A recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center notes, "Violence against American Indians, much of it motivated by racial hatred, is a pervasive yet obscure problem that is especially prevalent in so-called "border towns" -- majority-white cities abutting reservations -- where cultures clash against the historical backdrop of institutionalized racism, cultural subjugation, and genocide."
Even a Department of Justice study admits one out of 10 American Indians or Native Americans has been a victim of violence. That rate is twice as high as the rate for blacks, two and a half times higher than whites, and four and a half times higher than Asians. The study also found that "American Indians are more likely than people of other races to experience violence at the hands of someone of a different race," with 70% of reported violent attacks perpetrated by non-Indians.
But even those numbers are likely just the tip of the iceberg. It is estimated that only around 10% of hate crimes against Native Americans are reported to law enforcement authorities. The reason for the low reporting
rate is due in large part to the historical experience American Indians have with the authorities.
The following is from Censored News.
Rapid City SD and Farmington NM, Murder and Hate Crimes: Enough is Enough!
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
For at least the past 40 years, the torture and murder of American Indians by whites in Farmington, N.M., has been documented. Now, a mentally challenged Navajo man is again the victim of a hate crime by whites in this border town, branded with swastikas.
In South Dakota, the police brutality and hate crimes carried out by law enforcement have been documented for at least 40 years. It was the cry for justice here that led the American Indian Movement to make its stand on Pine Ridge and ultimately at Wounded Knee. Now, north of Rapid City, an Oglala Lakota youth, Christopher Capps, 22, has been shot and killed by a Pennington County Sheriff Deputy. Deputy Dave Olson shot Christopher repeatedly at close range in a field about three miles north of Rapid City.
In both cases, these are not isolated crimes. These are the pattern of the racism that is a cancer in these two border towns, a cancer made easy by the good ole boys of law enforcement, a cancer made easy by the people who look the other way and a cancer that thrives because of corrupt politicians who offer no more than empty rhetoric. It is a cancer safeguarded by the easily-silenced media in the United States, a nation that thrives on the denial of its own racism and brutality as it proclaims to be the human rights champion of the world.
It is Racism in America, nowhere more poignant than in Farmington, N.M., and Rapid City, S.D.
It is time for all people of conscience to stand up and say, “Enough is Enough!” It is time for all people to ensure that the hate crimes of whites in Farmington, New Mexico, will cease, and that the police brutality, racial profiling and murder by law enforcement in Rapid City and in every other town, field and backroad in South Dakota will be halted.
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Hate Crime: Navajo branded with swastikas:http://www.daily-times.com/farmington-news/ci_15048535
South Dakota Deputy murders Lakota youth reaching for cellphonehttp://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/05/south-dakota-deputy-murders-lakota.html
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