Colorado Caves To Columbus Day Protestors, Extends Permits To Allow Overnight Camping

**Update
--Glenn Spagnuolo, seen above, erstwhile defender of Ward Churchill and part of the Progressive Italians to Transform the Columbus Holiday (PITCH), has some words about Italians supporting Columbus Day(=KKK), "white identity", colonialism and anti-capitalism (the camera was in my coat pocket, no video, but the sound is great):





AIM and other anti-Columbus Day protestors associated with Transform Columbus Day had planned to camp, illegally, in Veterans Park Friday night--getting "permission" not from "illegal colonizers" and "racist occupiers"--but from the originial tribes in Colorado. On Friday, Colorado's Division of Central Services extended the groups' original permits to essentially allow overnight, illegal camping. The state claimed that the allowance was made so as not to inconvenience the camping protestors; however, the more likely reason was to avoid having to ticket or arrest those campers unwilling to vacate Veterans Park overnight. They essentially defused the situation, so now the protestors will have to earn their civil disobedience and arrest badges some other way (probably by harassing and blocking the Columbus Day parade, as they have so often in the past few years):

American Indians and their supporters peacefully came from the four corners of the state Capitol and the city and county building to camp out at Veterans Park Friday on the eve of Denver's Columbus Day Parade.

And as if to give its blessing - for logistical reasons - the state's Division of Central Services decided on Thursday to extend the permit so that the organizers opposed to the Columbus Day parade could set up their giant teepees and tents in Civic Center and stay overnight.

The permits initially granted were only from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, and from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. today, and Denver and state authorities had indicated they were going to enforce the permits' hours.

"We didn't ask for (the extension)," Glenn Morris, American Indian Movement of Colorado organizer, said. "They unilaterally gave it to us."

Morris said even had the state not extended the permit for their overnight stay, his backers would have defied the authorities saying AIM received their permits to camp out from the elders of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and the Tetuwan Oglala Lakota Band.

"This document grants the endorsement and permission of the traditional headsman, and other leaders of traditional societies of the Northern Cheyenne Nation to members of the American Indian Movement of Colorado and its allies in their actions, including but not limited to, marching and establishing a spiritual, educational and cultural camp, to be held on Oct. 6 and 7, 2006, against the Doctrine of Discovery and Columbus Day, in the traditional Cheyenne territory, now illegally occupied by, and known as the city and county of Denver, Co.," said Morris as he read the permit while participants applauded in approval.

According to an e-mail sent to the organizers, the central services division decided to let the protestors camp overnight to avoid the hassles of having to pack up their tents and belongings on Friday night and return today.

Before this cave-in over permits by the state, a jury led be a lawyer essentially engaged in jury nullification and the destruction of first amendment rights when it decided that illegally blocking any speech or assembly of anyone whose views you find offensive is not only okay, but imperative:

Political correctness won a victory in Denver Thursday, but your rights under the First Amendment were defiled.

That travesty occurred when a Denver jury, in a blatant act of jury nullification, decided that the U.S. Constitution doesn't apply to anyone whose views offend Glenn Morris.

Morris was a leader of the protesters who illegally blocked the 2004 Columbus Day parade, thereby depriving parade participants in particular and Italian-Americans generally of the rights of free speech and freedom of assembly.

In all, 239 protesters were arrested for disobeying police orders to stop blocking the parade. Morris and seven of his fellow Thought Police responded by arguing in court that they had a right to block the Italian-Americans because a celebration of Columbus was "hate speech." In a staggering display of chutzpah, this PC goon squad described themselves as "human rights activists" while labeling their victims, the Italian-Americans, as practitioners of "ethnic intimidation."

Such Orwellian logic in and of itself isn't surprising. The Thought Police have never been distinguished by logic or consistency. And it isn't even too shocking to find a jury dumb enough to buy their argument. We've had juries fly in the face of evidence before, as O.J. Simpson can testify.

But what is most troubling about this particular travesty is that the foreman of the runaway jury, Eric Ruderman, was himself a lawyer. And by his own admission, lawyer Ruderman believed that the anti-Italian goon squad had a right to silence viewpoints they disagreed with.

"All we heard was that Native Americans definitely felt there was a strong element of ethnic intimidation," Ruderman said, adding that if such intimidation continues to exist, the parade should no longer be held.

If you don't like what you are hearing, just silence the speaker. . .a tried and true leftist/moonbat tactic. In this case, illegally blocking any parade you find offensive--defined by you as "hate speech" or "ethnic intimidation"--is a right. To hell with your rights, however.

The state's cave-in on the permits, especially after promising to enforce the existing rules and permits and forcing the protestors out of Veterans Park, is particularly disconcerting in the light of the protestors who faced no legal ramifications after denying first amendment rights to the Columbus Day parade participants in 2004.

Even accepting the argument that by extending permits potential confrontation could be avoided reveals that threatening violence, or at least the necessity for a greater police presence in order to enforce the law created by the potential for conflict, reveals how soft some government officials are in enforcing the U.S. Constitution and existing state law, and how fragile our whole system is when terrorists/hooligans/protestors of any stripe earn concessions simply by creating the perception of potential violence. No wonder the Muslims' rage du jour has proven so effective. The PC mentality was designed to lead to self-censorship, and a loss of our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.

technorati: columbus day american indian movement ward churchill colorado denver italians christopher columbus glenn morris transform columbus day islam muslim political correctness