Coupe

Garnish: Cucumber wheel

BIG THANKS to Jesse Torres ( @jessejamz ) for crafting this delicious custom cocktail!

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