Thread: LAGUNA BEACH PROTEST A BIG SUCCESS

LA Times article:

O.C. Day Laborer Site Target of Protest
Demonstrators oppose Laguna Beach partly funding a center used by undocumented workers with money from the Festival of the Arts.

By Jennifer Delson, Times Staff Writer


About 100 opponents of illegal immigration lined a road leading to Laguna Beach's Festival of the Arts on Saturday to protest city funding of a day laborer site with money partly generated by the annual summertime event.

The site helps workers, many of them immigrants, find jobs regardless of their status.


The Laguna Canyon Road protest, which ended shortly after noon without any major incidents, marked the latest in a string of tense Southland illegal-immigration demonstrations in recent months.

"These rich people in Laguna Beach should be able to pay Americans an American wage," said Michael Jackson of Long Beach who joined the demonstration. "Illegals depress wages and that's why Americans aren't doing these jobs."

Across the street from the demonstrators, a half dozen supporters of undocumented immigrants held signs with messages such as "Stop the Hate."

The protesters "have a hidden agenda that is hate," said Naui Huitzilopochtli of Westminster. "They are scared of the browning of America."

At issue was the art festival's indirect funding of the Laguna Day Worker Center, which is a few miles north of the site of Saturday's protest.

The festival pays rent for the two months it uses city property. The money goes to Laguna Beach's general fund, which helps subsidize community groups, including the Cross Cultural Council, which runs the day laborer center.

The center, which opened six years ago, receives about one-third of its $75,000 annual budget from the city, said David Peck, chairman of the Cross Cultural Council.

"It's a real shame," center manager Irma Ronses said by telephone earlier in the week of two protests that preceded Saturday's. "These men are not criminals," she said. "They want to work. The protesters make it out like they are doing something to hurt someone."

About half of the 70 men who come to the center each day find jobs, mostly construction work that pays $10 an hour, Ronses said.

If undocumented immigrants left Laguna Beach, the city's infrastructure would collapse, Peck said.

Saturday's demonstration came two months after a tense protest in Baldwin Park over a Metrolink art monument that a Ventura-based citizens group said was anti-American. But the group was far outnumbered by counter protesters. There was no violence, but police had to escort group members to their cars.

Ten days later in Garden Grove, foes of James Gilchrist, founder of the citizen border patrol campaign known as the Minuteman Project, clashed with his supporters who had come to hear him speak. Five people were arrested.

Gilchrist attended the Laguna Beach protest. So did Barbara Coe, one of the authors of Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot measure which sought to deny public benefits to undocumented immigrants.

The demonstration was mostly peaceful. However, during one skirmish, one protester was restrained by police. No one was arrested.

Artist David Milton of Laguna Beach, who was participating in the festival, watched the protest and was not amused. He handed out homemade fliers that called the protesters "right-wing nuts" and included pictures of hardware nuts.

"These people do not represent Laguna Beach," he said.

About half of the 70 men who come to the center each day find jobs, mostly construction work that pays $10 an hour, Ronses said.

So, there are only 35 jobs available. So what do the other 35 do all day? Seems proof to me that there aren't enough jobs in Laguna Beach to warrant illegal aliens in the United States.

If undocumented immigrants left Laguna Beach, the city's infrastructure would collapse, Peck said.

So what is he saying, the city is using them as "footings" or what?



SUGGESTION TO PECK: Next time don't build your city on illegal aliens. Never know when Americans might pull the plug on this crap and all your "illegal alien infrastructure" will come tumbling down!!

There is NO connection between WN and the rally in Laguna. There was nothing we could do to keep them away. We do not want them there, we do not like them, we asked them to stay away.

