Monday,
October 08
The
ANNOTICO Report
This year was the
Centennial Celebration of Denver's Columbus Day parade, which was started in
1907, and lately has a history of arrests and confrontations between supporters
and detractors of Christopher Columbus
7NEWS
Jaclyn
Allen
October
7, 2007
DENVER
-- Denver
police on Saturday arrested dozens of Columbus Day protesters who said they
were determined to stop this year's parade in downtown Denver.
Some
Native American activists have demonstrated for years, but they said on this 100th
year of
"We're
here to make a statement that in the birthplace of Columbus Day, it has to stop
somewhere," said Glenn Morris, a Native American activist. "That's
why we're out here because it constitutes ethnic intimidation and race
hate."
He
poured fake blood with doll parts into the street to represent the genocide of
indigenous people. Many believe the holiday celebrates a slave trader and the
wholesale slaughter of Native Americans.
Columbus
Day parade organizers, however, say the celebration has become part of
Italian-American culture and heritage.
"I've
been coming to these parades since I was 10," said Anna Vann, a parade
organizer, who waited for more than an hour for police to get protesters out of
the parade's path. "It's aggravating. I don't care if they protest; that's
their right, but don't interfere with the parade."
Hundreds
of demonstrators showed up to line the streets, and some tried to block the
parade route.
Police
said no one was seriously hurt, and there was no violence as in past years.
Most
of the protesters face charges of impeding the right of way of a parade route
and 10 people face charges of resisting arrest.
Police
said large protests like the one downtown help them learn and prepare for next
year, when the Democratic National Convention will be in downtown
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