NEW: Leonard Peltier, the Native American rights activist the U.S. govt put in prison ~50 years ago, is getting what may be his last chance at freedom.
FBI director Chris Wray says the bureau remains opposed to his parole.
His statement is full of holes. www.huffpost.com/entry/leonar...
Its absolutely deranged that so many Civil rights activists have remained in prison after all these decades. The absurdity of our justice system that people are celebrated as heroes in history books for Civil Rights but remain imprisoned in spite of such things. It is insidious.
I can never quite reconcile my feelings around this, either. I always catch myself thinking "and these are the heroes who survived; these are the ones who lived".
Is it even any better though? It's still so unclear which is more inhumane - life in prison, or dying free. (Still worse options tho…)
We should never give up fighting for their sakes. They have sacrificed their freedom, their time, and some their lives, and many still suffer. We really are the hope of countless to have justice and freedom in our lifetimes. I hope for a future in which we all have freedom and equity.
Absolutely. I'll never forget the brave predecessors who built these movements on their backs for a future they understood they were not likely to see in their own lifetimes, and I will carry the torch with all the strength I can muster;
but I don't intend to give up on those who're still here now.
Thank you for this skeet. I have advocated for Mr. Peltier's clemency since I was a young man. Which tragically shows you how long he has been imprisoned.
I remember reading about it in the 90s. I was obsessed with the movie Thunderheart and how it loosely spoke to the events of Oglala. The man needs to be freed. That was over 30 years ago and he was already being fictionalized with his 20th anniversary looming.
Of course it would be wonderful for him to breathe his last a free man (his spirit has never been bound) but I think it would be a powerful symbol to many NA.
The initial trial was full of irregularities, the FBI already admitted that they had no evidence years later, cooked up "aid and abetment" charges to keep him in prison.
At this point it's about vindictiveness and an inability to admit errors. Let this man go so he can die with family.
Even the initial report that led the FBI out to the reservation was literally a report of an unidentified Native man stealing boots from the JC Penny 50 miles away which is typically not the type of thing the FBI responds to.
The testimony used to extradite him from Canada was later proven to be untrue and so prosecution couldn’t use that witness in his trial— so this is a “plague o’ both your houses” moment
