[Seattle-editorial] FEATURE PROPOSAL: PELTIER MARCH

[jonathan lawson]

Subtitle: FREEDOM TO ASSEMBLE
Title: Tacoma Peltier Supporters Denied Permit

The City of Tacoma has reportedly blocked a permit to the Tacoma Leonard 
Peltier Support Group for a planned Feb. 8 march and rally seeking justice 
for Peltier</b>. The native rights group has held the event annually for 
ten years, marching on sidewalks Anticipating a larger turnout this year, 
organizers requested a permit. According to a statement from one organizer, 
Tacoma Police told the group that they would be denied a permit <a 
href="http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=21953">unless they 
could pay for additional police deployment</a>. The march will take place 
in any event, leaving Tacoma's <b>Portland Ave. Park at noon Feb. 8</b>, 
followed by a <b>1pm rally at the  Federal Courthouse</b> on Pacific Ave.

<p>Anishinabe/Lakota community activist Leonard Peltier has now been 
incarcerated for 27 years,  for a crime many agree he did not commit. 
Amnesty International considers him a political prisoner  who should be 
"immediately and unconditionally released."  Events leading to <a 
href="http://www.freepeltier.org/peltier_faq.htm">Peltier's 1975 
arrest</a>  for the murder of two FBI agents took place in the context of 
the FBI's <a 
href="http://www.dickshovel.com/covertwar.html">COINTELPRO-style 
campaign</a> to suppress native rights activism at the Oglala Lakota Pine 
Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Peltier spent the latter part of the 
1960s living in Seattle; his activist work here included helping to found a 
Native halfway house for ex-prisoners, alcohol counseling, and protests 
concerning the preservation of Native land within the city.

<p><a 
href="http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=21953">Tacoma 
march info</a> | <a href="http://www.aimovement.org/">American Indian 
Movement</a> <a href="http://www.freepeltier.org">Peltier Defense 
Committee</a> | <a href=" 
http://ishgooda.nativeweb.org/peltier/clemency.htm">Peltier and Clemency</a> |
<a href="http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/chiapas-l/1999.11/msg00132.html"> 
Subcomandante Marcos' letter to Peltier</a> | <a 
href="http://www.permitthis.org</a>Permit This!</a>