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The throng of demonstrators — 500 according to police, 1,500 according to protest organizers — had taken over the intersection of 15th and Stout streets, unfurling banners and emptying a bucket filled with fake blood and dismembered baby dolls. As dozens of officers in full riot gear approached and camera crews jockeyed for shots, drums and Native American chants steeled the resolve of the protesters. Glenn Morris, who's been leading efforts against Denver's annual Columbus Day Parade for almost twenty years, urged everyone who was "prepared to be arrested" to stay close, while supporters cheered from the sidewalks.

But this direct action wasn't going quite the way the other lead organizer, Glenn Spagnuolo, had envisioned. The original Transform Columbus Day plan had called for as many as a hundred protesters to burst through barricades along the parade route. After this first group of less-resistant individuals — the elderly, the handicapped, people not as willing to risk bodily harm — was swept up by police, a second wave of activists would enter the street and use what Spagnuolo had described as "more hard-core sitting lockdown maneuvers" to stall the parade even longer. But the demonstrators had moved too early; the parade was still three blocks away. Anticipating such a display, officers quickly sealed off a one-block radius and surrounded the protesters with a wall of uniforms.

Now about fifty activists sank to the street in three sit-down circles, using the proper hand grips and leg locks they'd been taught in training sessions. Earlier in the week, Spagnuolo had declared that "the time to talk is over," since many Native Americans and their supporters consider a celebration of Columbus deeply, unredeemably offensive. But his expression changed from determined to strained as he watched police efficiently dismantle each of the circles and haul the demonstrators off to nearby Denver County Sheriff's Department buses. If this kept up, their blockade would be over before it even started. Standing near the police, Morris and Spagnuolo — or "the Glenns," as they're often referred to by associates — consulted with Russell Means. Even at 68, Means still commands attention as the man who led the American Indian Movement's militant occupation of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1973. But AIM of Colorado is just a tiny, and disavowed, splinter of that original organization.

"What should we do?" Morris asked. They tried to speak softly, but the screams of a female protester whose leg was in a police pressure hold made talking difficult.

"I say we just rush them," said Means. "All of us at once. Just like we did back in the old days."

The Glenns looked at the three-deep line of police, some of them armed with black paintball guns loaded with pellets that release pepper spray. Designing a large protest is never an exact science, and this is especially true among radical groups whose general distrust of centralized authority often makes such efforts an exercise in guided chaos. There are advantages to this model, including adaptability and quick recovery from law-enforcement responses. But it also makes it difficult for those involved in the action to know what the hell is going on.

"What the hell is going on?" one protester, a young woman, shouted at Spagnuolo.

He didn't answer. Instead, he moved to the sidewalk. "Don't stand near me," he whispered to his wife, Barbara. A police sergeant had pointed Spagnuolo out to other officers, who were keeping a close watch on a group of young men who'd wrapped their faces in bandannas. Spagnuolo had a white bandanna hanging around his neck, ready for tear gas. This was one of the precautions he'd urged at a planning meeting; other suggestions including packing a granola bar for a snack during arrest-processing and a credit card to secure bond quickly. He paced nervously along the sidelines. The second wave couldn't make it into the street without pushing through some cops.

From the 2004 Columbus Day Parade protest, Spagnuolo knew that anyone who instigated contact with an officer, even a bump with a shoulder, would be looking at a much more serious charge than a misdemeanor for refusing to vacate. That year, he and 238 others were taken into custody as part of the orchestrated arrests they'd worked out beforehand with the Denver Police Department. As they peacefully entered the parade right-of-way, they were escorted off and given a citation. The deal was designed to walk the thin line between free speech and illegal behavior. If you scream "Columbus was a murderer!" from the sidewalk, you're protected under the First Amendment. But if you scream it in the street, are you breaking the law? That was the question that led to Spagnuolo and seven others being acquitted at trial, after which charges were dropped in the 231 other cases. Protesters declared it a major victory. Denver City Council responded by closing the loophole, passing an ordinance that makes it illegal to obstruct lawful events after a police order to move.

