Lenny Foster to speak in New York on Leonard Peltier and prisoners rights

With a lifetime of experience from AIM and Wounded Knee, to battling for prisoners rights, Lenny Foster will speak in New York 

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Photo: Lenny Foster with Cuny Dog at Peltier Tribunal by Brenda Norrell
Dutch translation at NAIS Gazette

NEW YORK -- Lenny Foster, Diné activist, AIM member and advocate of freedom for Leonard Peltier, will speak in New York in April.

Lenny Foster, Diné, director of the Navajo Nation Corrections Project, has been a voice for the otherwise forgotten Native American prisoners who battle for religious freedom while incarcerated.

Foster will speak at the 2015 New York City Anarchist Book Fair, Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Sq. South, on Saturday, April 18, with the time to be announced. He will also speak at the Riverside Church, 91 Claremont Avenue, Room 10T, on Saturday, April 25, 2-5 p.m.

Foster has served as the spiritual advisor for more than 2,000 Native American inmates in 96 state and federal prisons in the Western U.S. He has co-authored legislation in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah, allowing Native American spiritual and religious practice in prisons, resulting in a significant reduction in prison returns.

Since 1969, Foster has been a member of the American Indian Movement. He has participated in many actions including the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973. He has received many awards and honors, including the 1997 Petra Foundation Human Rights Award in Washington, DC, and a 2013 US Human Rights Movement Builders Award from the Atlanta-based US Human Rights Network. His program was awarded High Honors from Harvard University Honoring Nations 2003 Tribal Governance Excellence.

New York City supporters for freedom for Leonard Peltier said that Foster will speak on several Native issues, including Native American spirituality, prisoner issues, and the illegal imprisonment of Leonard Peltier.

The Anarchist Book Fair brings publishers, designers, writers, artists, musicians and activists from all over North America to this historic location in Greenwich Village. Besides exhibits, the book fair will feature speakers, panels and workshops on a wide range of topics.

The event with Foster at the Riverside Church will open with Frank Menusan on Native flute. It is co-sponsored by the Riverside Church Prison Ministry, an organization of volunteers that conducts advocacy and outreach programs for those in prison, their families and their community, and NYC Free Peltier, dedicated to the freedom of wrongly-imprisoned Native American political prisoner, Leonard Peltier.

In Rapid City, hate crimes are only 'disorderly conduct'

In Rapid City, the good old boy system protects those who commit hate crimes

Photos by Jean Roach, Lakota

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RAPID CITY, South Dakota -- Today in Rapid City, Trace O'Connell did not appear in court, but his lawyer entered a plea of not guilty. O'Connell was charged only with disorderly conduct after throwing beer on Lakota students, and verbally abusing them with racial slurs, at a hockey game. Today's protesters said O'Connell should be charged with a hate crime. The charge of disorderly conduct reflects the good old boy system of justice in Rapid City, a bordertown where racial violence has long been fueled and protected by the media, police and judges.

Read more about this hate crime at Last Real Indians:

Trace O’Connell of Phillip, South Dakota was charged with disorderly conduct. "Mr. O’Connell is the fine gentleman who, while drunk, taunted and racially assaulted several Native American children at a Pro-Hockey Game at the Rapid City Civic Center by spraying beer on them and shouting 'Go Back to the Rez' and possibly other racially motivated attacks against any number of the reported 57 American Horse students who were there as a reward for good behavior and academic achievement."

Read full story at Last Real Indians

http://lastrealindians.com/man-assaults-native-kids-charged-with-disorderly-conduct-in-rapid-city/

Minneapolis AIM spied on via Facebook by Mall of America

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MINNEAPOLIS -- The Intercept exposes how the Mall of America in Minneapolis spied on the AIM Interpretive Center, Black Lives Matter, Idle No More and others using fake Facebook profiles in a scheme known as 'catfishing.' As a result, arrests resulted from peaceful gatherings at the Mall.

The fake Facebook account “liked” Facebook groups associated with Ferguson activists, the American Indian Movement Interpretive Center, Occupy Minneapolis, SumOfUs, the SEIU Minnesota State Council, and Communities United Against Police Brutality, among others, The Intercept reports.

Jim Lukaszewski, a crisis communications expert at Risdall Public Relations, profiled efforts by mall security to carefully track political protesters. In a case study posted on the Risdall website titled “Fulminating Flash mobs,” Lukaszewski explains how mall security responded to a flash mob dance by Idle No More, a Native American rights group. “Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus were being aggressively monitored using Topsy, Monitor, and Kurrently,” the case study claims, noting that arrest kits were prepared in an area “hidden from public view to avoid antagonizing the crowd.”

Read the full story at The Intercept:
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/18/mall-americas-intelligence-analyst-catfished-black-lives-matter-activists-collect-information

Gaza Flotilla Three to Sail

Dutch translation at NAIS Gazette

Hi all, We are using the Gaza Flotilla 2 US Boat to Gaza email list to let you know of another Gaza Freedom Flotilla---Number 3--that will sail in the next few months.  Ann Wright has written the following article about the lack of international attention focusing on the terrible conditions in Gaza and the rationale of sailing another flotilla to bring attention to Gaza. She also mentions that the last boat project from the international community, Gaza's Ark, a renovated fishing/cargo boat in Gaza had been completed and was about ready to sail, when it was targeted and destroyed by the Israelis.