Posted on 10/04/2006 7:52:52 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
Campers to protest Columbus Day parade AIM; others won't seek permits to pitch tents near Capitol
By Lou Kilzer, Rocky Mountain News October 3, 2006
The American Indian Movement and other activist groups plan to camp at Denver's Civic Center without permits this weekend to protest Saturday's Columbus Day parade.
They say they don't need a permit from "an occupying power" to use their own land.
State and Denver police said Monday they see things otherwise.
If the protesters choose to occupy Veterans Park next to the Capitol as planned, State Patrol officers will remove them, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Lance Clem.
Denver police said they will enforce an 11 p.m. curfew for any nearby property that falls under their jurisdiction.
"We hope that there's not a confrontation," said Glenn Spagnuolo, a member of the Transform Columbus Day Alliance, one of the protest organizers. "We hope that our assurances to the police that we will not harm the parade marchers will (let) us have this camp."
But the group will not ask permission to set up camp, Spagnuolo said.
"Asking an illegal colonizer for permission to be on land that doesn't belong to them doesn't work for us," he said.
Denver's Columbus Day parade, first held a century ago, is the nation's oldest. In recent years, however, it has become a lightning rod for protesters who consider Columbus a genocidal conqueror.
What some see as a possible warm-up for this weekend's annual showdown between Italian Americans and Indian activists took place Monday at a news conference in north Denver called by parade organizers.
Three American Indian activists, who slipped in to watch the event, eventually were invited to join the discussion. Suddenly, though, the two sides began exchanging insults.
Pro-parade forces had brought in an American Indian, David Yeagley, of Oklahoma City, a classical-music composer with a Ph.D. in history, to explain why Columbus should not be considered a racist icon. But before the event was over, Yeagley, who identifies himself as a Comanche, called one of the activists a "commie."
Each side accused the other of racism.
But Spagnuolo assured parade organizer George Vendegnia that his group planned no violence during Saturday's parade.
"We've always said we were going to be nonviolent," he said. But he added, "I'm not saying it will be a lovefest," either.
Many of the organizers said they hoped protesters would give them a break this year. They insisted they have a right to their own celebration.
"Just don't stop my parade," Vendegnia said.
He said protesters have disrupted the parade in the past, and he pledged, "I ain't going to let that happen again."
The protesters plan to march from four directions and descend on Veterans Park at 6 p.m. Friday. Once there, they say, they intend to set up tents and stay overnight.
Spagnuolo said he has his fingers crossed that authorities will not overreact.
Still, he said, "We made a decision that we are no longer respecting the authority of the city of Denver. And we have requested permits from the original tribes."
Three tribes have given the protesters the right to camp in central Denver, he said.
If there are any protesters still there on Saturday, they will see the Columbus Day parade.
Staging for the parade will start at 7:30 a.m. along West 14th Avenue between Bannock and Elati streets.
The parade begins at 10 a.m. at Colfax Avenue and Court Place and ends at 14th Avenue and Broadway.
kilzerl@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2644
Or pretend they are illegal aliens.
I think AIM should be careful when protesting against Italians.
My American Fraternal Italian Association, might be very annoyed.
They say they don't need a permit from "an occupying power" to use their own land.
____________________________________________________
The key word is POWER. So, unless you want us to play cowboys and indians again, I suggest you just apply for the permit.
Simply out of control. Blacks, mexicans, now the indians....Gee, maybe we should send the blacks back to Africa, give the southwest back to the mexicans and the rest goes back to the indians and all us white bread folk can go back to Europe and kill to get what was once ours 1000's of years ago.
Scary part is....the liberals will SUGGEST it for real.
Tents? No tee-pees?
Isn't it cool! Why if an ancestor of yours was wandering in some area in, say, the desert southwest, you can claim a whole continent!!!
Just another drop in the bucket of reasons to oppose the Left in November.
"Gee, maybe we should send the blacks back to Africa, give the southwest back to the mexicans and the rest goes back to the indians and all us white bread folk can go back to Europe and kill to get what was once ours 1000's of years ago."
That IS the ultimate logic to their argument.
A tad off the subject,but just as inane.
Here in Tn. for the Battle of Franklin the Southern
re-enactors won`t be allowed to carry Rebel
flags or even carry rifles,for either side.
Pass out free blankets, courtesy of the white man!
According to idiot Ward Churchill,he(WC) has a right to bar this parade because he has rights "not given to the federal government..nor prohibited by it to the states..."!!!He invoked the ninth amendment when he was asked why he thought he could ban the parade and not be considered a censor.He actually had the nerve to ask the questioner,a student at the university,if he knew what the ninth amendment was.Then went on to show the whole world he doesn't understand simple English.His interpretation involved having the "right" to be free of the opinions of those with whom he disagrees.
Take your racist crap somewhere else.
that's Little Big Horn
Actually, they should be protesting at the mosques around the country and in the other countries of the Americas. According to wikipedia, the Europeans were doing just fine going to Asia using the old route. But with the Fall of Constantinople to the Muslims in 1453, the land route to Asia was no longer an easy route. Portuguese sailors took to travelling south around Africa to get to Asia. Columbus had a different idea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Colombus
It's no mistake that gambling is illegal in Islam. It's just another way to hurt native-americans.
How do the Indians feel about Leif Erickson or the other Vikings? I mean, they got here first, 500 years before Colmubus, and I don't remember American Indians ever saying anything against the Vikings.
Has there ever been a Redskins/Vikings football game?
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