On New Year’s Eve two years ago,
Idle No More, the activist movement for Indian rights that started in
Canada and spread across North America, staged a round dance at the
Mall of America that drew hundreds of participants. When the group
tried to repeat the event on Dec. 31, 2013, organizers Patricia
Shepard and Reyna Crow were arrested when they entered the mall.
In a way, Idle No More’s tactics
were the precursor to the Dec. 20 #BlackLivesMatter demonstration,
which brought several thousand folks, a mainly young, racially
diverse group, to the East Rotunda of the largest mall in America.
On one of the busiest Christmas
shopping days, MOA officials brought in dozens of private security
guards, and cops from around the Twin Cities reinforced the
Bloomington PD troops trying to repress the demonstration against the
recent police killings of unarmed black men and children. In the end,
the huge throng that came to the mall on a Saturday afternoon forced
the assembled security force to do what it could to contain the
protest, by closing about 80 stores and blocking off aisles leading
to the packed rotunda. There were 25 arrests, according to press
reports.
MOA officials whined to the press
about protesters intruding on their (taxpayer-subsidized, publicly
accessible) private property and the inconvenience to holiday
shoppers from the mass demonstration. Thankfully, the Bloomington
riot cops behaved with restraint and the protest proceeded in a
boisterous and nonviolent way.
In the next phase, Bloomington City
Attorney Sandra Johnson told WCCO-TV that she is planning to file
criminal charges against the organizers of the demonstration. The MOA
will be calculating the amount of lost sales; and Johnson will tote
up over overtime costs for police. This sort of aftermath is very
familiar to me, as my son, Max, was charged in trumped up conspiracy
after the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul. He and
seven others, the RNC 8, faced a variety of felony charges, and were
prosecuted in Ramsey County District Court for more than two years.
Then the cases fizzled out: charges were dropped against three
defendants, and several others were offered deals that amounted to
the proverbial slap on the wrist, with no jail time.
In any case, the community should do
what’s necessary to provide a legal defense for the
#BlackLivesMatter organizers. Hopefully, large numbers of people can
be mobilized in the future for protests drawing attention to
environmental disasters in the making (PolyMet’s proposed
copper-nickel mine, the Keystone XL pipeline, etc.).
Ma’iingan, Brother Wolf, protected
From the Minnesota Department of
Natural Resources Web site: “Effective Dec. 19, 2014, Minnesotans
can no longer legally kill a wolf except in the defense of human
life. A federal judge’s decision to immediately reinstate
Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Michigan place the animals under protection of the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service.”
As I wrote here, in May 2012,
ma’iingan, our brother, the wolf, was removed from the endangered
species list, in April 2011. In January 2012, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service removed protection for gray wolves in the western
Great Lakes states; then Minnesota and Wisconsin quickly passed
legislation to open up areas for hunting and trapping wolves.
On Dec. 19, U.S. District Court Judge
Beryl A. Howell ruled on a motion brought by The Humane Society of
the United States, and other animal protection groups, deciding that
wolf management in the western Great Lakes should be returned to
federal control.
“In the short time since federal
protections have been removed, trophy hunters and trappers have
killed more than 1,500 Great Lakes wolves under hostile state
management programs that encourage dramatic reductions in wolf
populations,” Jonathan Lovvorn, senior vice president and chief
counsel for animal protection litigation at HSUS said. “We are
pleased that the court has recognized that the basis for the
delisting decision was flawed, and would stop wolf recovery in its
tracks.”
Tribes in the western Great Lakes
region have opposed the recent hunting and trapping seasons for
wolves, establishing reservations as wolf sanctuaries. Non-Indian
hunters apparently were thrilled to have the opportunity to kill
wolves for trophies; and it appears that a lawless element will
ignore the Dec. 19 court decision.
One person commented on the Minnesota
Deer Hunters Association’s Facebook page: “All this partisan
judge did was declare open season on wolves. Regular Joe hunters are
sick and tired of being ignored…. Great job your honor you did way
more damage to your pressious [sic] wolves than any regulated hunting
season ever could. Shoot, shovel, shut up.”
