From ICT, via Pechanga:

The Seneca Nation council has authorized the nation’s president to file a human rights violation and a hate crime complaint with local, state and international bodies against New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for making “derogatory racial statements” against the nation and its citizens.

Council member J.C. Seneca put a resolution called “Condemning Statements of Mayor Bloomberg” before the council Aug. 14 regarding comments the mayor made in an interview Aug. 13 with New York Daily News.

“In his remarks, Mayor Bloomberg included derogatory racial statements, against the Seneca Nation and its members, including a statement encouraging (New York Gov. David Paterson) to, ‘you know, get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun’ and to commence an armed occupation of the nation’s Cattaraugus Territory for the purpose of making a video of the governor standing on the NYS Thruway with said cowboy hat and shotgun,” the resolution says.

Seneca’s resolution said the mayor’s remarks disparaged the Seneca Nation’s “treaty protected tobacco economy.”

As the Daily News described the interview, “Mayor Bloomberg, channeling his inner Wyatt Earp, shot himself in the foot Friday.”

“I’ve said this to David Paterson. … If there’s ever a great video, it’s you standing in the middle of the New York State Thruway saying, you know, ‘Read my lips – the law of the land is this, and we’re going to enforce the law.’”

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From the PR Newswire, via Pechanga:

The Seneca Nation of Indians passed a Tribal Council Resolution on Saturday, August 14 condemning the recent derogatory and racial comments against the Nation and its membership.

Sponsored by Tribal Councillor J.C. Seneca, the resolution demands that Mayor Bloomberg resign his post as Mayor of New York City, provides a formal written apology to the Seneca Nation and its members, asks New York State Governor David Paterson to publically condemn Mayor Bloomberg’s comments and authorizes Seneca President Barry Snyder to file human rights and hate crime violations with the State of New York, US Justice Department and United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous People.

RESOLUTION
Condemning Statements of Mayor Bloomberg

Sponsor:
J.C. Seneca

Second:
Travis Jimerson

Date:
August 14, 2010

WHEREAS, On August 13, 2010, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg publically made disparaging statements regarding the Seneca Nation’s Treaty protected tobacco economy; and

WHEREAS, In his remarks, Mayor Bloomberg’s included derogatory racial statements, against the Seneca Nation and its members, including a statement encouraging Governor Paterson to, “[y]ou know, get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun” and to commence an armed occupation of the Nation’s Cattaraugus Territory for the purpose of making a video of the Governor standing on the NYS Thruway with said cowboy hat and shotgun; and

WHEREAS, as recently as August 3rd of this year, Mayor Bloomberg stood before the Statue of Liberty and spoke of tolerance, respect and the defense of Constitutionally protected freedoms, in his support of the proposed Islamic Community Center and Mosque to be constructed at the site of Ground Zero; and

WHEREAS, Mayor Bloomberg’s contradictory positions regarding the constitutional protections afforded to those involved in the Islamic Center and Mosque, vs. those afforded to the Nation and its members, are demonstrative of the continued ignorance of the Nation’s own Constitutionally protected Treaties as the supreme law of the land, which provide the underlying protections for the Nation’s tax immune status on which its economy is based; and

WHEREAS, Mayor Bloomberg’s cavalier attitude and inflammatory remarks, by which he encourages armed conflict as a means for resolution, evidences tremendous disrespect to those Nation members and New York State Police officers who, to this day, bear the scars and trauma of the actual — not hypothetical — conflict that has twice occurred on the Nation’s territory, is considered by the Council to be a hate crime and violation of human rights; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Bloomberg’s hypocritical support of Constitutional protections, only when they don’t impact the New York City budget, coupled with his uneducated and uninformed statements on the issue, serve to fan the flames of aggression, and undermine the potential for peaceful resolution of these matters, while perpetuating a long dormant policy of Indian termination which dates back to the days of General Custer’s failed battle of Little Bighorn.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT

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