This story by Duane Roberts is false and misleading. The police have been notified and taking action.
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LAGUNA BEACH COPS TACKLE WHITE SUPREMACIST TO THE GROUND: PART I

The photograph below is of Baldy, an avowed white supremacist, who allegedly tried to physically attack Naui Huitzilopochtli, a counterdemonstrator, at the Saturday, July 16, 2005 protest that a member of "Save Our State" organized against a day labor center in Laguna Beach, California. In this photograph, Baldy (who identified himself as Robert Floyd of Pearlblossom) is talking to Suzie Harrison, a reporter for The Coast Daily Pilot.

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Monday, July 18, 2005

LAGUNA BEACH COPS TACKLE WHITE SUPREMACIST TO THE GROUND: PART I

Police report expected to show that S.O.S. and National Alliance members allegedly tried to attack counterdemonstrator at 7/16 rally

By DUANE J. ROBERTS
duaneroberts92804@yahoo.com

LAGUNA BEACH, CA -- "The rally in [Laguna Beach] this morning was better than I could even imagine," wrote OCAngel in a message she posted on the "Save our State" website last Saturday night. "Thank you to SOS for allowing me an outlet to announce this event, and a place to rant, rave, and bitch, as well as meet new friends. Thank you to those who couldn't make the rally but kept us in good thoughts." {1}

OCAngel (whose real name I'm withholding for the moment) is a Laguna Beach mom who is fed up with "illegal immigration". She's angry that a portion of the revenues the yearly Sawdust Art Festival generates for the beach community she calls home are being used to fund a day labor center for undocumented workers. So on the morning of Saturday, July 16th, she held a protest on the public sidewalk outside of the event "to educate the public and tourists about how their Festival of the Arts ticket money is being used to aid and support illegal immigration." {2}

By OCAngel's accounts, the rally she worked hard putting together was indeed a smashing success. More than sixty people showed up, while only five counterdemonstrators appeared to oppose them. Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist, an Aliso Viejo resident, dropped by for awhile to pay his respects. Barbara Coe, the venerable Chairwoman of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR) and co-author of Proposition 187, was also there. And Don Silva (aka "OldPreach"), one of Joe Turner's close allies, was running around dressed in camouflage again, waving around an American flag (for matter of record, the rally itself was not officially endorsed by S.O.S.). {3}

But members of the National Alliance, an avowedly white supremacist organization, appeared to be out in full force that day. In fact, somebody who calls herself occutegirl, perhaps unbeknownst to her at the time, posted a photograph she took of two reputed members of that group on the "Save Our State" website. The photo shows a young woman (alleged to be "dixieland_delight" on the Stormfront White Nationalist Community website) and a man suspected of being her boyfriend holding up a blue banner reading, "DEPORT ILLEGAL ALIENS," with the words, "http://www.SaveOurState.org," emblazoned just underneath them in much smaller type. {4}

After realizing that a good number of "white nationalists" had attended her rally, OCAngel, to her credit, took some steps to distance herself from them. In one cryptic posting on the "Save Our State" website, she hinted publicly to a person who apparently had sent her a private message that they had "an agenda I do not agree with" and would "have preferred your group [possibly the National Alliance] to set up further and separate from us [on Saturday, July 16th], and not aligned yourselves with us in any way. I appreciated that you did not openly flaunt your views ..." {5}

But the truth is, despite OCAngel's apparent despair over all the National Alliance members who showed up to her Laguna Beach rally, evidence is rapidly mounting that white supremacists from across Southern California are trying to work hand and glove with "Save Our State" and its members in every protest and demonstration they organize; in fact, in some circumstances, it appears some white supremacists are active members of that group. And for the very first time anywhere, evidence of loose ties between S.O.S. members and people known to be white supremacists are going to be documented in an explosive report soon to be filed by Officer Andy Peck, the Laguna Beach policeman who monitored OCAngel's rally against the day labor center.

Naui Huitzilopochtli, was one of five people who showed up to demonstrate against OCAngel's Laguna Beach rally last Saturday. A seasoned activist, he's been involved in many protests and demonstrations here in Orange County, defending the rights of the Mexican people against racism, oppression, and police brutality. Another person who showed up that foggy morning was Sam, a UC Santa Cruz student, whose parents came to this country from Bombay, India; she was spending her summer vacation at their home in the Northern part of the County. "Undocumented workers are NOT the enemy!" was a sign she proudly held up throughout the demonstration.