This year, the Transform Columbus Day Alliance skipped the advance meeting with police, and the rhetoric was much more aggressive.

As Morris began unbraiding his hair, Spagnuolo told fellow activists to head into the street on his cue. "We're going to break that tape and take the assault charges," he said. "That way you guys can follow and take up to the other side and go on lockdown."

As police — supervised by DPD chief Gerry Whitman — deployed a mini-army to arrest a total of 88 protesters, the procession of colorful floats, classic cars and flatbeds filled with elderly Sicilians and mini-beauty queens was stalled another hour.

And at the end of the day, all anyone could talk about was what would happen in Denver next year — not on Columbus Day, but at the Democratic National Convention.

Write Your Comment show comments (18)

  1. The article forgot to mention that the two Glenns are both white guys. Glenn Morris claim to be of Indian descent is "dubious", to put it politely. And so you have two white guys leading a supposedly Indian protest. How colonial is that?

    Comment by Derf — October 25, 2007 @ 09:13AM

  2. Actually, "the Glenns" were not the "leaders" for many of those whom protested, this particular article focuses on them because they were the contact the reporter had for investigating this situation. I find the assumption that everthing written in this article is true to be quite ignorant. Personally, I have supported the TCD movement for years, and do not answer to anyone but the community as a whole. In fact, there are thousands of supporters of this movement that are tired of being automatically associated with the actions of those whom the mainstream media deems significant. Although I cannot speak for those thousands, I hope to realize the true cause of the commitment to this struggle that many people have contributed. The focus of my efforts is NOT around the media-stigma that "the Glenns" have been deemed with, but rather toward the benefit of my people AS A WHOLE. If you wish to truly inform yourself about these issues, quit speculating and go to the source (the surrounding community), and find out who is truly perpetuating colonization.

    A'he'ee

    Cele

    Comment by Cele — October 25, 2007 @ 02:26PM

  3. One last thing- who are you to decided who is indian and who is not?
    I don't believe it is fair to slanderously tear someone's cultural roots apart, especially since the main reason that indigenous peoples of this country have trouble proving their ancestry, is because the White Man's enrollment system indoctrinated more than a century ago is selective to quantity of indian blood. How was anyone supposed to know what they were after so many kidnappings and rapes against indigenous people occurred?
    Glenn Morris is indian because his people say he is, and any white man's speculation is nothing but just that.

    Comment by Cele — October 25, 2007 @ 02:35PM

  4. I agree with Cele. I have marched against Columbus Day, and will do it again. I have heard Glenn Morris say many times that everybody in TCD is a leader, and that everybody should step up and accept her or his own responsibility for that. If Westword wants to ignorantly reduce our movement to a couple of personalities then that's on Westword, but it disrespects all of the thousands of people who come out every year to try to make Denver a better place by changing a racist holiday like Columbus Day and hateful celebrations like the parade.

    Comment by Monica — October 25, 2007 @ 04:16PM

  5. In 1968 people came to Chicago--and Chicagoans came down to the parks and streets--to protest an immoral, ill-advised war being waged by the politicians meeting in convention in the city of Chicago. The protestors never got within miles of the convention, but nonetheless their protest was extraordinarily effective in helping to change the direction of the Democratic party. Four years later a peace candidate was nominated by the Democrats and even 40 years later virtually every non-interventionist comes from the Democratic side.

    In 2008, the politicians who started the Iraq war, who sold this war to the American people, who botched this war, have funnelled billions of war dollars to private contractors, those politicians are going to be conventioning in Minneapolis. Not Denver.

    You want to confront the warmakers? Go to Minneapolis. Denver is a narcissistic sideshow, a diversion, pointless, an easy mark.

