Posted on 07/04/2016 1:38:58 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Josie Valadez Fraire knew that protesting a Donald Trump event could end with her arrest.
But she couldn’t have guessed that she would soon be locked in handcuffs and hauled away by police ostensibly for carrying a sacred indigenous object.
Fraire, 22, who is Xicana (Chicana) and a member of MEChA, a national Chicano/a activist student organization, attended a protest outside of the Colorado Convention Center in Denver on Friday. Inside, Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, was scheduled to speak at the Western Conservative Summit.
But outside on the street, Denver Police, donned in riot gear, had set up barricades to separate the hundreds of protesters there from the convention grounds.
Fraire and other members of MEChA had arrived at about 9 a.m. Almost immediately, Fraire said, she lit a bundle of sage and began smudging the area and anyone who asked her to.
While smudging, Trump supporters called her names.
“They were very nasty,” she said. “A woman of color said, ‘It stinks like you do. It stinks like your ugly face.’ Trump supporters were trying to intimidate us – several of them were arrogantly just walking through the crowd (of protesters).”
Fraire, still holding the smoking sage, had made her way nearest to the police barricade when a fight broke out, allegedly putting police on edge, pushing people off the street, according to Fraire.
By this time, the young University of Colorado Boulder graduate said she had been holding the smudge for roughly two hours, in full sight of police.
Suddenly, a Denver police officer (a woman of color, Fraire said) allegedly shouted “put out your fire.” The officer was referring to Fraire’s sage.
“There is nothing for me to put out,” Fraire responded. “Ma’am, there is no active fire here. I tried to explain to her that it’s similar to a cigarette.”
“Come here!” the officer ordered Fraire. As demanded, she made her way through a small space between the barricades and into the street where police were standing guard.
“(The officer) grabbed my hand forcefully and forced it behind my back,” Fraire said. “(The police were) incredibly forceful. At one point, there were four police on me. They definitely used an excessive amount of force.”
Fraire’s friends and fellow protesters began shouting at police, “Let her go! Smudging is indigenous!”
Fraire said she repeatedly told police that there was no fire, therefore there was nothing to put out. “I don’t have a fire lit,” Fraire recalled saying.
“The only other way to put it out was to crush it completely, and I was not willing to do that,” Fraire said, citing that smudge is sacred to millions of indigenous peoples.
“She started to yell at me, telling me to ‘put it out!’ or I would get arrested,” Fraire added. “I just couldn’t do that.”
Fraire said at that moment “a tall white man” – a police officer – grabbed her left hand and began twisting her arm, trying to release the sage from her grip.
“He was hurting me,” she said. “I told him, ‘You have no right to take my sage.’ Eventually, he held my hand so tight he took my sage.”
At one point, he dropped it to the ground, Fraire said.
“(They) handcuffed me and they were again telling me that I wasn’t obeying orders.”
At one point, Fraire said one of the officers commented, “Smoke alarms us.”
“How come you’re not arresting people with cigarettes because it’s the same concept,” Fraire asked, attempting to logic with the officers.
“An officer of color – the one who was trying to move the ticketing process forward, told me, ‘You’re either going to get a ticket or go to jail.’”
“This is against my rights,” Fraire said. “I am practicing my spirituality. There’s no reason for a ticket.”
Fraire was then taken behind a nearby Sheriff’s van, she said, where officers took her mug shot and was issued a ticket for disobeying a lawful order. Her Court date is set for August 1 at 8 a.m. Fraire said she plans to contest the charges.
“There’s no way I can disobey orders that I cannot fulfill,” she said, which she reiterated on a video posted to YouTube over the weekend.
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
Fraire said she was in handcuffs for roughly 15 minutes. Police arrested three protesters on Friday, Trevor Hughes of USA Today reported.
After police released Fraire, she returned to the location she was arrested and continued to protest. She said Trump and his policies are “misogynistic” and “exemplifies hatred.”
At the time of the publication of this story, representatives of Denver Police did not respond to ICTMN’s request for comment.
Sacred fire or not, its not a good idea to let people burn things at a public protest.
Should have been wearing a simple old fashion head scarf.
The police would have ran the other way.
People are going insane...who the heck heard of burning sage? It STINKS to high heaven...horrible stuff...apparently this woman has never been around a fire burning with sage in it...
Good Lard what an idiot!!!
As they say, “You can beat the rap but you can’t beat the ride.”
Take your sacred fire elsewhere woman. Burning things out in public is a bad idea.
Passive aggression. Purposely provokes, and then plays the part of the victim when people respond.
It is just one of many leftist modus operandis we can expect to see, both leading up to the election and after.
Well, they might not participate in that behavior if Hillary wins—but if that happens, we can expect the country to go sailing off a cliff anyway.
She wouldn’t bake a cake for who....
Well, all these protestors at Trump rallies are all peaceful and compliant...They ALL follow the rules and it’s those nasty Trump supporters who cause all the trouble...Screaming racial things..Starting fights, chasing peaceful, calm protestors....
Those nasty Nazi cops are all right there with those dirty trump supporters too...
Shameful, I tell you...Shameful...
(I hope I don’t need an /s)
LOL! "Dope," for example, would be very apropos.
SACRED?? SAGE??? LOL!
Gee, a lot of people of color not responding positively to her bs!
And Chicana? How 70s!
Suddenly, a Denver police officer (a woman of color, Fraire said) allegedly shouted “put out your fire.” The officer was referring to Fraire’s sage.
... Fraire said at that moment “a tall white man” – a police officer – grabbed her left hand and began twisting her arm, trying to release the sage from her grip....
“An officer of color – the one who was trying to move the ticketing process forward, told me, ‘You’re either going to get a ticket or go to jail.’” “This is against my rights,” Fraire said. “I am practicing my spirituality. There’s no reason for a ticket.”
The sage smoking MEChA pagan clown lady is quite the racist. She labels everyone by the content of the melanin in their skin.
And by the way, white is a color also
I am going to a protest and smoke a big, fat joint. I’ll claim that it’s “indigenous” and I am a cleaned up Rasti. I will dare those jack boots to deprive me of my religious rights. Heck, I may even claim to be a practicing Rasti Klingon and skewer a few adversaries with a bat’leth, for good measure.
According to Wikipedia and other sources on Google, this is one of those new age things, in which legitimate native American rites were appropriated by new age aficionados who barely understand the customs they want to imitate.
This woman, by burning things in a public place like that, could have caused someone to have an asthma attack, or started a fire. Not that I expect she cares about things like that.
ROFL...no you don’t....crazy people are all out in the open now...before they would hide in their homes, huts, caves, but now they are walking the streets...ROFL...
Actually it's a racist, terrorist organization dedicated to genocide against whites of any ethnicity, and the exclusion of all others except those it deems its own.
"Tan Klan" doesn't begin to describe the savagery underlying its foundation.
Back when the Indians roamed around I can understand, but now days???????? People are absolute idiots!!!
The ones who were hiding in caves are now doing Geico commercials....LOL
Sounds like they arrested an old sage hen.
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