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 let’s not forget that Peltier was on that reservation specifically to help overthrow the local tribal government.
Nick:
“This is different. I would simply choose not to shop in this store. Taxpayers do not have a choice to not pay taxes to a govt. that promotes cop killers. “There is no freedom without choice. “”
Exactly. These are private individuals, who are free to act like utter morons if they like. 🙂
And may I add that he shot the FBI agents’ car so full of holes that it looked like Swiss cheese. And then he walked up to them to give a coup de grace, shooting off the fingers of one of the agents while he shot him in the face.
AND he confessed multiple times to the crime before he and his friends concocted a “Mr X”, of which the story changed several times. His own accomplice stated that there is no Mr X. They made it all up. But unfortunately for the Native Americans who lived on the reservation at the time, activists believe his story. So they still harass the other Native Americans, demanding they produce this “Mr X”. They get no peace while Peltier gets to be fawned over by the likes of Jane Fonda.
A questionable choice of artist to display at a family market.
I’ve posted links on the other thread on Peltier how he terrorized other Native Americans, the evidence against him, and several articles by a Native American publisher on how their extensive research uncovered Peltier’s story continually changed. They concluded he was guilty, as did a jury, as did his multiple attempts at appeal. He also put a gun in a Native American woman’s mouth in order to terrorize her into not “ratting” on him. He is no folk hero.
There are indeed innocent men in prison who need help to get exonerated. It is thankfully rare, but it does happen. This is not one of those cases.
His is not an honorable cause.
Private individuals can buy or display their art as they please. And customers can vote with their feet. Perhaps the area is foolish enough that a man who terrorized Native Americans in general and a woman in particular will appeal to them. I am shaking my head that he has become a cause celebre to too many people, but apparently Jane Fonda never learns, because she is a collector of his.
This is the free market (not to make a pun about markets/stores) at work.
When the government is promoting and financing with our tax dollars a cause, it is not a free market because we have no choice as to whether to pay taxes or not. It doesn’t matter if you agree with the cause or not and it is completely immaterial whether this guy is guilty or not. Rehashing the case is a complete waste of time and no one’s mind is likely to be changed, Waste of pixels The issue is that the government is promoting his art, acting as a selling agent…….. and using OUR money to do it.
The grocery store in this article is completely free, or should be, to promote any artist that they like. They could show Hitler paintings if they wanted to and should be free to do so without being protested, berated or punished. I would find a Hitler art show to be in poor taste and others would find it more than that. People who disagree should be free to shop elsewhere. Starting boycotts and trying to harm the business, bully them into submission, is something that should be as abhorrent as the actual Hitler or Peltier show.
Free market. Show your protest by not supporting the company but don’t impede those who DO want to support it. Money talks.
DBQ
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. Our government–you know, the one that exists because of taxpayers–through the USDA, distributes $31,000,000 in funding to support such enterprises because these co-ops supply fresh and wholesome food. I’m all for that. To declare that these enterprises, however, are unencumbered by the receipt of those federal funds is another thing. Supporting the display of a convicted cop-killer and simultaneously pocketing federal funds should sound an alarm.
http://stuartjeannebramhall.com/tag/leonard-peltier/
“Cointelpro 101: The Sabotage of Legitimate Dissent
By Andres Alegria, Prentis Hemphill, Anita Johnson and Claude Marks (2010)
Film Review
Cointelpro is the name given to the illegal counterinsurgency program FBI director J Edgar Hoover launched in the fifties and sixties against the civil rights movement, the American Indian Movement, the Puerto Rican independence movement, the Chicano/Mexicano rights movement, unions and different social justice movements. Its various tactics included illegal surveillance, wiretaps and break-ins, extrajudicial assassinations and plots to frame activists for crimes they didn’t commit.
The program had to be kept secret because it was illegal. The American public only learned about Cointelpro after antiwar activists broke into a Philadelphia office the FBI shared with the Selective Service in 1971. Intending to destroy draft registration documents, they accidentally stumbled across Cointelpro-related letters and memos and leaked them to the press.”
Forms of, not form of.
