Each year, it seems, the American Indian Movement outdoes itself in its reaction to the Denver Columbus Day Parade.
This year, so far, has been no exception. In a series of brazen announcements, AIM and its twin organization, the Transform Columbus Day Alliance (TCD), have openly threatened to “end” the parade this year.
A Denver Post editorial Monday said much of what needed to be said about these developments. It included a call for the city of Denver to make it clear it will protect the rights of the Columbus Day Parade marchers.
So far, alas, the official response from the city is nonspecific. Mayor John Hickenlooper said merely that he supports free speech and is required to uphold it. He did not say whose free speech he is most interested in protecting.
Not so long ago, Hickenlooper wrote a rambling letter essentially calling on the parade sponsors to abandon the event in the interest of maintaining civic order. The parade sponsors were called upon to modify the event, water it down, change its name or give it up entirely, all in the interest of ending the controversy.
City council takes a stand
To its credit, the Denver City Council seems to have done a better job understanding whose rights need protection here and has passed two ordinances making it easier for the Denver police to deal with protesters determined to disrupt the parade. Those ordinances could be put to their first real test this year.
AIM and the TCD continue to issue inflammatory and sometimes conflicting statements that exhibit a fundamental misunderstanding of the American legal system. For example, they point out that the state legislature this year refused an opportunity to end Columbus Day as a state holiday. They note that the day remains a federal holiday. In the very next sentence, the two groups simply declare that 100 years of the holiday is “enough.”
So which is it? Is it a holiday endorsed by the state and federal government or one that must be ended regardless of what the law says? Why bother lobbying the legislature if you already possess the power to override it?
It is clear that when it comes to AIM’s hatred of the Columbus Day Parade, the law doesn’t much matter. The parade protesters are planning to converge on downtown Denver in a show of force before the parade on Oct. 6. However, when asked if they had applied for parade permits, they grandly announced that no permits were necessary because “we are on native land.”
This is not just nonsense, it amounts to the purist form of ethnic intimidation, the type that is punishable under state and federal hate-crime laws.
Denver residents should be asking themselves what the response of the city might be if a rabid group of protesters announced that they intended to put an end to the city’s Gay Pride Parade on the grounds that “enough is enough.”
Emotions running wild
This state has already been treated to controversy involving many of these same issues. The firing of Ward Churchill as a professor at the University of Colorado revealed quite clearly that the state and the nation are not well served when raw emotion and historical resentment run wild.
Columbus may have been less than perfect as a human being, but that is no excuse for denying Italians hundreds of years later the rights of assembly guaranteed under the U.S. and Colorado constitutions.
When and if the Columbus holiday is ended, it will be because the people of Colorado, through their elected representatives, decide to end it, not because CU-Denver professor Glenn Morris and other members of AIM think otherwise.
In the meantime, the weak response from the city administration has lessened the value of a parade permit.
Al Knight of Fairplay (alknight@mindspring.com) is a former member of The Post’s editorial-page staff.
