The Denver Post

Victory for political correctness
By Bob Ewegen

Saturday, January 22, 2005 -

Political correctness won a victory in Denver Thursday, but your rights under the First Amendment were defiled.

That travesty occurred when a Denver jury, in a blatant act of jury nullification, decided that the U.S. Constitution doesn't apply to anyone whose views offend Glenn Morris.

Morris was a leader of the protesters who illegally blocked the 2004 Columbus Day parade, thereby depriving parade participants in particular and Italian-Americans generally of the rights of free speech and freedom of assembly.

In all, 239 protesters were arrested for disobeying police orders to stop blocking the parade. Morris and seven of his fellow Thought Police responded by arguing in court that they had a right to block the Italian-Americans because a celebration of Columbus was "hate speech." In a staggering display of chutzpah, this PC goon squad described themselves as "human rights activists" while labeling their victims, the Italian-Americans, as practitioners of "ethnic intimidation."

Such Orwellian logic in and of itself isn't surprising. The Thought Police have never been distinguished by logic or consistency. And it isn't even too shocking to find a jury dumb enough to buy their argument. We've had juries fly in the face of evidence before, as O.J. Simpson can testify.

But what is most troubling about this particular travesty is that the foreman of the runaway jury, Eric Ruderman, was himself a lawyer. And by his own admission, lawyer Ruderman believed that the anti-Italian goon squad had a right to silence viewpoints they disagreed with.

"All we heard was that Native Americans definitely felt there was a strong element of ethnic intimidation," Ruderman said, adding that if such intimidation continues to exist, the parade should no longer be held.

Jury nullification is foul enough when it comes from ignorant yahoos like the hundreds of racist juries who acquitted Ku Klux Klan murderers for the lynching of black Americans in a century- long reign of terror. But when a lawyer sitting as a juror openly refuses to punish criminals because he dislikes the victims of the crimes in question, then our civil liberties are indeed in peril.

Newly empowered as the city's Thought Cop, Morris bloviated: "It is time for the mayor and city attorney to drop all the charges. We call on the people of Denver to demand that all the charges be dropped."

Actually, we the people of Denver call upon our mayor and city attorney to enforce the law and protect our rights - as they have already promised to do. That means that prosecution of the 231 remaining law-breakers will proceed with full vigor. And this time, let's select a jury that doesn't blame the victims.

Reasonable people can disagree about Christopher Columbus. The definitive biography of the great navigator remains Samuel Eliot Morison's "Admiral of the Ocean Sea." A revisionist view can be read in Kirkpatrick Sale's "Conquest of Paradise."

In truth, both Morison and Sale have valid points. Columbus' vision, courage and steadfastness remain an inspiration more than five centuries after his epic voyage changed the world. Sale is right in noting that many of those changes weren't good, especially from the point of view of the dominant native cultures that the subsequent European conquests displaced. But the point is that in the pre-Glenn Morris era, Denver residents had the right to read both Morison and Sale and draw their own conclusions. The Rudermans of the world want you to see only Morris' point of view.

Why should you care about the rights of Italian-Americans? Well, consider what Martin Niemöller wrote after the holocaust:

"First they came for the Communists but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. ... And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left who could stand up for me."

Bob Ewegen is deputy editorial page editor of The Denver Post. He has written on state and local government since 1963.