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[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]
[Make sure to attend An Evening With Frontpage Editor Jamie Glazov in Los Angeles at the Luxe Hotel on June 18, 2024: Register HERE.]
Monday, June 10 marked a parole hearing for Leonard Peltier, now serving a life sentence for the murders of FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler in 1975. The latest campaign to free the convicted murderer kicked off last November, when Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted, “the president should grant clemency to Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier.”
Warren, who falsely claimed to be Cherokee, did not explain why the “rights activist” needed clemency. A group of senate Democrats, including Warren, Bernie Sanders and Mazie Hirono, claim that Peltier “was arrested and later convicted for his alleged involvement in the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation despite evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and due process violations mounted throughout his trial.” The Democrats failed to name the FBI agents or chart the criminal career of Leonard Peltier.
Born in 1944, in Grand Forks, North Dakota, of Chippewa and Dakota antecedents, Peltier enlisted in the Marines but was discharged for medical issues. In 1972 in Milwaukee, Peltier pulled a gun on a cop and pulled the trigger, but the gun failed to fire. Peltier got five months in jail and after release went underground.
In 1974, Peltier was arrested on Mercer Island, Washington, giving the name of Leonard Little. He was charged with possession of illegal weapons, and fugitive alerts described him as “armed and dangerous.” In 1975, Peltier was living on the Pine Ridge reservation and acting as an enforcer for the American Indian Movement, which in 1973 seized the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, and held it for 71 days.
On June 26, 1975, FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler came to Pine Ridge looking for Jimmy Eagle, wanted on assault charges. Williams sent a radio report of rifle fire from behind a row of junked cars. The agents were armed only with revolvers. When Coler went to retrieve a rifle from the trunk of his car, bullets blasted through the lid and severely wounded the agent.
Coler crawled into the car, quickly shredded by volleys of gunfire. Williams was also hit and attempted to surrender. The agent raised a hand and pleaded for his life, but the shooter, later identified as Peltier, fired an AR-15 into his hand and then shot him in the head. Peltier also shot Jack Coler in the head, and both men were shot again after they were dead — what police call “overkill.”
In November of that year, Leonard Peltier, James Eagle, Darrell Dean Butler, and Robert Robideau were indicted on two counts of first-degree murder. While on the run, Peltier shot it out with Oregon policemen, who stopped his motor home. Peltier fled to Canada but was eventually extradited. At his 1977 trial in Fargo, North Dakota, a jury took 10 hours to convict Peltier on two counts of murder and sentenced him to two life terms in federal prison. The convicted murderer quickly became a hero to the left, which considered him a political prisoner.
“I stand before you as a proud man. I feel no guilt!” said Peltier said in a pre-sentencing statement. “I have no regrets of being a Native American activist — thousands of people in the United States, Canada, and around the world have and will continue to support me to expose the injustices which have occurred in this courtroom. I do feel pity for your people that they must live under such an ugly system. Under your system, you are taught greed, racism, and corruption — and most serious of all, the destruction of Mother Earth.” And so on.
Famed left-wing lawyer William Kunstler took up Peltier’s case, and in 1987 the convicted murderer sought asylum in the Soviet Union, claiming there was “no justice for my people” in the United States. Peltier remained a celebrity prisoner, championed by Nelson Mandela, Danielle Mitterrand, and other politicians. Nothing came of the effort, and backers put their hopes in Bill Clinton.
In late 2000, some 500 current and retired FBI agents marched to the White House with banners reading “Never Forget” and bearing a letter opposing clemency for Peltier signed by 8,000 FBI agents. Clinton pardoned Puerto Rican terrorists but not Leonard Peltier. Presidents Bush, Obama and Trump also failed to grant clemency to Peltier, but the murderer’s fans now look to Delaware Democrat Joe Biden.
The FBI continues to oppose Peltier’s release and a statement Christopher Wray said “we must never forget or put aside that Peltier intentionally murdered these two young men and has never expressed remorse for his ruthless actions.” The conviction was “rightly and fairly obtained” and “has withstood numerous appeals to multiple courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.” Peltier, now 79, faces a federal Parole Commission but whatever they recommend, the president can still have Peltier released on “compassionate grounds.” That calls for reflection.
Leonard Peltier took the lives of Jack Coler and Ronald Williams and got to keep his own life, so strictly speaking he got off light. This writer first addressed the case in the January 2000 issue of Heterodoxy, predecessor of Frontpage Magazine. The headline, “Bury His Heart,” came from colleague Peter Collier, who passed away in 2019. If he was still with us, readers should know, Peter wouldn’t change it now.
a criminal [ biden ] will always side with fellow criminals . eg hamas , iran , it will be no surprise if he pardons another criminal all the while allowing criminals to enter the southern border . the party of the kkk , blm , antifa and terrorists . congrats to the 81 mill. that voted for americas criminal class headed up by the criminal in chief obiden .
They should have tried Pelter years ago and sone t he same with Abdul Jimal these People who support Convicted Murders are far worst then their Killer Themself
Well…they did try him years ago. That’s why he’s been in prison for 47 years. Reading comprehension, dude.
“Native American” (an invasive species from Asia) right’s activist? Exactly what rights are Amerindians lacking and how does being a criminal murderer promote extra rights?
And I notice all the “Amerindians”in the photo are mixed with whitey. A bunch of racist frauds.
“Native American” an invasive species from Asia?
