Just the kind of character that would fit the requirements for an Obama clemency.

Via Campus Reform:

American University in Washington, D.C. has installed a new statue on campus to raise awareness for a convicted cop-killer’s clemency campaign.

Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist, was convicted for the murder of two FBI agents in 1977, when he was involved in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation, fled the scene, and was put on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitive list. In the years following, he gave several conflicting alibis as to his whereabouts on the morning of the shootout.

The conviction has been criticized by groups such as Amnesty International, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, and the Soviet Peace Committee.

According to a university news release, “the statue is part of a movement to raise awareness for Peltier’s pardon request,” described as a “push by supporters in the final days of Barack Obama’s presidency.”

Both supporters and opponents were vocal on the AU Facebook page, with some expressing disgust that the university would host the statue, while others applauded the move as a stand for “racial justice,” even suggesting that Peltier’s guilt was merely a corollary question.

“So many people wrongfully convicted in the history of the US, and AU decides to champion the cause of a convicted cop-killer,” one commenter lamented.

“A disgrace…Peltier is a convicted murderer, who is owed no place on the AU campus,” stated another.

Others, however, agreed with the installation of the statue, with one actually arguing that Peltier was justified in killing police officers because of the “historical genocide” perpetrated against Native Americans by the federal government.

 

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