Posted on 02/03/2005 10:27:36 PM PST by churchillbuff
DENVER - The Denver City Attorney dropped charges against protesters who blocked the Columbus Day Parade, after eight organizers argued that the celebration of Columbus represents hate speech and encourages the theft of land and loss of language and culture in Indian country.
''Our acquittal last week and the dismissals today are a great victory for historical accuracy and for the power of our spiritual ways - both the pipe and the drum were present in the courtroom and I believe that our trial was the first time in history that the AIM song was sung in open court,'' co-organizer Glenn Morris told Indian Country Today on Jan. 23.
''It was amazing. This set of developments is a total surrender by the City of Denver, and a complete vindication of our confrontation of the hate speech that is embodied in Columbus celebrations,'' Morris said.
''The trial was also a powerful consciousness-raising tool that the legacy of Columbus is alive and well in the theft of Shoshone treaty territories in Nevada, the trust fund thefts, the continuing destruction of Indian languages, culture and young people's lives - all of that was offered as evidence in our case.''
Morris is an attorney, chair of the Political Science department at the University of Denver and member of the leadership of the American Indian Movement in Colorado. Morris was in the group of eight protesters acquitted. The group included professors, an Italian activist and a Denver reverend, arrested along with more than 230 others, blocking the Sons of Italy Columbus Day Parade in downtown Denver on Oct. 9, 2004.
Before the acquittal of the eight protesters, defendants said a Denver prosecutor insulted and demeaned Indian sacred ways when he compared their sacred pipe to a baloney sandwich.
Two defendants asked to testify truthfully while holding an unlit ceremonial pipe. Assistant City Attorney Robert Reynolds responded and told the three judges hearing pretrial motions, ''They can place their hands on a ham sandwich or baloney sandwich as long as they tell the truth. It doesn't matter to me.''
Defense attorney David Lane told the judges that Reynolds' remark was ''exceedingly offensive and insensitive.'' Lane said the comment reflected ''the city's general attitude toward their culture.''
Following the acquittals of the eight organizers, City Attorney Cole Finegan dropped the charges against the other 230 protesters. Finegan said he believed there was no reasonable chance for convictions.
Finegan said Denver County judges ruled that Denver's loitering ordinance cannot be used to prosecute the protesters, even though protesters ''deliberately disrupted the Columbus Day parade.
''Those judges also granted the protesters' legal motions to suppress evidence that would have aided the prosecution's case. Those rulings resulted in the dismissal of several cases prior to trial.
''Based upon these decisions and the jury decision last Thursday [Jan. 20] to acquit eight of the defendants despite our strong belief that we proved our case, I have concluded that our office should not continue these prosecutions. After reviewing the facts and the rulings to date, and knowing that the facts will be substantially the same in each case, I do not believe that we have a reasonable likelihood of conviction.''
However, Finegan announced that his office would draft ordinances, modeled upon the state laws that make it illegal to disrupt a lawful assembly and to obstruct a highway or a passageway. ''We hope that these new ordinances will better protect the First Amendment rights of both parade participants and protesters.''
Following the rulings, defendants said the leading newspapers in Denver reflected the anti-Indian sentiment in their opinion articles, siding with the Italian American promoters of the Columbus Day parade.
Denver Post columnist Ed Quillen said Denver police acted correctly when they arrested the protesters. In his column on Jan. 25 titled ''These are civil rights?'', Quillen disagreed with the defendants and said that Columbus Day parade does not represent hate speech. Further, he said the government does not have an obligation to suppress hate speech.
''We have the right to march in parades to celebrate Martin Luther King or Nathan Bedford Forrest, to honor Sitting Bull or George Armstrong Custer, and we have the right to stand on the sidelines and heckle the paraders.'' Quillen said the defense attorneys should not have portrayed their clients as ''heroic defenders of civil rights.''
The Rocky Mountain News editorial on Jan. 22 was titled ''Intimidation law sadly misused.'' The newspaper disagreed with the defense argument that the parade was a form of ethnic intimidation.
Ethnic intimidation is illegal under Colorado law and protesters argued they had a public duty to stop the parade and prevent an illegal act. The newspaper said defendants argued that ''participants knew Columbus represents a fearful symbol of violence and oppression to Native Americans, and an incitement against their welfare.''
The Rocky Mountain News, among the corporations protested as unjust in previous Columbus Day protests, criticized the outcome of the arrests in reference to the ethnic intimidation law.
The newspaper editorial said: ''Whatever the constitutionality of the law, however, it is a sad day for free speech when a jury signals there is no First Amendment right to hold an unmolested parade in Denver.''
Meanwhile, defendants said the eight on trial were among 239 human rights activists arrested for ''protesting a celebration of genocide initiator Christopher Columbus.''
During the trial of the eight organizers, as part of the jury selection process, the court sustained two objections by the defenders challenging the city's exercise of two preemptory challenges. This was based upon the city being unable to articulate a valid non-race-based reason for removing a Hispanic juror as well as a woman of American Indian heritage.
