{"id":106374,"date":"2016-03-06T22:58:28","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T05:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dozens-protest-confederate-flag-ride-in-durango\/"},"modified":"2016-03-06T22:58:28","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T05:58:28","slug":"dozens-protest-confederate-flag-ride-in-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dozens-protest-confederate-flag-ride-in-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens protest Confederate flag ride in Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:0e7c6e86-0c33-4b6a-859e-6598d1b2268d --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zteKIA4sTWU\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>About 65 people showed up Saturday to protest a ride celebrating the Confederate flag, but they found themselves protesting the concept and not the riders after the ride\u2019s start location was changed late Friday night after public outcry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLadies and gentlemen, as we have received quite a surprising amount of intolerance and threats for expressing our opinions, we will be changing the course, as well as the starting point, of our ride,\u201d said Thomas Apperson in a Facebook post on the Rocky Mountain Confederate Conservation website.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRSVP through our Facebook account for location update! Once again, we will only accept on our ride those that who use our symbol as support for History, and NOT those that would us (sic) our symbol for hatred or ignorance. If the latter is you, you are not welcome on our ride. Also, if you agree with the northern victory, this does not mean you are unwelcome. Come fly your flag with us in harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ride, organized by the conservation group, was announced earlier this week. It was held in honor of Confederate Flag Day, which occurred Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The protesters, who gathered at the La Plata County Fairgrounds \u2013 the originally designated starting place \u2013 didn\u2019t see flying the Confederate flag as a support for history. Ranging in age from 4 to 92, some had been protesting for social-justice causes since the 1960s, and many others were attending their first protest rally. They carried signs such as: \u201cSymbols of Racism Belong in History Museums,\u201d \u201cWe won\u2019t be bystanders to bigotry,\u201d \u201cHate speech \u2260 Free Speech\u201d and \u201cShould we carry a (symbol of) swastika too?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lastani Young, 7, the daughter of Clay and Shirena Trujillo Long, discussed the content of her sign with her father. They came up with \u201cDon\u2019t Hate, Appreciate.\u201d Her legs were getting tired, she said, but she was glad she came.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is my first protest,\u201d said Fort Lewis College sophomore Allen Tieme, holding a sign on one of the four occupied street corners on Main Avenue at the fairgrounds. \u201cIt made me sick to my stomach when I heard about the ride. I don\u2019t want to perpetuate hate, and silence would do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office deputies were on hand, including Sheriff Sean Smith, along with several officers from the Durango Police Department. They had installed crowd-control barriers, with areas designated for the flag riders and the protestors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey did a similar (flag) ride on Jan. 17 for the Robert E. Lee Memorial Ride, and no one noticed,\u201d Smith said. \u201cAll the publicity this time got people interested. We set up the barriers so there could be a civil exchange of ideas if it got to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The situation was complicated by other activities taking place at the fairgrounds at the same time, such as a 4-H Rabbit Camp attended by about 40 young people and a horse-jumping competition in the arena, he said. The decision was made to take some precautions to keep different groups separated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Department of Justice Community Relations Office in Denver called me yesterday (Friday) after they heard about it,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey wanted contact information for both groups so they could send literature about peaceful protests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One young protester wore a black bandana bandit-style and declined to give his name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m here to help counter repression,\u201d he said, \u201cThere\u2019s a strong police presence here, and I\u2019m trying to protect my anonymity as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tieme was one of several FLC students and professors who said the turnout would have been higher if the protest rally were not being held on the first day of the college\u2019s spring break.<\/p>\n<p>Tuck and Robin Miller drove all the way from Chama, New Mexico, after a friend posted information on Facebook about the protest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe stopped in Pagosa (Springs), but there was nothing going on,\u201d he said. \u201cWe decided we had to come because silence is not the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:abutler@durangoherald.com\">abutler@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>they could not remain silent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,198,70,1850,316],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-106374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-history","tag-news-lead","tag-racism","tag-video"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106374"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=106374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}