    Do the people behind Recreate '68 not understand history or do they not understand the present? I don't know. I've read the rhetoric about the Democrats and Republicans being the same and all that. Sure. But. Bush is going to be in Minneapolis. Cheney is going to be in Minneapolis. Rumsfeld no doubt is going to be in Minneapolis. Wolfowitz is going to be in Minneapolis. Richard Armitage is going to be in Minneapolis.

    And you want to confront the warmakers in Denver?

    Get serious.

    Comment by Dean Blobaum — October 26, 2007 @ 07:40AM

  6. Dean Blobaum says "You want to confront the warmakers? Go to
    Minneapolis. [...] Bush is going to be in Minneapolis. [...] Do the
    people behind Recreate '68 not understand history[...]?"

    Hmmm, I think "you want to confront the warmakers?" is putting
    words in R68's mouth without their permission. Then shooting
    down this fictional position smacks of sleezy Rush Limbaugh-esque
    style of argument.

    The Dems are just as much warmakers as the GOP, though perhaps with
    kinder rhetoric. Kerry campaigned to be a better warmaker than Bush,
    not to stop the war. Obama and Clinton both are leaving "all options
    on the table" concerning Iran. The newly-elected Dem congress has done
    nothing about Iraq, and their forebearers in earlier sessions voted
    nearly unanimously to give Bush his unilateral warmaking powers.

    Closer to home, the Dem Denver city council passed what may be an
    unconstitutional law about impeding parades in full knowledge that
    it would be used against those protesting the racist Columbus parade,
    in effect supporting racisim. And the Dem Colorado congress refused to
    pass a lame-ass watered-down resolution saying that maybe they
    ought to at least whisper the name of the holiday in the session,
    which might even have stopped the protests this year. So the party
    of the people is now the party of the spineless, afraid to really
    do anything about the injustice of war or come out firmly against
    celebrating racism or support the majority of the people who can't
    afford to go drinking in LoDo.

    Even while I realize the Dems have sometimes been better for the people
    than the GOP, politicians have to be called out when they do bad things
    no matter their party. Check out the suffrajets. Party loyals scolded
    them too when they told truth to power.

    The Dems are in fact the party of the racist, imperialist, greedy Status
    Quo, even if as individuals they may not hold those views, even if they
    would like to phase in the new brown shirts slower than the GOP.

    And Westword should be renamed the Status Quo Times for articles like
    this, barly sneering at people trying to make social change. In a
    decade or two when the fascist-wannabe government so loved by our
    SUV-swilling consumer middle-class subsides, the struggle against
    celebrating slave-trading indian-killing Columbus and the attempts to
    tell the truth about the Dems selling out the underserved underclasses
    will be seen as enlightened as the civil rights struggle of the 50's is
    today.

    Figure out which side you want to be on then, and do it now.

    Comment by George Well — October 26, 2007 @ 06:51PM

  7. I grew up with Glenn Spagnuolo. I know him and his family very well. I can tell you this: Glenn never "lived" in any borough of New York City, especially the Bronx. His family lived in Corona, New York in Queens borough (not the bad streets of the Bronx). They moved to Plainview, Long Island when Glenn was born, not when he was ateenager. Plainview is one of the safest, crime free suburban towns on Long Island. The population there when we grew up was 99% white, middle and upper-middle class. It is still over 91% white, and fairly affluent, with a median household income of over $110,000. There were no gangs, drugs were about as prevalent as they are in any suburb, and violence was minimal. Crime rates in Plainview are at 36% of the national average. That means that the natinal being 100%, Plainview has an extremely low crime rate (easy facts to check on your own with an internet connection). Glenn was a good kid, an involved athlete, and pretty clean as kids go. I'm not sure where you get your information from, but you may want to vet your facts before you publish them. The mere fact that such simple fact checking on someone's background was not done for this article makes the rest of your statements of fact in this article dubious at best. Do yourself a favor and invest in a research department if you want people to believe the stories you are publishing.

