| Solidarity With Leonard Peltier
March and Rally in Tacoma
by Steve Hapy Jr, Arthur J. Miller, and Tacoma Leonard Peltier Support
On February 6 it will be 28 years since Leonard Peltier's arrest, which
we will mark by our annual regional March and Rally For Justice For
Leonard Peltier in Tacoma, WA on February 7, 2004.
While we support all the legal appeals by Leonard's legal team, we
understand the nature of the struggle for justice for Leonard is not
just a legal question but is also political and must have continuous
public support in order to free Leonard. The U.S. Court of Appeals,
Tenth Circuit, made this very clear in the ruling on November 4, 2003.
In that ruling the court stated: "Much of the government's behavior at
the Pine Ridge Reservation and in its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to
be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated
witnesses. These facts are not disputed." Rather than act upon that
which the court states is not disputed, it used Leonard's trial in which
evidence was withheld and witnesses were intimidated as the reason why
it denied Leonard's appeal. That withholding of evidence was also
addressed by the Eighth Circuit Court's ruling in 1986 which stated:
"There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard
Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense
been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the
inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the government's case."
To this day the government is still withholding evidence in the form of
thousands of pages of documents on Leonard's case that it has refused to
release. The reason behind the government's behavior at Pine Ridge and
the improperly withholding of evidence and the intimidation of witnesses
that the court condemns and the reason why the courts have denied
Leonard's appeals is political in nature. As Leonard states in his book
Prison Writings: My life is my Sun Dance:
"I have no doubt whatsoever that the real motivations behind both
Wounded Knee II and the Oglala firefight, and much of the turmoil
throughout Indian Country since the early 1970s, was--and is--the mining
companies' desire to muffle AIM and all traditional Indian people, who
sought--and still seek--to protect the land, water, and air from their
thefts and depredations. In this sad and tragic age we live in, to come
to the defense of Mother Earth is to be branded a criminal."
The government and the multinational energy companies would like people
to forget about Leonard Peltier and what happened at Pine Ridge. We, the
supporters of Leonard Peltier will never allow this to happen. We have
found ourselves even having to stand up to local governments in order to
voice our views in public. At out last march and rally the City of
Tacoma denied us a march permit and with the help of the ACLU we sued
the city and we won our lawsuit.
We are committed to march and rally in pubic in support of Leonard
Peltier for as long as it takes. We will not let Leonard be forgotten!
And we are committed to speak out for Leonard no matter how much the
government tries to interfere with our right to speak and march. We will
not despair, we will not give up, we will not surrender in the face of
the great power of the government and the multinational corporations.
Though we are forced to stand up to great power, we too have power and
it is a power that the government, the FBI and the multinational
corporations will never have, That is the power of truth and the spirit
of the people struggling for a better world. Though we march and rally
for justice for Leonard Peltier, we also are struggling for the people,
the future generations and for Mother Earth herself. All these things
are connected. We ask that all people of good will and believers of
social justice to please join us on February 7, 2004 and march and rally
with us for justice for Leonard Peltier. (See information below on the
march and rally)
To get involved, see
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/nwpeltiersupport,
or send an email to nwpeltiersupport-subscribe@lists.riseup.net.
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