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American Indian Movement of Colorado

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Friday, January 21, 2005

2 articles about the acquittal

Here are 2 articles about yesterday's acquittal of the first 8 defendants to go on trial for confronting the Columbus Day Convoy of Conquest.
Leaders of parade protest acquitted
By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post Staff Writer

The eight leaders of the protest who blocked the 2004 Columbus Day parade were acquitted Thursday, and they immediately asked the city to halt similar Columbus Day parades in the future.

"What this verdict says is that hate speech should be relegated to the past," said Glenn Morris, one of the defendants.

Morris also said that charges pending against dozens of others should be dismissed.

"It is time for the mayor and city attorney to drop all the charges. We call on the people of Denver to demand that all the charges be dropped," Morris saidFull article


The Rocky Mountain News article appears below.
Columbus Day parade activists acquitted
Verdict may bode well for 200 others arrested at protest

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
January 21, 2005

Eight activists charged with failure to obey a police order during a protest of last year's Columbus Day parade in Denver were found not guilty Thursday.

The clean sweep for the defendants, who were represented by lawyers who took their cases for free, may bode well for more than 200 other people arrested at the same event

"This was a case about justice and about historic truth and honesty," said one defendant, Glenn Morris, a member of the American Indian Movement. "Hate speech in Denver should be relegated to the past."

The eight defendants were acquitted in Denver County Court by a six-member jury, which deliberated for three hours. They were among those charged with failure to leave the intersection of 19th and Blake streets Oct. 9, where they gathered to block the annual Columbus Day parade, whose participants had a city permit for the event.

The protesters, members of the Transform Columbus Day Alliance, which includes a number of leaders from the American Indian Movement, see the Columbus Day parade as ethnic intimidation, a celebration of the mass genocide and oppression of American Indians and the birth of the slave trade between Africa and North America.full article

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