SaveOurState
08-30-2006, 12:30 AM
Something's wrong with immigration protests (http://www.dailynews.com/bridgetjohnson/ci_4258266)
Something's wrong with immigration protests
BY BRIDGET JOHNSON, Columnist
THE city of Maywood - a 1.2-square-mile town with an official population of just over 28,000 about eight miles south of downtown Los Angeles - is a pocket for illegal immigrants, lauded by immigrant advocates and decried by detractors. In this 96 percent Hispanic town, signs advising pedestrians to use crosswalks are printed in Spanish and English, and many storefronts' signs are in Spanish as well. The last census says 55 percent of residents are foreign-born, and 92 percent speak a language other than English at home.
Earlier this year, the Maywood City Council passed a resolution opposing the Sensenbrenner immigration bill after it passed in the House, and the town was designated the first "sanctuary city" in the state. The city also nixed police checkpoints so as not to net illegal immigrants without driver's licenses, and disbanded its traffic division for the same reason.
On Saturday, Save Our State showed up to protest that policy in front of Maywood City Hall, numbering several dozen with "Don't tread on me" and American flags. "Not anti-Hispanic, anti-illegal alien," read one sign; "Maywood is part of the U.S. and its elected officials need to act accordingly," read another. One man held a small sign that read "traitors," and the group was fronted by a banner championing Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo for president. ("Tancredo? Who's that?" a confused counter-demonstrator asked me.)
Police in riot gear manned a buffer zone on blocked-off Slauson Avenue, surrounding the anti-illegal-immigration demonstrators who were being faced down by a few hundred counter-protesters and neighboring residents who pulled out Mexican flags and joined the event. I had gotten wind of a socialist organization calling people out for the demonstration, hence showed up to find the counter-protest to be an eclectic mix of white guys in Che T-shirts and Latinos - wearing shirts ordering people to not call them Latino or Hispanic (too European), but Mexican - denouncing white people.
And if immigration proponents have been trying to pass off reconquista claims - the belief that immigrants want to take back "Aztlan" - as paranoid, these protesters weren't helping. One sign proclaimed "Stolen continent" - yet displayed two continents, North and South America. "White racists this is our continent" read one sign. Another said, "We will never live in peace until we get the European squatters off our lands."
I squatted in the middle of the counter-protesters for a couple
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of hours, reading their literature, listening to them talk, trotting next to protesters trying to circumvent police lines and confronting a fleet of motorcycle cops on the next side street over.
And if what I witnessed is what the immigration debate has come down to, it's nothing less than vicious and hate-filled. This is where intelligent discourse flies out the window, and people start drawing territorial lines within communities.
A couple of times, unwelcome people came into the counter-protesting crowd to take photos or video, and were quickly surrounded by an angry crowd and pelted with water bottles and debris. Shouts of "you little white b-" were directed at a blond woman; a man yelled "Get out of here, this is our town" through a bullhorn to others.
Some wearing lucha libre masks and some with bandannas obscuring their faces, counter-protesters tried to get close to the SOS demonstrators by cutting down side streets leading to Slauson, and were angry when the cops were already there. Others manned the front lines with signs depicting Arnold Schwarzenegger as a Nazi, chanting "Minutemen! Resist! They're the real terrorists."
Toward the end of the counter-demonstration, those protesters raised the Mexican flag on the pole in front of the U.S. Post Office. Don Silva of SOS said one woman with his group was assaulted while trying to move through the opposition crowd, and some of their cars had tires slashed and were vandalized.
Maywood, regardless of its demographics, is still within the United States of America, and still falls under the laws of this country. Lobby against those laws if you feel they're unfair; that's the beauty of our system.
But when you have virulent protests that include a pre-teen boy yelling "f- that white b-" at a passing fair-skinned woman - me - something is seriously wrong. Especially when it comes from the side holding a banner that proclaimed "Say NO to racism."
