Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Columbus Day parade organizer: Protesters got "a little spanking on the hand"

Kind of a weird image, actually. The Rocky (the Post gave the verdict five paragraphs this morning):
The organizer of the 2007 Columbus Day parade is glad protesters were found guilty of blocking the event, but he's not happy with the low fines they received.

"How many times could I break the law before I got severely punished?" George Vendegnia, a Denver businessman who organized the parade, asked today.

The procession has been stopped by protesters every year since 2000, when the celebration was revived. But until Tuesday, no protester had been convicted.

A four-woman, two-man Denver County Court jury convicted protest organizer Glenn Morris of disrupting a lawful assembly. Rev. Julie Todd was convicted of obstructing passage on a street, and Koreena Montoya, of Denver, was found guilty of resisting arrest and interfering with police.

Vendegnia said the protesters should have received jail time.

"They just got a little spanking on the hand," he said. . . .

"This was the discovery of this great country that we live in, and if we let a small group like this change this holiday, you know the next holiday they're going after is Thanksgiving," Vendegnia
said. . . .
Oh yeah:
Vendegnia says his group is planning a 2008 Columbus Day Parade.

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