June 22, 2009

Republican hypocrisy on looting

Republicans artifacts complaints outrageousOnce again Republicans reveal, through statements by Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, their outrageous hypocrisy by complaining about the police arrests of elderly white people, et al. for looting Indian artifacts. Apparently Hatch and Bennett don't have a problem with white people ripping off the cultural heritage of Native Americans. Nothing in their statements deplored the actual ongoing criminal activity, just the fact that the justice system took action.

Republicans have promoted themselves as the party of "law and order" for decades. What they mean is setting the justice system against the impoverished and people of color to maintain order for their overwhelmingly white constituents.
Comment:  Couldn't have said it better myself.

Where were these hypocrites when the United States was breaking treaties and the law to oppress and victimize Native people? Oh, right. They were rooting for the Anglo lawbreakers against the innocent Natives. In other words, they were cheering "the justice system against the impoverished and people of color to maintain order for their overwhelmingly white constituents."

I'm reminded of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, in which he spends a lot of time criticizing government officials for repressing Indians, other minorities, immigrants, workers, et al. Here's a quote from Zinn:[A]t this peaceful demonstration, I was attacked by police mounted on horseback and on foot. Before I knew it, I was clubbed and knocked unconscious. You might say I woke up with a new consciousness. I woke up realizing that things my radical friends had been saying to me were really true, that the police and the government were not detached bystanders, that freedom of speech did not really exist for dissenters, for radicals, for troublemakers. So it gave me a radical view of the United States, a critical view of the role of the state and of the instruments of the state—the police, the Army, and so on—as not being neutral at all in political battles, but being generally against workers and against striking people, against dissenters of all kinds.When was the first time law enforcement officials took the side of the poor huddled masses against the rich white establishment? The forced enrollment of the Little Rock Nine in 1957? Almost 200 years after the Declaration of Independence declared that all (white, property-owning) men are created equal?

Yet here we go again. Conservative officials are squealing like stuck pigs because the government is enforcing the law. Against their own kind, that is. To them the crime isn't looting Indian artifacts. It's arresting people who loot Indian artifacts.

"We can't be criminals. We're upstanding white people just like the Founding Fathers. Call my lawyer at the country club and tell him to do something. Those good-for-nothing Indians are on the warpath again."

As the letter writer said, none of these sniveling conservatives has addressed the actual crimes. None of them has said, "The methods of arrest were too harsh even though the arrests themselves were valid." No, the looters are trying to play their "Get Out of Jail Free" cards. "We're white so you can't arrest us for harming Indians."

For more on the subject, see Natives Against Artifact Thieves and Looters "Outraged" Over Indictments.

Below:  "When I do it to you, it's the law. When you do it to me, it's an outrage."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Didn't I say WHITE LOOTERS several postings back and was chastised for pointing out the color of thier skin? Thank you for making my point. Who else but the WHITE DEVILS would dig up graves!! WTF is the matter with you WHITE PEOPLE? I really want to know!


Anonymouse

Anonymous said...

haha you idiots... Its not the fact they got served for breaking the law... They were served in an unjust way. Media is Bullsheet and complety hyped. I know some of the people personally... It was like a nazi raid on american tax paying citizens. It was unjust, unconstitutional and whatever happened to "Inocent until PROVEN guilty"?? I am in full support of the people investigating the way these so called "criminals" where handled as well as their familes.. Young Children!! And now these children are gonna look at cops as someone to trust?? Socialist America is closer than ever.... sad

Anonymous said...

OMG. These poor victims that are robbing graves, my my! What is wrong with people? You don't steal history of a people that has had everything taken from them. Morals? Do you not understand the word. My dad never allowed us girls to take things we thought we found. Maybe it is an age thing. I am 64 and was brought up to respect native history and never take anything. Back in the day, we found hundreds of things in the SW including full pottery, baskets, tools etc. We looked but did not touch. Before my dad died, he said that now he wishes he had let us girls take that stuff as it would have been taken care of and RETURNED to natives. We have gone back to these places many times only to find destroyed property with such disrespect it makes you sick to your stomach.. My dad's nephew would go out and dig up native graves taking any and all he found. My dad truly disliked this man and his nephew was old enough to know better. You people outrage my senses. And the people in Utah, those "religious" idiots see nothing wrong with stealing. Give me a break. What they did was unjust so stop with the whinning.