http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jan/17/defense-attorney-for-thre
e-parade-protesters-to/

Defense attorney for three parade protesters compares Columbus to Hitler

By Berny Morson

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Defense lawyers argued Wednesday that Columbus Day protesters had a right
to block a Denver parade because it celebrated a man whom American Indians
view as a slave trader, murderer and rapist.

"Are you aware that to some Native Americans, celebrating Columbus is the
same as celebrating Hitler to Jews?" attorney David Lane asked prospective
jurors during the first in a series of trials for more than 80 people
arrested in the Oct. 6 protest.

Denver police made the arrests in an annual ritual in which opponents try
to block the parade.

Lane argued that the parade is a form of "ethnic intimidation," similar to
burning a cross on a black family's lawn.

City attorneys countered that the parade was legal because it had a permit.
The only issue for the jury is whether the protesters violated city
ordinances, such as blocking the street, they said.

"They want to use this to put Columbus on trial. That's not what this is
all about," said assistant city attorney Melissa Drazen- Smith.

A combined trial for three protesters began in Denver County Court.

The defendants are University of Colorado political science professor Glenn
Morris, who has been in several of the annual Columbus Day protests; the
Rev. Julie Todd, a Methodist minister who is a doctoral candidate at the
Iliff School of Theology, and Koreena Montoya of Denver.

Judge Claudia Jordan on Jan. 4 dismissed charges against longtime activist
Russell Means. Jordan on Wednesday rejected a motion that would have kept
the charges against Means alive.