Avoiding accountability takes various forms of lying to avoid consequences. First though, comes truth.
(Bold mine)
In a phone interview, Frejo said he felt they were mocking the dance.
One 11-minute video of the confrontation shows the Haka dance and students loudly chanting before Phillips and Frejo approached them.
Frejo said he joined Phillips to defuse the situation, singing the anthem from the American Indian Movement with both men beating out the tempo on hand drums.
During the incident, Phillips said he heard people chanting “build that wall” or yelling, “go back to the reservation.” At one point, he said, he sought to ascend to the Lincoln statue and “pray for our country.” Some students backed off, but one student wouldn’t let him move, he added.
Then comes bullshit.
(Bold mine)
I never interacted with this protestor. I did not speak to him. I did not make any hand gestures or other aggressive moves. To be honest, I was startled and confused as to why he had approached me. We had already been yelled at by another group of protestors, and when the second group approached I was worried that a situation was getting out of control where adults were attempting to provoke teenagers.
- snip -
During the period of the drumming, a member of the protestor's entourage began yelling at a fellow student that we "stole our land" and that we should "go back to Europe." I heard one of my fellow students begin to respond. I motioned to my classmate and tried to get him to stop engaging with the protestor, as I was still in the mindset that we needed to calm down tensions.www.google.com/...
If he didn't "make any hand gestures," how did he "motion to his classmate?" I don't see it "with the protester" during the "period of drumming."
And "Go back to the reservation?" Go back to public school.
Most Rev. Foys,
I write to you as a Christian, a graduate of Covington Catholic High School, a parishioner of Holy Spirit Parish in the Covington Diocese, and as a father of an 8th grade boy deciding where he will attend high school next year.
I am sure that you, as many of us in the Covington Catholic community, are disappointed and concerned about the recent actions of a number of CovCath boys in Washington D.C. at the March for Life.
In response to this issue, I urge you to demonstrate swift and decisive leadership.
Specifically, I am petitioning you to take the following actions:
1. The immediate termination of the school principal, Mr. Robert Rowe, for fostering an environment where these types of actions and words are condoned.
Monday, Jan 21, 2019 · 11:42:49 AM +00:00 · Winter Rabbit
(Bold mine)
Phillips told Indian Country Today he admitted that he didn't really realize what he had gotten into until he was in the middle of it.
He said, “What am I doing?” You know? But this is the commitment when I picked up the pipe 27 years ago. It's for the next generation. It’s when that moment comes and you got to stand your ground. That commitment that you made to either fulfill that or you don't. I mean, I was scared and I didn't want to. I really, I really didn't want to, but nobody else was.”
Monday, Jan 21, 2019 · 11:48:19 AM +00:00 · Winter Rabbit
Leslie in KY adds:
I saw the teens chant “you need to drink the Trump water” and tossing water bottles at the feet of the Black Israelites”. The situation seemed to me that the kids were acting like a mob towards the Black Israelites, who were “preaching” (and saying some offensive things too, something like “hey we are against the homosexuals so you should be on our side”; seems they were preaching against the Native Americans, legally using space adjacent to them). Phillips stated from his perspective there were a few kids, who left and came back with more, then on and on until there were a couple hundred surrounding the Black Israelites and escalating the animus. So he started his peace chants and walking toward the mob feeling he needed to defuse the conflict between the mob and the Black Israelites (who he did not agree with but respected their right to be there preaching).
Monday, Jan 21, 2019 · 2:24:27 PM +00:00 · Winter Rabbit
From lolsilently in comments with gratitude:
Covington Catholics Banned Gay Valedictorian from Giving Speech
The teen boys in MAGA hats who roundly mocked a native American elder during the Indigenous Peoples March in a video that went viral this weekend, arrived at the protest in Washington D.C. from Covington Catholic High School in Covington, Ky. a district where, just this May, the Catholic diocese banned a gay valedictorian from delivering his speech calling it "inappropriate," according to USA Today.
- big snip —
At one point, someone with the Black Hebrew Israelites began railing about "sodomy" and "homosexuals." He turned to the Covington Catholic teens in their MAGA hats and said, "Your president is a homosexual." One of the teens allegedly countered by saying "that's homophobic," according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Still, when Phillips stepped in to help break up the tension, the Covington teens turned their negative attention to him.
Monday, Jan 21, 2019 · 4:47:36 PM +00:00 · Winter Rabbit
Interview on A.M. Joy MSNBC
Native elder recounts viral confrontation with ‘ugly, ugly’ MAGA students on Think Progress
“They surrounded these black kids, these black guys — taunting them and throwing racial taunts back and forth,” he said.
“First they came, there were about six of them. They went away. They came back with about 20. They went away, came back with about 60. They surrounded these black kids, black guys,” Phillips recounted.
-snip-
“So when I started the drum beat it was in my mind that, ‘God, look at us here now, you know? I’m praying, God.’ We’re at the end of our indigenous people’s March and we want to end this in a good way. Look at my America. Look at my black and white brothers tearing at each other. We’re at a point where you can’t stand by and watch this.”
Monday, Jan 21, 2019 · 7:44:17 PM +00:00 · Winter Rabbit
Phillips was racially taunted in 2015 with"Go back to the reservation" and a beer can thrown at him. His response? "Whoever would sit judgement on them, the university the law, society, that is their job," Phillips said. "I will pray for them that they will see a better way."
(Bold mine)
He says he walked over to the fence and saw roughly 30 to 40 students involved in a theme party."They had their face painted," Phillips said. "I said what the heck is going on here. 'Oh we are honoring you.' I said no you are not honoring me."
It was a statement he says they took offense to.
"Then started whooping and hollering," he said. "I said that wasn't honoring, that was racist. Then at that time, it really got ugly."
Phillips says he was bombarded with racial slurs.
"(They said) 'Go back to the reservation, you blank indian,'" he said. One student, he says, threw a beer can at him.