http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/07/22/3682962/lakota-57/
At the start of the year, a group of 57 Native Americans students from the Lakota tribe were taken to a minor league hockey match in Rapid City, South Dakota to celebrate their academic achievements. But what started as a field trip to reward the students quickly turned into a nightmare, when a group of drunk men in an executive suite dumped beer on their heads and yelled “go back to the Rez!”
Seven months later, only one of the perpetrators faces criminal charges. His trial begins today, and if found guilty he will be convicted of disorderly conduct and fined $500 — avoiding hate crime charges, a jury, and jail time.
In January, a group of third through eighth grade students from the American Horse School were watching the local hockey team, the Rapid City Rush, before several adults started asking them questions about where they are from. Middle school teacher and head chaperone Consuelo Means alleges she overheard several men sitting in an executive suite above them asking eighth grade girls questions, and immediately asked the students to stop talking to the strangers because they were drunk.
The men continued asking questions and when the home team scored, one banged on the wall and told the students to cheer louder because they were “from the Rez.” Means briefly looked for security for assistance, but when she returned to her seat, she felt something dripping on her head. Looking up, she saw the men dumping beer on three rows of students. When Means alerted the other chaperones and tried to intervene, the perpetrators reportedly yelled at the group to go back to the Rez.
The students left the game shortly after. One girl was crying while the others remained quiet during the drive home to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Allen, South Dakota.
“I didn’t think it was appropriate for [the men] to be talking to my students,” Means explained to ThinkProgress. She contends the girls stopped responding to the men, but the latter began addressing other students in the group. “We’ve been there five years and nothing like that’s ever happened.” Before leaving the venue, she was asked to complete an incident report and told she would be contacted, but there was no mention of calling law enforcement.
In the following days, students’ parents called the school looking for answers. And since then, children have been hesitant to leave the Pine Ridge Reservation, which is home to 28,700 people and considered a poster child of poverty. To avoid more racist attacks, they are choosing to stay local. Similar field trips off of the reservation have been cancelled, and kids no longer go to Rapid City for medical needs and entertainment. They only have annual sun dances, or prayer ceremonies, to look forward to during vacation.
After the incident, the Rapid City Police Department conducted an investigation and concluded three men were directly responsible. However, they only decided to charge one, Trace O’Connell, with disorderly conduct — a misdemeanor. And much to the chagrin of school administrators, federal prosecutors have not gotten involved, despite American Horse School being a federal institution.
i am not familiar with when and what the feds get involed with if late the racially charged murders seemed to all invoke civil rights issues but they have not. as long as police ignore and the prosecutors turn deaf ears and do more to talk juries out of prosecuting and judges well the jury's still out on them, those who are subject to the racism and bigotry of the privileged ones.
i know our new AG has a lot on her plate and i don't know jow much restriction the bigoted congress can exert hiring new lawyers would be a no go claiming no need and no money which translates to no justice. i really think if we keep coming together both sides we can take control of the steering wheel regardless to what billionaires buy the gov't.
it really takes a dark soulless reprehensible excuse for a human being to racially taunt kids of different races while teach theirs how to do it. despicable them