Nick
It’s more than admonishing shoppers to vote with their pocketbooks and advising them to shun stores and/or co-ops like this one. It is my understanding that the USDA spends $31,000,000 in helping to assist these various markets and programs which aim to distribute healthy food. I think that’s fantastic. Wonderful. Wanna bet this place is on the receiving end of government assistance in the form of grants and forgivable loans?
While I, too, view this gratuitous art display of a convicted cop-killer as abhorrent–albeit, now housed in a private grocery–I can’t help but to notice the inconsistency of Darren’s statements regarding the offensiveness and insulting nature of said display, given his ability to allow photos of the Nazi swastika to be equated with the American flag and displayed on this very blog. Want to argue that some displays are to be considered such an affront to the victims that they are deemed to be inappropriate for viewing? Peltier was responsible for a couple of deaths–the Nazis murdered millions. The same indignation, which drives you, Darren, regarding the display of Peltier’s artwork, should also kick in as demented and psychotic souls attempt to post photos of our flag with swastikas emblazoned upon it. The art display is an affront to the victims of Peltier? What about the brave American men and women who lost their lives fighting and dying to protect this country and the world from Nazism? What about them? You feel no compulsion to censor those highly offensive, vulgar and insulting images from this blog, yet you, for some reason, seem to get the irresponsibility of showing the cop-killer-Peltier’s alleged artwork. I see a strange, and, quite glaring, inconsistency.
bam bam – I ran into a situation with a play script I wanted to produce. It was by a convicted killer. I had to get permission from this person appointed by the state. He just absolutely refused to give me permission to produce the play. There was no way in hell this play was ever going to be produced.
Progressive Saints sure seem to leave lots of dead bodies behind them.
Progressive stores sure seem to alienate half of their customer base with ease.
Does the co-op sell some Stalin and Mao t-shirts inside?
I assumed the Che t-shirts are part of the store’s uniform.
While off subject, I don’t think anybody in their right mind would think Bundy killed anybody. But he has refused to pay what is owed to the government and had the situation been different, he and his right wing nut supports would have gone down, and they should have. BTW, Leonard didn’t kill any fumbling bureau of idiots either.
I expect that the owners/shoppers at the grocery store are more enlightened than Darren. Kudos to the co-op.
bettykath – I would bet that none of the owner/operaters of the co-op have been to Pine Ridge.
Gee, I was unaware the liberal boogie man, Cliven Bundy, killed two FBI agents. Is that what MSNBC is reporting?
I’m curious why Darren returns to once again demonizing Peltier.
“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. And all three witnesses who placed Peltier at the scene of the killing later recanted, saying that they’d been coerced by the FBI and denied access to their attorneys.”
“The federal parole board wrote in 1993 that it “recognizes that the prosecution has conceded the lack of any direct evidence that Peltier participated in the executions of the two FBI agents.”
An array of progressive, libertarian, and human rights groups have urged for Peltier to receive clemency. Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark acts as his pro bono attorney. But the only thing that can help Peltier is presidential action.”
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33823-instead-of-pardoning-a-turkey-obama-should-free-this-man
JimC – Peltier admits shooting at the FBI which is enough to convict him under the felony murder rule. He is not exactly Mister Nice-Guy. Do you realize a civil war was going on at Pine Ridge during this period. Some 60 Indians ended up dead. It wasn’t the FBI shooting them.
By all means accept responsibility for your actions, you know, like Cliven Bundy.
This is different. I would simply choose not to shop in this store. Taxpayers do not have a choice to not pay taxes to a govt. that promotes cop killers. “There is no freedom without choice. “
Rob walmart? Protest at Cronkite’s grave?
Better option, accept blame for your own actions
Walmart would never display his artwork. They will display ads for cigarettes and sell them though.
Smoking tobacco kills. The American retail industry thrives on your death if you smoke. Guns are quicker. If you get lung cancer then rob the Walmart which sold you the poison. Or protest at Walter Cronkite’s gravesite. He is the one whom you watched on tv and he was paid to smoke on the airtime so as to convince children it was cool.
At least somebody has a good mind, thanks to the store. Try this: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33823-instead-of-pardoning-a-turkey-obama-should-free-this-man
Maybe they should display all the works. They are all equally valuable.