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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:55 pm Post subject: illegal alien supporters attack Tancredo event at UNC Chapel
illegal alien supporters attack Tancredo event at UNC Chapel Hill
Video 1: My arrival in the hallway. I started filming right after police had to tackle and spray protesters. I left the video recording in the latter part of this video to document my verbal exchanges with protesters inside the room.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ7vcgQjkDQ
Video 2: We calmed the protesters then they got rowdy with a sign and someone smashed out the window spraying glass on a girl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7naTR5QCxo
Tonight, I traveled to UNC Chapel Hill to hear retired Congressman Tom Tancredo speak about why he opposes the Dream Act Amnesty and in-state tuition for illegals. His views are representative of the vast majority of Americans on these issues as illustrated by numerous polls.
I never got to hear Congressman Tancredo speak, neither did the thirty plus other people who gathered in room 103 in Bingham Hall.
I was running late to the event, which was to start at 6:30pm. I arrived around 6:45 and as I entered Bingham Hall, I immediately pulled out my video camera to film the conflict between pro-illegal alien protesters and police outside door of the meeting room.
The meeting room had become packed, as protesters filled the seats in the back of the room. Police refused to let anymore protesters enter for safety reasons and when they did that, the pro-illegal alien protesters made physical contact with the officers.
Officers deployed pepper spray and activated a hand held taser, although they did not use it on anyone.
I briefly filmed the altercation and then entered the room to find Congressman Tancredo sitting at the front of the room calmly. Those who had come to hear him speak had dismayed, worried, and agitated looks on their faces because the illegal alien supporters were intent upon trying to disrupt the meeting and prevent him from speaking by shouting obscenities, screaming "racist", and chanting.
Most of the protesters were younger and many were from the UNC campus Hispanic groups. Among their ranks were some students that had a style of dress and hair styles similar to many of the anarchist groups seen around campuses.
I entered and greeted Tom and then I went to find a seat but found the braying protesters to be highly disrespectful and anti-American in their attempts to suppress free speech in the room.
So I raised my voice and asked them to calm down. It took them by surprise for a second, but I explained that this was America and that free speech cannot be attacked using mob rule tactics. When I explained that UNC was my Alma matter and that their actions here would reflect poorly on the University, things calmed down for a few minutes.
Some Hispanic students came up to the front and said that this affects them and that they want to be heard too.
Congressman Tancredo was so polite and so tolerant. He told them that he would certainly let them speak as long as they showed him the same respect. He told the crowd that they could certainly shout him down and stop him from speaking if they chose, but that many had gathered to hear him and that he wanted to proceed.
While things were calming down in the meeting room, you could hear protesters out in the hallways being held at bay by police and they were banging on drums or something similar to try and create enough noise to disrupt the meeting.
There were some older adults in the ranks of the protesters near the back of the room who appeared to be the ring leaders. I hope that we can identify them from the videos to determine if they are UNC employees or merely old school leftist radicals from outside of the campus.
As Congressman Tancredo started speaking, two anarchist looking girls stood up and unfolded a long banner that read "No One Is Illegal" and many in the crowd sighed and said come on now. Tancredo said that signs were fine and he tried to continue.
Then after a few seconds the two girls winked at each other to give the signal and they moved directly in front of Tancredo putting the sign up physically on his face. Tom tried to pull the sign out of his way and while that altercation took place, the large glass window to the right of Tancredo was shattered by protesters outside of the building.
Luckily, there was a blind in place but the glass did rain down on two students who were there to hear Mr. Tancredo speak.
Police rushed in and the event organizers rushed Congressman Tancredo out of the room. The campus security said the event was over, yet I asked them to secure the building and let it go on. I explained that a broken window was of little cost compared to the value of free speech in America and that the university was setting a dangerous precedent by allowing protesters to silence any view with a broken window.
The security officer in charge understood what I was saying but it became clear that his officers did not have control of the building nor the grounds around the building.
Supporters and protesters alike began to file out of the room. One of the protesters tried to ram his shoulder into me as he passed me, but I did not engage him because I was filming what was happening and telling the protesters that they were not the first group to smash out windows of those they hated.
I kept looking at that broken window and images of bricks thrown through the windows of black families and black churches ran through my mind along with images of Jewish store fronts shattered by the Hitler youth.