    Comment by New Yorker — October 27, 2007 @ 09:26AM

  8. This comment by Monica above just cracks me up: "I have heard Glenn Morris say many times that everybody in TCD is a leader." Kind of a contradiction isn't it? Really it captures the essence of why ultra liberal groups always cave in on themselves. No one is willing to admit that every group has leaders and followers. Then they spend all their time arguing about how no one is in charge, and how everyone is equal, and cutting down anyone who shows any unique initiative or leadership qualities. Accept it. Morris is a leader of TCD. He speaks profusely at every press conference. He is the direct representative to the cops and city. Even in the protest he is marching in front, directing protesters, posing for cameras, and carefully constructing his little media demonstration for maximum play. Because that's what it is. A big show for the "mainstream media" that you all hate so much. So, Monica, and all you other anti-columbus kids, listening to Morris tell you that you are a leader in TCD is being a follower. And frankly there's nothing wrong with that. It's called organization. This article was simply realistic about that dynamic. Which is probably why you disliked it so much.

    Comment by denver — October 28, 2007 @ 08:58AM

  9. New Yorker- there are many little mistakes which could be innocent errors of memory or interpretation. It refers to unbraiding his hair, but he had braided hair on arrest, no police tape by them and only in other areas. I doubt the discussion of stepping off the sidewalk (which wasn't so difficult) happened because Means was 100m away from Glenns when arrested. This doesn't affect substance and probably was a throwaway comment from earlier. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7105267

    Comment by Marie — October 29, 2007 @ 06:30AM

  10. So where is the female version of Glenn Morris in the TCD movement? Or Ward Churchill? Who is the female Russell Means?

    Does this "movement" promote or develop any other leaders besides very, very pale Indians, and white men like Pavolos Stravropolous and Glenn Spagnuolo? Is the TCD movement's failure to support less privileged indigenous women and men the reason why 99% of Colorado's American Indians do not support the Glenn/Russ/Ward tri-strangulation? Where are the 100,000+ indigenous who were in the streets May 1, 2006? Do they also consider Ward/Russ/Glenn to be too white (all talk and no walk) in their acting and thinking?

    Like an earlier commentor, I don't speak for Indians, but it sure looks like the overwhelming majority of them have voted with their feet and chosen not to join what currently passes for anti-Columbus leadership.

    Comment by Kryptonite — October 29, 2007 @ 05:03PM

  11. Whenever the local media covers the cday protest, they focus on certain people. As Cele noted, there are quite a few others who organize this protest. If you critics ever read tribal newspapers or listened to native radio, you would hear from the other folks who make this happen.

    The fact that you don't follow the native media, and have no idea who some of the other organizers are, tells me you have no connection with the actual communities of native people you claim to speak for.

    This protest may not be looked upon favorably by the wannabe leaders in ECL (most of whom grew up in Denver,don't know their language and are of "mixed descent" or adopted by a certain family) but it's got a lot of support from the grassroots natives. That's why the city will never be able to stop it.

    Of course this wouldn't be a surprise if any of you actually visited these communities or talked to native folks in Denver who actually have ties to their communities.

    Comment by jayo — October 30, 2007 @ 04:10PM

  12. Approximately 1500 antiwar and pro-impeachment protesters met at the Colorado Capitol building, Saturday, October 27, to hear speakers from various groups, including Iraq Veterans against the War and other activist groups. The Denver protest was in solidarity with protests around the nation occurring in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Nashville, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and other metropolitan areas. Channel 7 sent a photographer and broadcast a brief report of the Denver protest and one of the larger Eastern protests.

    Sadly the Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post and most Denver television news stations did not report this peaceful protest, which was followed by a march through the Sixteenth Street Mall, to Coors Stadium.

    In contrast, the recent violent Columbus Day protest received considerable newspaper and television coverage.

    Hopefully, Westword will help inform the citizenry about anti-war protests, since the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post, which purport to be "newspapers," appear to be more interested in entertainment, than Westword, which is usually categorized as an "entertainment," publication.

    Many participants in the peaceful protest,would be willing to provide photos or be interviewed,if Westword is interested in writing a story.

