Articles
Native Prayer Walkers Attacked by Police in Columbus, Ohio
By Wambli Gleska
Jun 5, 2008, 3:30pm

Northern Longest Walkers attacked by police - Columbus, OH

From: Wambli Gleska 'No Justice on Stolen Land!'
Date: Jun 3, 2008 4:01 PM

COLUMBUS Ohio – Unprovoked Columbus, Ohio police, attacked Long Walkers, by first pointing a taser at the head of Michael Lane and then forcing Luv the Mezenger to the ground and handcuffing him.

The Longest Walk Northern Route was walking this prayer through Columbus on Monday, June 2, when squad cars and arrest wagons arrived. Without discussion of the purpose of the prayer walk, or even verify that the Ohio Department of Transportation had been notified of the prayer walk, police attacked the walkers.

Michael Lane, who arrived on the walk with his wife, Sharon Heta, Maori, and their children from New Zealand, was targeted by police with a taser.

As dozens of police came at the walkers, a police officer held a taser three feet away from Lane’s head.

Luv the Mezenger from Los Angeles went to the aid of Lane.. At that point, police officers threw Luv on the ground and handcuffed him.. Luv has been on the walk since it left California in February, walking over a stretch of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on snowshoes.

Lane, who has a law degree from the University of Arizona, said the worst part of being targeted by a police officer with a taser was that it terrified his daughters who only knew that a gun was being pointed at their father’s head.

Across the continent, police-induced deaths from tasers have increased.

Luv suffered minor injuries from the police attack. Police made no arrests.

Govinda Dalton, broadcasting on the live Longest Walk Talk radio on Earthcycles web radio, said, “They came to arrest the walkers with paddy wagons without even having a discussion as to what the walk is about, or the fact that the Ohio Department of Transportation has already been contacted.

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The harassment by Ohio police continued today, Tuesday, June 3, when police ordered Longest Walk drummers off an area at the Ohio State Capitol. However, the Long Walkers continued with their press conference and aired statements on their loud speaker at the capitol.

It has been almost four months since the prayer walk began on Alcatraz, on Feb. 11. Until June 2, there were no attacks on the walkers. In fact, the majority of the governors in the states that the northern route has walked through have issued proclamations of support for the Longest Walk 2.

The Longest Walk 2 for Mother Earth and protection of sacred places is being walked thirty years after the original 1978 Longest Walk, a prayer walk for Indian rights and the recognition of the inherent sovereignty of Indian people and Indian Nations.

Listen for interviews on Earthcycles’ Longest Walk Talk Radio which has archived 400 interviews with walkers and people along the route since the walk left Alcatraz, on issues all across America.

The radio topics, voiced by people across America, have included the rise of the police state in the United States, the targeting of American Indians by city, state and federal police, the rise of xenophobia and the television-fueled, fear-mongering by the Bush administration in the violations of federal law and rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, including free speech.

The radio topics include global climate change, nuclear testing and gold mining on Western Shoshone lands, Paiute traditional hunting and gathering rights, scientists battling Paiutes for 10,000 year old Spirit Cave Man remains, the Kickapoo Nation without water in Kansas, Navajo coal mining and relocation, Nazi-style forces at the US/Mexico border and the destruction of Tohono O’odham ancestor remains for the border wall.

Those interviewed, including Mohawks at the northern border and Maori from New Zealand, discussed Canada and New Zealand’s oppression Indigenous Peoples and attacks on sovereign peoples. There are also interviews on America’s economic collapse and war profiteering, the proliferation of power plants to enrich Bush’s corporate donors, profiteering by private security contractors and private prisons for migrants and the cost of the bogus war in Iraq: American Indians and people of color considered expendables to die in Iraq.

Walkers on the northern route converge with walkers on the southern route to march into Washington on July 11.


Listen to the latest interviews about the prayer walkers attacked by Ohio police:
http://www. earthcycles. net

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Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 8:06 AM
Subject: Yesterday a group walking from the west coast was harassed by Columbus police
Importance: High

To the Editor:

Columbus, OH has once again distinguished itself. After walking more than 2,400 miles from San Francisco since February, a group of men, women and children experienced their first police problem on their journey in Columbus. The Longest Walk is a group of about forty mostly Native American people who are walking to Washington DC for the Seventh Generation for youth, peace, justice, the healing of Mother Earth, heart conditions, alcoholism, drug addiction and other diseases. It is a spiritual walk, a historical walk, and a walk for educational awareness for the American and world communities about the concerns of the American Indian People. And, as they go, they are picking up trash.

On Monday, June 2, as this peaceful group walked in the parking lane and on the sidewalk on the west side of Columbus on Main Street, eight police cars zoomed up, one blocking their way. A police officer came up to a van that follows the walkers and reached into the window and grabbed and yanked the steering wheel. He yelled at the young woman who was driving a carload of young children and threatened Your children would be taken away and given to Childrens Services! As the children began to cry, their mothers who were walking came to see what was wrong and to comfort them. A walker charged with security came up and was grabbed, kneed, thrown to the ground and handcuffed. A police officer pointed a taser gun at the head of a walker who was also an attorney as he spoke to the police. A grandmother spoke softly to an officer asking what the concern was and trying to calm a situation that was becoming increasingly frightening. She pointed out We are like your mothers, your sisters, your children. Ultimately the walkers were allowed to continue, but were badly shaken by this unprovoked and frightening experience.

The walkers have walked though the snow, extreme rain, and the blazing sun. They are often tired, hungry, thirsty and sore. They will continue through Ohio on Route 40 to their destination of Washington DC, expecting to arrive next month.

I hope our leaders will ask questions about our Columbus Welcome to these peaceful people who were picking up our trash as they walked for health, justice and the environment.

If you are embarrassed for our city by our polices harassment, as I am, consider sending a message of support and a donation if you are able, to the Longest Walk at their website at www. longestwalk. org.

Lynn Crevling
822 South Roosevelt
Columbus, OH 43209

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