As we were all leaving the room the protesters set off the fire alarm in the building and they regrouped outside to march with their banners outside of the building in front of many onlookers.
I looked around but could not find any of the event organizers or people I knew. I filmed for a few minutes and went to the side of the building.
About six people in different groups thanked me for coming and trying to settle the protesters down and secure the meeting.
Three black girls who appeared to be students were talking next to me as I spoke to a couple who shook my hand. I told these students that I was ashamed that in my nation there were people willing to destroy free speech by using violence like this.
One of the black girls looked at me, with what felt like sheer hatred and she said, "I'm not from this country. You can have it!"
So many students are turned down by UNC Chapel Hill each year. I remember how proud and excited my family was when I was admitted as a Freshman in 1987. I was one of only four people from my High School that got in that year. So tell me, why is this top University in America have seats filled with foreigners who hate America?
I walked to the offices of the student newspaper, the Daily Tarheel. I met with a reporter there and told him what happened. I told him I wanted it known how embarrassed I was for my old University and how shameful it was that groups in such a place of higher learning were willing to use mob rule tactics like violence, assault, and destruction of property to silence those they disagree with. It certainly does not sound like "diversity" to me.
I also told the student paper that we would be very interested in the UNC administration's response to this incident. I explained that if UNC was a breeding ground for this kind of violent and anti-American radicalism, then our education system has truly failed and NC taxpayers should have that in mind during the legislative budgeting process.
I have returned home to Raleigh, NC now and aside from a few whiffs of pepper spray, I am physically fine. But the hatred, aggression and violence that I saw today at UNC Chapel Hill was a real eye opener. These illegal aliens and their supporters have no respect for the freedoms and principles once so cherished in the United States.
UNC Chapel Hill and the surrounding towns in Orange, County are known as the most liberal areas in my home state. While I know that most American students at UNC will not approve of what the protesters did, I can't help but wonder how much the local liberal politics of Chapel Hill contributed to the enraged mob that lashed out today.
Long ago, I was once a fashionably liberal young freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill myself and my personal experiences tell me that many of those in the violent mob tonight have been both misinformed and heavily indoctrinated.
The illegal aliens and their supporters had big smiles on their faces after the building was damaged, the false fire alarm was triggered, and Tancredo had left the area. You could clearly see they were jubilant and feeling victorious, as if their suppression of free speech and uncivilized conduct had won them some great victory.
This was no victory for any American. What happened at UNC Chapel Hill tonight was a disgrace to the University, the UNC System, the town of Chapel Hill, and the state of North Carolina. For those who came to the event to speak out on behalf of illegal aliens and their desire for the Dream Act Amnesty and in-state tuition, the message they sent will harm their cause.
Those who used violence to triumph over free speech and the freedom to assemble will find that their cause will be both rejected and rebuked by the vast majority of Americans who find such savagery speaks ill of both the perpetrators and their issues.
William Gheen _________________ Vox populi vox Dei
Ad majorem Dei gloriam
Good grief! Look forward to your filming and am grateful you are okay. As when mobs start going, their energy is only enforced and spreads to onlookers. I will be sending Mr. Tancredo a letter of apology and praise his courage. This is not the NC I know, nor is this America anymore that I cherish. Something has gotten very funky here. The pro-illegal groups are violenty enforcing their "freedom of speech" while denying the same right to anyone that disagrees with them. These people have no understanding of debate on any subject that may undermine their assault on America and getting everything they can at our expense.
Joined: Nov 28, 2008 Posts: 844 Location: Unoccupied Southeast Georgia
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:27 pm Post subject:
I am so sorry for what you and Tom Tancredo experienced. It is absolutely awful when liberal loons and anarchists have no respect for this country, our values and way of life. Too bad that idiot with a hatred for this country who most likely is attending UNC on the taxpayer's dime can't be dis enrolled and returned to her country of origin. Did you contact the local law enforcement authorities as it appears campus security was impotent and inept. Is there anyway you can relate your experiences to the media once you compile all the pertinent video footage? You need to give this the widest possible dissemination so the American people will know what they are up against. I suggest Beck, Hannity, Dobbs and others. I will be happy to send this to my contact at my local television station and can post what you told us in Facebook and other forums of which I am a member if it is alright with you. _________________ There is no freedom without the law. Remember our veterans whose sacrifices allow us to live in freedom.