What would you think of someone who said “white Americans” an invasive species from Europe? Are you a mere appendage of a species? Are you a mere appendage of a race? No one actually is and no one should think of themselves as such. Your individual life is precious, unique, and never to be repeated.
The only thing that exists in reality are individuals. Mortal, fragile, fallible, individuals.
You didn’t exist before you were born, and you won’t exist after you die.
Your skin color, your race, your ancestors, your religion, your ethnicity, your tribe, your sex, your wealth, even your greatest achievements, won’t save you from your mortal and fragile human condition.
It is pathetic and dangerous what individuals will do to gain a fake sense of pride and a false sense of security and safety.
“We are gods with anuses…. The irony of man’s condition is that the deepest need is to be free of the anxiety of death and annihilation; but it is life itself which awakens it, and so we must shrink from being fully alive.” ― Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death
“Like every other form of collectivism, racism is a quest for the unearned. It is a quest for automatic knowledge—for an automatic evaluation of men’s characters that bypasses the responsibility of exercising rational or moral judgment—and, above all, a quest for an automatic self-esteem (or pseudo-self-esteem).” – Ayn Rand
“You didn’t exist before you were born, and you won’t exist after you die.”
You could do us all a favor and get on with your trip to nowhere.
Just a suggestion, not every article requires a pointless puffed up lecture from you.
Whitey ABSOLUTELY IS an invasive species from Europe, like starlings. So what? Us Whiteys like my ancestors just came from the opposite direction as the Amerindians.
And I’m fatalistic about death. I know it’s coming and there’s nothing I can do to prevent it. I just try to be cautious and don’t worry about it.
And your conviction that there’s no afterlife is false. NOBODY knows what happens after death and I saw a ghost with my own eyes once.
Plus, there are some very interesting indications there is indeed something afterward. I won’t mention “quantum physics” here. No, i won’t. But, it has been shown multiple times by various scientists that intention may affect subatomic particles, affect waves to morph into matter. Sounds weird. But it is related.
That’s interesting.
That ghost or whatever it was I saw scared me stupid. I was sleeping and woke up because I sensed something or someone was in the room with me. You know how you get that feeling sometimes and it’s always correct? I told myself if I open my eyes there won’t be anything there but it was. It looked just like the stories which I had always considered dumb, amorphous and white. I attacked it and hit my head on a wall in the dark. I didn’t see it after that but boy, was it hard going back to sleep thinking it might come back. Maybe I hallucinated the whole thing but I don’t know how I could FEEL a hallucination or why I would hallucinate in the first place. I was sober.
Jeff, you might have been in what’s called a hypnogogic or hypnopompic state. Look ’em up. Personally, I’ve never seen Casper, and I don’t ever want to see Casper. Go away Casper.
If there’s no God and no eternal life, one man’s moral judgment is as good as the others’.
Thank God there is God because he seems to have skipped out on THX’s (piss be upon him) moral judgement
“We are gods with anuses ….” Ernest Becker was full of pooh, IMhO.
Andrew Jackson noticed exactly the same thing. He also noticed that the tribes lacked sovereignty because it was never clear who the official spokesperson for the tribe was, and as often as not, the tribes were politically divided among factions insofar as the treaties Jackson offered them. But typically, the whiter the faction, the more political power they had, IF only they’d make up their minds about who the chief was. He called them “fake Indians.”
Interesting. Not always true but much more often than realized.
When Pres. John Quincy Adams federalized Jackson’s TN militia and sent them into Florida, Jackson certainly did exceed orders and probably told a fib or two about it. But from his point of view, i.e., the frontier, he was simply doing the job he was tasked to do, and he resented the accusations that he was too brutal because, as he saw it, the job required serious brutality, the sort of brutality not seen in Adam’s Massachusetts and the gentile Christians of New England since the 1600’s. To them he was an “Indian killer.” But they had not seen what Jackson had seen first-hand on many occasions, entire settler families slaughtered for inadvertently crossing over Indian land.
Guess what the militia did then. It’s not hard to image.
In the election of 1828, Jackson made it a point to remind the civilized Christians of New England that the Puritans had employed some fairly savage tactics in the Pequot War. Tennessee was still frontier in the 1815- 1820-time frame.
I know there are some cases where an “innocent” person might be convicted, but in such clear cut cases, WHY is the DEATH PENALTY not the FIRST CHOICE? EXECUTION of FEDERAL AGENTS should be considered WRONG, Actually, executing ANYONE should be reason for the DEATH PENALTY! Bleeding heart libers are going to do their thing no matter what so let them but also let SOCIETY know that there are crimes that will result in the ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT!
Liberalism and lenient sentencing were ascendant at that time especially for militant minorities. The prosecution was probably just happy they got a conviction.
If that rat lived by the sword, he should die by the sword.
Supporters of that rat resonate with supporters of Hamas today.
So darn many rats.
Turn up the juice a few kilowatts.
I think Peltier’s trail was held in Rapid City, SD.
Not American, let alone an admirer of your Federal Gestapo, nor of the death penalty, but I pray for the men killed by this Amerindian who is yet to receive his just reward.
The FBI wasn’t our “federal Gestapo” in 1975. Peltier got 3 hots and a cot for life, which is better than hanging. What’s not to like?
I read once where Clinton(Bill)was secretly going to Pardon Leonard Pelter but that was stopped when the FBI opposed it
I don’t think that could have been kept secret. The AG has to approve it and write it up.