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Indians rally in NYC against Bloomberg’s racist blooper

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Thursday, 26 August 2010

Indians rally in NYC against Bloomberg’s racist blooper By Bill Weinberg, Today correspondent Story Published: Aug 24, 2010 NEW YORK – Some 100 members of New York state Indian nations rallied on the steps of the Big Apple’s City Hall Aug. 23, to demand an apology from Mayor Michael Bloomberg over his invocation of Old West imagery in the dispute over taxation of cigarette sales on the state’s reservations. With red-and-white pre-printed placards reading “Respect our Culture” and “Respect our Treaties,” the group demonstrated for an hour behind the police security checkpoint that guards pedestrian access to the historic building. In a prepared statement, Chief Harry Wallace of Long Island’s Unkechaug Nation charged Bloomberg with the “use of imagery derogatory to the first nations people of North America in his attempt to pressure Gov. David Paterson to use violence, if necessary, in order to impose an unlawful act on the territories of Indian nations.” On Aug. 13, Bloomberg told the New York Daily News: “I’ve said this to David Paterson, I said, ‘You know, get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun. ... If there’s ever a great video, it’s you standing in the middle of the New York State Thruway saying, you know, “Read my lips – the law of the land is this, and we’re going to enforce the law.’” The newspaper sarcastically wrote that the mayor, “channeling his inner Wyatt Earp, shot himself in the foot.” The comments came as the state has set a Sept. 1 deadline for a crackdown on untaxed tobacco sales at the Seneca Nation in western New York. In 1997, a dispute over the issue led to Seneca activists erecting roadblocks on the Thruway. The Seneca Tribal Council passed a resolution the day after the Daily News story, condemning Bloomberg’s comments and calling on him to resign. The resolution notes the irony of Bloomberg using such imagery as he calls for tolerance and respect for constitutional rights in his support of the proposed Islamic community center near Ground Zero. The National Congress of American Indians has also called on Bloomberg to apologize. “The image of a cowboy and a shotgun on the highways of New York does not represent law and order, but a history of repression, violence and cultural genocide,” Wallace said. He accused Bloomberg of “the scapegoating of the Unkechaug as the reason for the economic crisis in New York.” He called on Paterson to “publicly reject” the comments and give more time for dialogue. Many of the protesters expressed amazement that Bloomberg would be so insensitive given his Jewish background. “How would he like it if someone stood in front of the road dressed like Hitler?” asked Ramona Beglen of the Oneida Nation, who came by bus some five hours northwest of the city. “Everything represented in his phrase is about pushing our peoples out of our territories,” added her daughter, Sheri Beglen. “That was the savagery and brutality that was imposed on our people,” said Lance Gumbs, a senior trustee of Long Island’s Shinnecock Indian Nation and northeast regional vice president of the NCAI. “And the Jewish people went through the same thing. Why doesn’t he get it?” Bloomberg has issued no response to the criticisms of his comments, but is calling on Paterson to extend the impending crackdown on the Seneca to other reservations in the state. Bloomberg claims sales at the two Long Island reservations are costing the city $195 million a year in tax revenues. In December 2008, Suffolk County police set up roadblocks around the Unkechaug Nation’s Poospatuck Reservation in Mastic, in a local crackdown on untaxed cigarette sales. Bloomberg has filed a federal lawsuit against eight shops on the reservation, winning an injunction against further sales last August. Asked for a comment on the protesters’ demands, Bloomberg’s press office responded with a news release touting an Aug. 20 decision by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the city’s favor, denying requests by Poospatuck cigarette dealers to allow them to resume sales. “We are confident that with newly enacted laws – both at the state and federal level – the city will be able to end the massive amounts of illegal cigarette trafficking,” said city attorney Michael A. Cardozo in the statement. When asked again for a statement specifically on the controversial remarks, Bloomberg’s deputy press secretary Jessica Scaperotti said the mayor had no comment. She insisted that the city’s favorable Second Circuit ruling is what “is at the heart of the issue.” Asked for Paterson’s position on the controversy, the governor’s Communications Director Morgan Hook said: “The mayor’s comments obviously do not reflect the policy of the Paterson administration. Gov. Paterson will continue with his stated policy of negotiation, litigation and implementation of the laws of New York when it comes to all dealings with New York’s sovereign Indian nations.” Meanwhile, the Indian nations have also had some favorable rulings and there is more litigation in the works. In May, the New York state Court of Appeals ruled that the Cayuga Nation could continue selling untaxed cigarettes to non-Indians in a case brought by Cayuga and Seneca counties. And on the same day as the Second Circuit ruling, the Seneca Nation brought suit in federal District Court to block the state from collecting taxes on cigarettes sold by the tribe. http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/home/content/NYC-Rally-101322549.html

 

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