Bridget Johnson writes for the Daily News. E-mail her at bridget.johnson@dailynews.com.
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Something's wrong with immigration protests
BY BRIDGET JOHNSON, Columnist
THE city of Maywood - a 1.2-square-mile town with an official population of just over 28,000 about eight miles south of downtown Los Angeles - is a pocket for illegal immigrants, lauded by immigrant advocates and decried by detractors. In this 96 percent Hispanic town, signs advising pedestrians to use crosswalks are printed in Spanish and English, and many storefronts' signs are in Spanish as well. The last census says 55 percent of residents are foreign-born, and 92 percent speak a language other than English at home.
Earlier this year, the Maywood City Council passed a resolution opposing the Sensenbrenner immigration bill after it passed in the House, and the town was designated the first "sanctuary city" in the state. The city also nixed police checkpoints so as not to net illegal immigrants without driver's licenses, and disbanded its traffic division for the same reason.
On Saturday, Save Our State showed up to protest that policy in front of Maywood City Hall, numbering several dozen with "Don't tread on me" and American flags. "Not anti-Hispanic, anti-illegal alien," read one sign; "Maywood is part of the U.S. and its elected officials need to act accordingly," read another. One man held a small sign that read "traitors," and the group was fronted by a banner championing Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo for president. ("Tancredo? Who's that?" a confused counter-demonstrator asked me.)
Police in riot gear manned a buffer zone on blocked-off Slauson Avenue, surrounding the anti-illegal-immigration demonstrators who were being faced down by a few hundred counter-protesters and neighboring residents who pulled out Mexican flags and joined the event. I had gotten wind of a socialist organization calling people out for the demonstration, hence showed up to find the counter-protest to be an eclectic mix of white guys in Che T-shirts and Latinos - wearing shirts ordering people to not call them Latino or Hispanic (too European), but Mexican - denouncing white people.
And if immigration proponents have been trying to pass off reconquista claims - the belief that immigrants want to take back "Aztlan" - as paranoid, these protesters weren't helping. One sign proclaimed "Stolen continent" - yet displayed two continents, North and South America. "White racists this is our continent" read one sign. Another said, "We will never live in peace until we get the European squatters off our lands."
I squatted in the middle of the counter-protesters for a couple
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of hours, reading their literature, listening to them talk, trotting next to protesters trying to circumvent police lines and confronting a fleet of motorcycle cops on the next side street over.
And if what I witnessed is what the immigration debate has come down to, it's nothing less than vicious and hate-filled. This is where intelligent discourse flies out the window, and people start drawing territorial lines within communities.
A couple of times, unwelcome people came into the counter-protesting crowd to take photos or video, and were quickly surrounded by an angry crowd and pelted with water bottles and debris. Shouts of "you little white b-" were directed at a blond woman; a man yelled "Get out of here, this is our town" through a bullhorn to others.
Some wearing lucha libre masks and some with bandannas obscuring their faces, counter-protesters tried to get close to the SOS demonstrators by cutting down side streets leading to Slauson, and were angry when the cops were already there. Others manned the front lines with signs depicting Arnold Schwarzenegger as a Nazi, chanting "Minutemen! Resist! They're the real terrorists."
Toward the end of the counter-demonstration, those protesters raised the Mexican flag on the pole in front of the U.S. Post Office. Don Silva of SOS said one woman with his group was assaulted while trying to move through the opposition crowd, and some of their cars had tires slashed and were vandalized.
Maywood, regardless of its demographics, is still within the United States of America, and still falls under the laws of this country. Lobby against those laws if you feel they're unfair; that's the beauty of our system.
But when you have virulent protests that include a pre-teen boy yelling "f- that white b-" at a passing fair-skinned woman - me - something is seriously wrong. Especially when it comes from the side holding a banner that proclaimed "Say NO to racism."
Bridget Johnson writes for the Daily News. E-mail her at bridget.johnson@dailynews.com.
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