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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe guy behind the "Free Leonard" signs. - Shane's Campaign to Free Leonard Peltier
Just saw one by the presidio, you sir are an amazing activist. ...
For years, Shane Gray has been on a singular quest to raise awareness of the jailed Indian activist. But now his ubiquitous signs are drawing the ire of local law enforcement.
Just past 5 p.m. on a windy January day, Shane Gray rides onto the Central Avenue catwalk that stretches across Interstate 80. He leans his battered bicycle against the fencing, puts a red-tailed hawk feather in his mouth, and begins waving a bright-red placard that reads "Free Leonard" at evening commuters.
Some drivers honk their horns in support even though many don't know that "Leonard" refers to imprisoned Indian activist Leonard Peltier, who was controversially sentenced to life in federal prison in 1977 for the shooting deaths of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
"It's good when they honk," Gray says cheerfully as a chilly wind tosses his thinning blonde hair, "because then the people who don't know who Leonard is will take notice.... They'll ask, 'Who's this Leonard guy, anyway?'"
About twelve years ago(Article is from 2011), Gray's "Free Leonard" signs with their distinctive red lettering began appearing on freeway fences, abandoned billboards, neighborhood lampposts, and high in treetops. The signs, sometimes augmented with images of a medicine wheel and arrow, have become such a regular feature on the landscape that they have achieved a quasi-iconic status for the hundreds of thousands of people who have seen them as they drive the area bounded by Oakland, Richmond, and the Carquinez Strait.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/shanes-campaign-to-free-leonard-peltier/Content?oid=2414202
SamKnause
(13,110 posts)Leonard !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chiquitita
(752 posts)another_liberal
(8,821 posts)Peltier is a scapegoat. He has been in prison far, far too long.