I drove to Chapel Hill to attend this event with my daughter, a proud American and a student at UNC. When we tried to enter the building(the doors were locked) we were stared down by some of the most hate-filled appearing people I've ever seen. My daughter commented that those who preach "tolerance " are the most intolerant of all.
I was inside the building and in a position to pull the fire alarm and try shutting down President Calderon when he spoke at the Kennedy School at Harvard but one of my most informed and astute Mexican friends said that out of Obama McCain and Calderon Calderon was the one who would most want to see most of the illegal aliens return to Mexico.
Obama wants votes in exchange for welfare state benefits
McCain wants cheap labor for businesses that donate money
Calderon wants a Mexico that is successful and healthy creating jobs there for Mexicans
Joined: May 16, 2006 Posts: 1116 Location: Oklahoma
Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:06 am Post subject:
Those must have been some of those right-wing extremists that the DHS is warning law enforcement about........ _________________ Immigration reform should reflect a commitment to enforcement, not reward those who blatantly break the rules. - Rep Dan Boren D-Ok
By Jesse James DeConto, Staff Writer Comment on this story
CHAPEL HILL - UNC-CH police released pepper spray and threatened to use a Taser on student protesters Tuesday evening when a crowd disrupted a speech by former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo opposing in-state tuition benefits to unauthorized immigrants.
Hundreds of protesters converged on Bingham Hall, shouting profanities and accusations of racism while Tancredo and the student who introduced him tried to speak. Minutes into the speech, a protester pounded a window of the classroom until the glass shattered, prompting Tancredo to flee and campus police to shut down the event.
Tancredo was brought to campus by a UNC chapter of Youth for Western Civilization, a national organization of students who oppose mass immigration, multiculturalism and affirmative action.
Before the event, campus security removed two women who delayed Tancredo's speech by stretching a 12-foot banner across the front of the classroom. It read, “No dialogue with hate.”
Police escorted the women into the hallway, amid more than 30 protesters who clashed with the officers trying to keep them out of the overcrowded classroom. After police released pepper spray and threatened the crowd with a Taser, the protesters gathered outside Bingham Hall.
Police spokesman Randy Young said the pepper spray was “broadcast” to clear the hallway. He said officers' use of force was under investigation by the department.
Inside the classroom, several student protesters screamed curses at Tancredo and Riley Matheson, president of the UNC-Chapel Hill chapter of Youth for Western Civilization.
“This is the free speech crowd, right?” Tancredo joked.
UNC-CH geography professor Alpha Cravey joined protesters in chanting the names of Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus.
But campus visitors and some faculty members in the capacity crowd of 150 urged the students to let Tancredo speak.
“We are the children of immigrants, and this concerns us,” said junior Lizette Lopez, 22, vice president of the Carolina Hispanic Association. “So we would at least like to hear what he has to say if you want to hear what we have to say.”
The protesters relented, and Tancredo began to speak, describing failed state and federal legislation aimed at providing in-state tuition benefits for undocumented immigrants.
Two women stretched out another banner, first along one of the aisles and then right in front of Tancredo. Tancredo grabbed the middle of the banner and tried to pull it away from one of the girls. “You don't want to hear what I have to say because you don't agree with me,” he said.
The sound of breaking glass from behind a window shade interrupted the tug-of-war.
Tancredo was escorted from the room by campus police.
About 200 protesters reconvened outside the building. “We shut him down; no racists in our town,” they shouted. “Yes, racists, we will fight, we know where you sleep at night!”
Reached by phone after his departure, Tancredo said he had never been silenced by protesters, even at American University where 400 of them recently attended one of his speeches.
“We're very sorry that former Congressman Tancredo wasn't able to speak,” Chancellor Holden Thorp said in a prepared statement. “We pride ourselves on being a place where all points of view can be expressed and heard, so I'm disappointed that didn't happen tonight. I think our Public Safety officers appropriately handled a difficult situation.”
Police spokesman Randy Young said he couldn't recall student protesters shutting down another campus event.
“Fascists are fascists,” Tancredo said. “Their actions were probably the best speech I could ever give. They are what's wrong with America today. … When all you can do is yell epithets, that means you are intellectually bankrupt.”
UNC graduate student Tyler Oakley, who had organized the protest, said he regretted the broken window but not silencing Tancredo. “He was not able to practice his hate speech,” said Oakley. “You have to respect the right of people to assemble and collectively speak.”
