By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
This month we revealed the artwork of Leonard Pelteir, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1975 murder of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams, was being displayed at the Washington Department of Labor and industries during a Native American art and culture event. After the article, KING-5 News broadcast a news segment concerning the controversy which led to the immediate removal of the art.
The artwork in question has found a new home for its display and promotion.
I first reported the unsettling situation where a government agency was promoting the art of this convicted cop killer, which was only certain to generate controversy in the Law Enforcement Community along with the families of those who have lost their loved ones. The State of Washington sponsored a convicted murderer’s artwork and provided free advertisements toward its purchase. I view this as highly unethical and a strong conflict of interest. The State of Washington should not be in the business of helping convicted cop killers profit while in prison. It is an insult to the families of agents Coler and Williams and those who have served in the profession.
The great irony of this affair is that the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries is the agency charged with paying benefits to police officers injured on the job and to also administer the Washington State Crime Victim’s Compensation Fund.
A grocery store in Olympia Washington is now hosting and promoting the art for its customers to reflect on its artistic merits as well as voicing activism supportive of the Free Leonard Peltier cause. This is a private co-op market and not a government agency. From its website the Olympia Food Co-op shows the four paintings from the Labor and Industries display and announced that they are proud to be host of Mr. Peltier’s artwork through November and invited others see his “beautiful works.”
Since this grocery store is a private company and not a government agency it likely will generate less controversy from the Law Enforcement Community than did the L&I display.
By Darren Smith
Source: Olympia Food Co-Op
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
And Jane Fonda is a traitor
JJ This country has been at war with radical Islam since the shores of Tripoli.
Oh, and if that’s not reason enough to abstain from using poison, I know someone who used poison to get rid of rats in a commercial building. They all died behind the walls where they rotted. The stench was so bad they had to break down the walls, scoop out their liquifying bodies, and do massive drywall repair.
I’m going to make a non sequitur and ask people to consider not using rodent poison. We just found a beautiful coyote pup dead on our fence, likely poisoned. Rodent and snail poison are like land mines. You have no idea or control over what will eat it, or what will eat the dead rodent. The last study I read indicated that over 75% of predators, including raptors, in CA tested positive for rodent poison, which persists in their system for months, causing cumulative damage.
If you ask around, most of you will encounter someone whose dog got into poison. I know someone whose dog almost died from eating snail poison that was left out at a park, one whose dog almost died eating poison at a nursery, and one whose dog did die when it got into ground squirrel poison. And wild animals die all the time, or get mange, from ingesting poison. There was just recently a mountain lion who died from the cumulative effects of rodent poison.
Don’t do it. Use traps instead.
The paintings are protected by copyright law, as prescribed in the constitution.
The Cointel Program gave automatic weapons to the Klan in a few areas in the South and mid South back in the 60s and 70s. If the Cointel Program was in any way involved in the Peltier case then he should be released. When the CIA kills then all Americans are guilty because they did in in your name.
Joseph Jones You are correct
Government should be as small as possible. It should not promote art of any kind.
JimC said: “new evidence emerged indicating that Peltier couldn’t have killed the agents”
“An FBI ballistics expert found that the firing pin and cartridges used in the killings didn’t come from Peltier’s gun.
Thank you. I was using this forum to learn about Peltier. I was wrong.
Jim Holland – since several weapons were used in the shoot out and several were found in the burned out RV, it is really hard to tell if Peltier had possession of any one particular weapon.
More from News From Indian Country :
“Editors Note: Many of our readers will remember the 20+ or so years of support NFIC gave to Leonard Peltier and other AIM myths before our investigative work with the late Richard LaCourse and other Native journalists turned up numerous changing alibis, evidence of additional murders, and convincing recorded interviews about Peltier interrogating Annie Mae Pictou Aquash by putting a gun in her mouth and bragging about shooting FBI agent Ron Williams. In recent years Peltier has also chosen to utilize his lobbying efforts in support of attempts to keep John Boy Patton Graham from going to trail in the alleged execution of Annie Mae, writing to Denise and Debbie Pictou Maloney to tell them that he would not lift a finger to assist in finding justice for their mother if it meant another brother would go to jail.
Part of the result of those revealations led to our endorsement for reading purposes and fact checking reality of the other side of the story — that one written by former FBI agent Joe Trimbach and his son John.”
Here is more information on Peltier. The source is a Native American newspaper, which uncovered Peltier’s lies and changing story. The newspaper had supported him for years until journalists unravelled his story:
http://newsfromindiancountry.com/index.php/investigations/leonard-peltier/17-demain-editorial-2002
Looks like the Hitler Youth is getting a late start today. Must’ve slept in.
Darren,
How do you like your tax dollars buying “Patriotic” displays (often involving jets capable of delivering WMD) at Sporting events?
How do you like your tax dollars having created Al Qaeda and ISIS, and Western-financed military (Al Saud “Royal” family) occupying Islam’s most Holy of all Holy sites, Mecca, making the USA a target of every patriotic Islamic?
How do you like the USA spitting on G. Washington’s advice in his Farewell Address: “…all foreign entanglements are temporary…” (e.g. our “…permanent bond w/Israel…” per Obama and H. Clinton)?
Or the USA’s “diplomacy” w/Israel, which comprises a constant felonious criminal state of being per the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty? The NNPT prohibits signatories (USA) from diplomacy w/non-signatory nuclear armed nations? Do you think, when a nation lives in a constant state of felonious existence, that that engenders a law abiding response by its citizens?
How do feel you about Israel guaranteeing the world that Israel shall end life on earth if anyone takes “their land” (land the USA and the League of Nations gave them by threat of force)?
How do you feel about the USA being in bed w/ the most evil and corrupt criminals on the face of the earth such as the Al Saud family? Do you think this engenders friendship and acceptance among Muslims who live under the Al Saud regime?
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/americas/5-reasons-president-obama-should-release-leonard-peltier/
“In 1991, Gerald Heaney, the judge who presided over Leonard Peltier’s 1986 appeal hearing, expressed his concerns about the case. In a letter to Senator Daniel Inouye, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, Gerald Heaney wrote that he believed “the FBI used improper tactics in securing Peltier’s extraction from Canada and in otherwise investigating and trying the Peltier case.” He added: “Although our Court decided that these actions were not grounds for reversals, they are, in my view, factors that merit consideration in any petition for leniency filed.””
The point that you and others appear to miss is that markets, such as the one mentioned in the article, probably (although I am not certain) is or has been the recipient of government funding in the form of grants and/or forgivable loans
bam bam
You are right. I did miss that point. The Co-op might also be a recipient of government USDA grants and as such is also using tax payer funding to promote the financial advancement of a convicted killer.
Unfortunately, we (taxpayers) do not seem to have any ability to control or protest the uses of our tax dollars. Planned Parenthood’s abortion mills for example. Wars Foreign aid to unsavory regimes.. EPA agendas etc etc etc. Perhaps the real problem is that the government is too much involved with things that they have no business being involved in. Smaller government, less taxes and less things for everyone to get their panties in a wad about 🙂
Good for Jane, still doing good for the people. A lot of posters here know diddly squat about Pine Ridge and the ongoing genocide against American Indians. And, they could care less. I’ve been to Pine Ridge, spent a little time there in 1973. Some of you people are so prejudiced it stinks up the whole thread including the OP. Anybody that believes what the fumbling bureau of idiots says is a fool. I’ve taken classes from them, liars to the max. Former certified/commissioned law enforcement officer, USMC Vietnam 1966/67, VVAW, Creek/Choctaw, Wounded Knee II Vet. Some of you know not of what you speak.