''In essence, in a trial where race and ethnicity is paramount and at issue, the city of Denver chose to attempt to remove potential jurors based on racial grounds, contrary to law,'' said Mark Brandes, one of the co-councils for the 239 defenders.
Defendants said the disturbing initial action by the city and disturbing comparison of American Indian's sacred pipe to a baloney sandwich, intensified their concerns that the city's zealous prosecution was racially motivated.
The eight defendants acquitted were Ward Churchill, Ketoowhah Cherokee, chairman of the ethnic studies department at Colorado University in Boulder and member of Colorado AIM; Glenn Morris, Shawnee, Colorado AIM; Troylynn Yellow Wood, Cheyenne/Lakota, Colorado AIM; Nita Gonzales, Escuela Tlatelolco; Rev. Reginald Holmes, Greater Denver Ministerial Alliance; Glenn Spagnuola, Italian-American activist; Prof. Natsu Saito, Georgia State Law School and LeRoy Lemos, community activist.
During the protest organized by the Transform Columbus Day movement, Western Shoshone Carrie Dann and other protesters said Columbus' arrival initiated the genocide of indigenous people.
Meanwhile, Italian American parade participants said they were honoring an explorer as well as their own Italian heritage.
Denver prosecutors have had difficulty convicting protesters arrested during previous parades as well. Four were acquitted in April 1992 for blocking the 1991 parade. After those acquittals, organizers of the parade canceled the 1992 event. It lay dormant until 2000 when it was revived by Sons of Italy-New Generation. In 2000, 139 protesters were arrested, but the cases against them were all dismissed.
Two defendants asked to testify truthfully while holding an unlit ceremonial pipe. Assistant City Attorney Robert Reynolds responded and told the three judges hearing pretrial motions, ''They can place their hands on a ham sandwich or baloney sandwich as long as they tell the truth. It doesn't matter to me.''
OK, find the new planet we need to go to before these wacko leftists destroy this one.
As far as I know, you can still read his column on frontpagemag.com.
2. There are no Columbus day parades in Italy. Besides, Columbus was Genoese, and why would a bunch of Sicillians and Neopolitans idolize him like their descendents do in the states?
3. The worst atrocities committed against the Indians were committed by other Indians.
AIM: A$$holes In Moccasins. American Indian Marxists. One of the founders of the movement in the 1960's (Banks or Means . . . I can't remember which) did jail time for beating up his wife. Real Sweethearts.
EVERYONE SHOULD IDOLIZE US!
(Takes quarter-pound of Sicilian salami down from shelf and stomps upon it, in order to symbolize her region's superiority over other parts of the Italian peninsula. Then, chucks it directly at "Clemenza's" head.)
:)
-good times, G.J.P.(Jr.)
I recall a discussion that took place on the Tavis Smiley Snow-on NPR-about a month or two ago, where he-along with a number of other panelists of varying philosophical viewpoints-were invited by the host to discuss the present and future of race relations within the United States.
His take essentially revolved around blaming the Spanish conquistadors for the mess that we're in, and demanding a reversal of course by the federal government in its policies towards the American Indian, even though they are the ones who are chiefly responsible for the disastrous policies we've pursued in this arena for the past two centuries.
His counterpart, Richard Rodriguez, was able to articulate a cogent, compelling vision of a pluralistic, diverse society, which blended the unique gifts provided by a multiplicity of unique cultures.
Means, on the other hand, was simply a font of timeworn, platitudinous, leftist cant and unremitting resentment.
Russell did endorse Thune over Daschle. I also like him in the otherwise abominable Last of the Mohicans.
That is surprising.
Did it have anything to do with the attempt-on the part of the Daschle campaign-to get a third party candidate, who was a member of the Sioux nation, to drop out of the race?
Means is somewhat of a goofball, but he realizes that answers for Indian country don't lie with the Federal Government, despite the efforts of the Dems to convince them so. Means has never identified himself as a leftist, and instead assumes the mantle of libertarianism.
Just based upon that one panel discussion, I wasn't able to differentiate his views from that of a fairly conventional liberal Democrat.
I realize that some intellectual charlatans, e.g. Noam Chomsky, like to assume the mantle of libertariasm-in order to make their noxious ideology palatable to a wider section of the American public-even though their beliefs contradict the very cornerstones of Utilitarianism, as embodied in the philosophy of men like John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham.
I know that he flirted with the Libertarian Party when he was considering running for political office in New Mexico, but that's the extent of my knowledge regarding his personal political convictions.
And Mr. Morris can place Mr. Columbus where during the scene of these alleged crimes? Can he find anything in the Genoan's charter dictating destruction of any sort?
Judge NRT would find for the parade organizers and convict the leftist race-baitors for contempt, plus fine them for the full expenses of the court proceedings and any related expenses (occasionally using the pipe as a backscratcher while doing so).
We need more Graglias on the bench and less Tatels.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.