Defense attorney for three parade protesters compares Columbus to Hitler
By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published January 17, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.
Defense lawyers argued Wednesday that Columbus Day protesters had a right to block a Denver parade because it celebrated a man whom American Indians view as a slave trader, murderer and rapist.
"Are you aware that to some Native Americans, celebrating Columbus is the same as celebrating Hitler to Jews?" attorney David Lane asked prospective jurors during the first in a series of trials for more than 80 people arrested in the Oct. 6 protest.
Denver police made the arrests in an annual ritual in which opponents try to block the parade.
Lane argued that the parade is a form of "ethnic intimidation," similar to burning a cross on a black family's lawn.
City attorneys countered that the parade was legal because it had a permit. The only issue for the jury is whether the protesters violated city ordinances, such as blocking the street, they said.
"They want to use this to put Columbus on trial. That's not what this is all about," said assistant city attorney Melissa Drazen- Smith.
A combined trial for three protesters began in Denver County Court.
The defendants are University of Colorado political science professor Glenn Morris, who has been in several of the annual Columbus Day protests; the Rev. Julie Todd, a Methodist minister who is a doctoral candidate at the Iliff School of Theology, and Koreena Montoya of Denver.
Judge Claudia Jordan on Jan. 4 dismissed charges against longtime activist Russell Means. Jordan on Wednesday rejected a motion that would have kept the charges against Means alive.
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January 17, 2008
3:49 p.m.
Suggest removal
forwhatitis writes:
Hey Q, You should try proofreading your posts. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
January 18, 2008
8:29 a.m.
Suggest removal
TeresaBinstock writes:
Most European Caucasians who became invaders of Native American lands never realized that western civilization's conquests occurred viciously throughout what is now the Europe, UK, and Scandinavia. The atrocities committed by Columbus were part of a much larger strategy of land-taking and exploitation which began long before 1492. A parade that honors Columbus is akin to having the KKK march again in Denver, akin to having Jews honor the Brown Shirts.