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A US DIOCESE has apologised and vowed to take action after videos emerged showing boys from a Catholic private school mocking an elderly Native American man at a rally in the capital Washington, triggering widespread criticism.
The incident occurred on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Friday when the annual anti-abortion March for Life coincided with a rally by indigenous communities calling for their rights to be respected.
In footage captured on multiple phone camera videos that swept social media yesterday, a student from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky wearing a Make America Great Again hat is seen smirking as he stands extremely close to Nathan Phillips, a Native American Vietnam war veteran, who beats a traditional drum while chanting.
Other teens, many also wearing clothing bearing President Donald Trump’s political slogan jeered, jumped and appeared to mock the man.
The Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School issued a statement rebuking the students after their displays drew widespread derision.
“We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and Native Americans in general, Jan 18, after the March for Life, in Washington, D.C,” the statement said.
We extend our deepest apologies to Mr Phillips. This behaviour is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person. The matter is being investigated and we will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.
Kaya Taitano, a witness to the incident, was quoted by CNN as saying Phillips had decided to intervene with a “healing prayer” when the school teens got into a verbal altercation with a group of African American youths who had been preaching about the Bible nearby.
An emotional Phillips gave his reaction in a separate video. “I heard them saying, ‘Build that wall, build that wall.’ We’re not supposed to have walls here, we never did.
“I wish I could see that energy of that young mass of young men…into making this country really, really, great. Helping those that are hungry.”
Deb Haaland, one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress in November, linked the students’ behaviour to rising levels of racial intolerance under the Trump administration.
“This Veteran put his life on the line for our country,” she wrote on Twitter.
“The students’ display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance is a signal of how common decency has decayed under this administration. Heartbreaking.”
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Despite this $600bn spent on ‘defence’ annually in the USA…
@keenan, the US is the future third world.
We should build communal trailer parks and house the layabouts and scobies. If all the freeloaders houses were returned to the market it would solve a lot of problems.
Forty coats of tar and feathers for you sunshine
Anyone else think the two lads in the car look a bit scary?
The guy closest to the camera is slightly Christian Bale in the machinist…
So much for the American Dream!
As opposed to your Sinn Fein socialist paradise? Aint no dreams going to be made in that at all.
Would you prefer Fianna Fâils Wild West economics? That worked out great eh. Or the Blueshirts severe austerity and one of the worst unemployment rates in Europe. Don’t talk shit if you can’t argue an alternative.
“Blueshirts”… are you living in the 1930′s or something? Believe it or not but the Irish economy is stronger now than it has been in 8 years. Unemployment is falling rapidly and investment is rising. Let’s keep the “talk shit” policy to Sinn Fein circles
@Shane, what country are you living in. I along with others have emigrated and will never return.
Finally, Shane Sinn Feinn are not a socialist party, they are Republicans thugs masquerading as a party
dream on sheane. ya blue shirt
Jesus I thought these were photos of certain location in mullingar until I saw the caption.
should the article headline not read, “life inside a US trailer park”?
My God, the article makes these people seem like aliens and that the photographer got a lucky break to take the shots. I can imagine how annoyed these people were when they read the article. The photos are not very good either, bad composition, terrible lighting, etc. They look very unnatural and forced.
Unnatural and forced? Are we looking at the same pictures?..
Yes Paul Cadmin , I agree the pictures are terribly shot. Lighting is not on the subject and the posing of subjects is unnatural. Really poor and creates a miserable set of images.
“They took Errr Jerbs!”
Ha! If I could like this more than once I would.
Really great photography, beautifully captured. I particularly like the last one.
a price worth paying to keep the military complex going….murica fck yeah!
And you here to commit
It isn’t that bad, people in the usa spend their money differently to us, they eat out more than eat in etc & plenty of people in Ireland live in mobile homes. We have our own issues in this country without being smug and judging another one.
Do me babee one more time….
Ireland and most of Europe in 20 to 30 years time. A World that is over populated , poor, and Islamic.
Islamic? Will all the Christians, Jews, Hindus and Atheists disappear?
Muslim war will be won via higher birth rates. Not guns and bombs that’s just a side show.
Don’t look that bad
American Travellers.
Blaming the “Military Industrial Complex”. Is that the new buzz-phrase that Russell Brand has encouraged his army of trendy leftie keyboard warriors to use. You have the Che Guevara t-shirt, the Keffiyeh, and now you can have your very own simplified, yet intelligent sounding, phrase of the revolution.
Do people honestly believe that if America stopped spending money on weapons and defence that the myriad socio-economical reasons why people find themselves living in Trailer parks would be resolved? Lyndon B. Johnston attempted a “war on poverty” and invested billions in Welfare and Government Programs. And while many of those programs are good and help people, the reality is governments cannot prevent poverty.
Of course they can, and should, help the poorest, but just throwing money at the problem wont stop poverty. And using Government power (Or to use the euphemism of Leninist politicians “Workers control”) to impose “equality” has been shown, by successive failures in the Warsaw Pact nations, to be ineffective and morally wrong.
The reality is, governments should stay out of the “ending poverty” business. Instead, they should offer a minimum basic income and comprehensive voucher systems to the poor/people under the minimum basic income. They cannot simply direct an economy in any way they wish. They must allow wealth creators the freedom to create the the jobs, They must allow schools and universities to be incentivised to produce the best results. Simply put, the government should stay out of the way, only there to ensure the vulnerable do not suffer.
Great point tony. Unfortunately democracy dictates generally that the better off people dictate the health and education of the poor people. You could argue that government should just solely focus on economic and foeign policy and let the masses find their own way. Unfortunately though when a small group of elected people forget their people and focus on economic and foreign policies we end up with bazi Germany or Soviet russia.
There are also some very upmarket trailer parks filled with $200,000 motor homes and $100,000 trailers. That’s the US, there are rich and poor, just like here, and we give €700,000,000 to overseas aid for no real result.
How do you go from trailer parks to bashing overseas aid in one sentence?
Alice Cooper has kept himself in great shape
This is such a condescending insulting portrayal of life in a trailor park. Would have been better if one of the residents had taken this guys camera and turned it on him to see what clueless, sanctimonious privelage looks like. He brought a taxidermied fox?! Because trailor park trash sleep with wild animals?
Are they all inbred ?
have your say