Lopez said she had mixed emotions about how the event ended.
“We were more interested in an intellectual conversation instead of a shouting match,” she said. “Ironically, the people that are trying to get our voices heard silenced us.”
Matheson, who formed UNC-YWC this year with seven other conservative students, said he knew Tancredo would be controversial but he never expected this kind of response.
“I didn't expect them to literally chase him out of the building,” he said.
Staff writer Samuel Spies contributed to this report.
Joined: Apr 10, 2006 Posts: 31506 Location: Texas - The Lone Star State
Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:25 am Post subject:
Quote:
“Yes, racists, we will fight, we know where you sleep at night!”
That sounds like a threat.
Quote:
UNC graduate student Tyler Oakley, who had organized the protest, said he regretted the broken window but not silencing Tancredo....“You have to respect the right of people to assemble and collectively speak.”
This is a discombobulated statement.
What a shame that Oakley values the window more than freedom of speech.
Dixie _________________ Englishmen, who have no right in this kingdom of France, the King of Heaven sends you word and warning...depart into your own country... Joan of Arc.
UNC-CH geography professor Alpha Cravey joined protesters in chanting the names of Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus.
“We're very sorry that former Congressman Tancredo wasn't able to speak,” Chancellor Holden Thorp said in a prepared statement. “We pride ourselves on being a place where all points of view can be expressed and heard, so I'm disappointed that didn't happen tonight. I think our Public Safety officers appropriately handled a difficult situation.”
Sounds like the Chancellor needs some emails with Cravey on copy requesting reprimand of staff that helped stifle free speech tonight...
"Much of my research and teaching is focused on Latin America and Latinos in the United States South. In fact, I got my job at UNC because I had done a lot of research in Mexico that was subsequently published as Women and Work in Mexico's Maquiladoras (Rowman and Littlefield 1998). I continue to research in Mexico and spend time there whenever possible. However, I am also beginning to examine globalization here in North Carolina by studying the many reasons that Latinos have moved to our state in the 1980s and 1990s."
She also considers going to high school during the "1960's" a major influence on her life.
Protesters Stop Speech
Police use pepper spray, undirected Tasers at protest of Tancredo talk
Laura Hoxworth, Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Student protestors enter Bingham Hall on Tuesday evening to protest an anti-immigration speech given by former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, who was brought to campus by Youth for Western Civilization. Protestors included members of Students for a Democratic Society and Feminist Students United.
2protest415
Protestors were cleared from Bingham Hall when police used pepper spray and the threat of Tasers after students interrupted Tancredo’s lecture. Police, who followed the students along their protest march from the Pit, refused to allow more protestors to enter Bingham after the lecture hall was full.
Police used pepper spray to disperse crowds of protestors in Bingham Hall on Tuesday outside the room where former congressman Tom Tancredo was scheduled to speak on immigration but was forced to leave.
Campus police also discharged a Taser, sending sparks in an arc they said was meant to disperse the crowd, not to subdue an individual protestor.
Tancredo, a former Republican U.S. Representative from Colorado, a former presidential candidate and an outspoken critic of immigration, was brought to UNC by the new student organization Youth for Western Civilization.
About 150 people gathered in Bingham Hall auditorium, and many more protestors gathered in the hallway after police declared the room full and blocked the doorway.
“I’m here because I represent UNC-Chapel Hill and I don’t support racism or fascism in the institution in which I am an educator,” graduate student Jason Bowers said.
Riley Matheson, president of Youth for Western Civilization, introduced Tancredo amid hissing, booing and shouts of “racist” and “white supremacist.”
“This is an organization that seeks to promote Western civilization,” Matheson said at the event. “We believe that our civilization is under attack from liberal forces.”
Matheson said his organization supports people from every race participating in Western civilization, but that they must be properly assimilated to American culture first.
“No matter how many times you chant racist, that doesn’t make it true,” he said to the crowd.
After Tancredo entered the room, protesters kept him from speaking by shouting insults and holding a sign declaring “no dialogue with hate” in front of his face. Tancredo waited calmly while protestors held the sign and chanted.
Two protestors holding the sign in front of Tancredo were escorted into the hallway by police, where the Taser and pepper spray were used.