    Comment by clif west — October 30, 2007 @ 05:11PM

  13. Kryptonite (very funny, deadly to the "Supermen," ha ha), it's too bad that you were not at the Columbus Day protest, because you would have seen the "female version," (isn't that condescending!) of the men you mention. Carrie Dann, the 80 year old matriarch of the Western Shoshone resistance to U.S. occupation, marched right next to me, along with a women's delegation from Western Shsohone. Carrie could give Russell Means a run for his money any day. Cindy Buckskin, Troylynn Yellow Wood, Olga Gonzales and Shannon Francis were there in leadership roles, too. Olga spoke at the capitol rally, and Shannon led the indigenous women resisters who went to jail.I know, they must be dupes, under the spell of the nefarious Means, Morris and Co. In fact, we young indigenous women were some of the most vocal in the streets that day, because we know the cost that we will pay if the current conditions are not changed. Kryptonite,I think that your sour grapes have sprayed into your eyes, and made you blind to the reality of what happened in the streets of Denver on October 6th. There is a growing anti-racist movement in Denver thousands of people strong, and you are jealous not to be part of it. That's ok but you might be much more convincing if you stopped whining and did some real work. Your ignorance of the membership and leadership of AIM and the Transform Columbus Day Alliance is obvious, but I'm sure that ignorance won't stop your future ridiculous comments.

    Comment by RTJ — October 30, 2007 @ 05:37PM

  14. New Yorker,

    Your comments about Glen Spagnuolo are interesting but unsubstantiated. If you had provided your name, perhaps your comments would hold more weight. As it stands, you made some comments on Glenn that may or may not be true, but your credibility as an anonymous poster is lacking.

    You also included some demographic and income information about Plainview which was probably taken from statistics gathered from the Census. Anyone can pull statistics from off the internet. What makes your comments suspect is that you claim to know Glenn S but didn't provide any personal information.

    What high school did he go to? You claim he was an invovled athlete so what sports did he play. Better yet, who coached those sports and what were the names of Glenn's high school friends. That sort of information should be easy to come by if you really grew up with him.

    Unless you can reveal those kind of details, I say your comments are bogus.

    Comment by backpagereader — October 31, 2007 @ 07:09PM

  15. If you look at the AIM leadership, it is 50% men. http://www.coloradoaim.org/councils.htm
    The writer made a choice to present them as leaders, where they are really just gifted public speakers. There is a R. Means quote, which makes him look bad-ass, saying "I say we rush them". In the first minute of this tape showing before his arrest (red t-shirt), he is smiling, not speaking, and there there is barely a police line, no discussion, no leadership. The bored police are waiting for a snack. He probably said this as a joke a different time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo-kaDVmbJo

    Comment by marie — November 2, 2007 @ 03:53PM

  16. The scene described in the beginning of the article refers to the first wave of arrests. About 1:30 into this video shows the distinct police line, banner, fake blood on street, etc.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwK6meERA_k

    The video you reference, Marie, takes place nearly half an hour later and two blocks east on 15th.

    Comment by yogi — November 2, 2007 @ 07:48PM

  17. And here

    http://slideshow.westword.com/index.php?gallery=19088&type=1¤t=4

    Comment by yogi — November 2, 2007 @ 08:12PM

  18. I am at a total loss to understand why anyone would subject themselves or others to the violence of the 1968 Democratic National Convention willingly. I was at the original, beaten by the police and now have memory issues that seem to come from that day. Others in my group have similar issues and scars. I feel so strongly about this that I have posted about it in my little crochet and craft blog that is in no way political. If you would like to read it I am on blogspot.com and y user name is copperscaledragon. If we are allowed to post a link, I will put it at the bottom of this post. As I am sure the comments are moderated, it may be removed before you see this.

    My link:
    http://copperscaledragon.blogspot.com/2008/05/recreate-68-are-they-crazy.html

    Comment by Jane — May 3, 2008 @ 10:02AM

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