“The cops were trying to tell them to back up,” said first-year student Chris Sparks, who was in the hallway with the protestors. “It was a good 10 or 15 minutes that they would not back up. The cops did what they had to.”
Randy Young, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said officers made a “broadcast transmission of pepper spray” to disperse protestors after they tried to force their way into the room.
After protestors exited the hallway, Tancredo spoke for about two minutes before a protestor outside the building banged on a window, shattering the glass.
Tancredo was escorted out of the room by police after he deemed the situation too volatile, Young said.
Protestors then exited the building and gathered outside.
“Free speech was destroyed today at Chapel Hill by the breaking of glass and violence,” said William Gheen, a former UNC student and president of Americans for Legal Immigration.
“If this is the type of academic atmosphere being cultivated here, taxpayers need to start pulling their f---ing money.”
Sophomore Adrian Lopez, a member of the Carolina Hispanic Organization, attended the speech to protest Tancredo’s view, but said he did not agree with how the protest was handled.
“I feel very embarrassed about how the student body went about doing this,” Lopez said. “It got completely out of control.”
No arrests were made, but there will be an investigation into criminal activity by protestors and the use of force by officers.
UNC-CH geography professor Alpha Cravey joined protesters in chanting the names of Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus.
“We're very sorry that former Congressman Tancredo wasn't able to speak,” Chancellor Holden Thorp said in a prepared statement. “We pride ourselves on being a place where all points of view can be expressed and heard, so I'm disappointed that didn't happen tonight. I think our Public Safety officers appropriately handled a difficult situation.”
Sounds like the Chancellor needs some emails with Cravey on copy requesting reprimand of staff that helped stifle free speech tonight...
ASK AND YOU SHALL RECIEVE
Holden Thorp, Chancellor
Office of the Chancellor
103 South Building
Campus Box 9100
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-9100
“We're very sorry that former Congressman Tancredo wasn't able to speak,” Chancellor Holden Thorp said in a prepared statement. “We pride ourselves on being a place where all points of view can be expressed and heard, so I'm disappointed that didn't happen tonight. I think our Public Safety officers appropriately handled a difficult situation.”
Is this it? A lame apology. Is the university going to investigate this violence and wanton attack on free speech? As in expulsions, arrests? I can only imagine what would happen if conservative students broke up a Mecha event etc.
Quote:
No arrests were made, but there will be an investigation into criminal activity by protestors and the use of force by officers.
Oh great, I don't what will happen with this, but I wouldn't be surprised if officers get somehow "blamed" for this.
Joined: May 22, 2006 Posts: 28615 Location: Mexifornia
Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 2:04 am Post subject:
This is yet another example of how upside down things are.
Those of us who just want our immigration laws enforced are the enemy in their eyes and our voices silenced? We are a nation of laws right? How many times have we heard our politicians say that?
If those of us who want our laws enforced had made such a violent ugly demonstration it would be reported by every major media outlet.
Some of these students will eventually graduate, go out into the real world and change their tune, I'd bet on it.
Sorry you, W, and Mr. Tancredo had to go through this. You both have my utmost respect and admiration. _________________ Why aren't our immigration laws enforced?
Joined: Jan 26, 2008 Posts: 7 Location: Eldon, Iowa
Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 2:49 am Post subject:
DHS states that we are the extremists! Looks like to me it's the left-wing "progressives" who are the extremists!
In my opinion, the war has begun! The left-wing facists and their illegal toadies have fired the first shot! Bring it on facists, we'll kick your prissy asses!
It's April 15th and I spent most of the last 4 days, and they were 20 hour days, figuring out what the government demands from me in tax payments. I suppose that I'll end up paying what is due; but, the belief grows stronger every year that it is both immoral and maybe even impractical to pay -- immoral in the sense that those taxes now only support a government without a nation and impractical in the sense that the whole system could collapse before "they" get around to doing anything about me not paying. That any American would want to behave as those protesters did and then that they were allowed to succeed strengthens and, I think, validates my beliefs.
It seems like, more than anything, those protesters are in reality a bunch of spoiled brat idiots that have been found by a cause. That is pretty much exemplified by the Oakley character who says you have to respect the right of people to assemble and speak and then celebrates his success at preventing people from assembling and speaking. The lunatics have indeed gained control of this asylum that used to be a country. Not enough good men willing to stand up rather than stand by, I guess.
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