For more than an hour, Naui, Sam, and the other counterdemonstrators that came that day endured the crude insults and taunts of a bald headed white man (hereafter to be known as "Baldy") who attended OCAngel's rally. "You are my slave," he allegedly shouted to them in as loud a voice he could possibly could utter across the wide swath of pavement known as Laguna Canyon Road. Sam told me that Baldy appeared to be "obsessed" with them; he spent most of his time hurling racist, derogatory comments: "He said things like, 'Go back home! You're ****ing up this country! You're making it like Tijuana!,'" she remarked.

At around 11:10 a.m, the Reverend Wiley Drake, a right-wing Baptist minister from Buena Park, walked directly across Laguna Canyon Road to interview the small handful of counterdemonstrators that had assembled along the fence. He was wearing headphones and was talking into a microphone to a Christian talkshow that was being broadcast live over internet radio. Noticing that Drake had jaywalked, a Laguna Beach policeman got pretty miffed. "Hey, what are you doing? Trying to cross the street when I wasn't looking, huh?" the officer allegedly blurted out to the Reverend, who at that time was talking with Naui and asking him if he would be interested in being interviewed. "Go back around the other side," the cop said.

Appearing a bit confused, and not wanting to ignore what he thought was a policeman's order, Drake decided to head back to OCAngel's anti-day labor center rally. But instead of jaywalking, he walked South on the public sidewalk toward the crosswalk, which was about several hundred feet away: quite a long distance. Naui followed closely behind him, with the belief the interview was going to continue, but at a different location.

It was at that moment that all hell began to break loose. According to Sam, a number of people attending the anti-day labor center protest began yelling at the top of their lungs. "He's going to assault the preacher!" she heard one person remark. "Arrest him and deport him!" another person was alleged to have shouted. Suddenly, Baldy and two other males, including Frank, a Cuban-American member of the "Save Our State" organization, unexpectedly darted out into the street in front of oncoming traffic and began running like crazy across Laguna Canyon Road. Hot on their heels were two Laguna Beach policeman. "Hey, stop!" Officer Peck was alleged to have shouted at the men, all of whom were rushing toward Naui.

Naui, who turned around quickly to see what all the commotion was about, began to fear for his life; he believed he was going to get physically attacked. He claimed Baldy had a big knife and was allegedly told by the men coming after him that "his ass was going to get kicked." But before that could happen, Officer Peck tackled Baldy to the ground with such force that it caused his eyeglasses to come flying right off of his head. His partner then pinned Baldy down. "You came here with the intention of looking for a fight, didn't you?" Officer Peck allegedly told Baldy as he began to brush himself off.

Frank, one of the men that had been running toward Naui, demanded that the policemen immediately arrest him for "attacking the preacher." But that was of no concern to the latter. Reverend Drake had been so preoccupied with his Christian talkshow that he had continued to head toward the crosswalk; he wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to anything going on behind him, witnesses say. According to Sam, Officer Peck's partner ordered Frank "to return back to the group across the street." She told Frank the same thing, to go back: he allegedly told her to shut up. A photograph of Frank standing on Laguna Canyon Road shortly after Baldy was tackled to the ground was posted by on the "Save Our State" website by occutegirl. {6}

After the two Laguna Beach policemen interrogated Baldy for a couple of minutes, they both escorted him back to his vehicle across the street, did a brief but thorough search of it, and then released him from their custody. I went across the street to OCAngel's anti-day labor center rally while it was still in progress. and took several good photographs of Baldy as he talked with Barbara Coe and mingled with some of the other protesters in attendance.

When the opportunity arose, I then interviewed him, along with Suzie Harrison, a reporter for The Coast Daily Pilot (which is owned by The Los Angeles Times). Baldy identified himself to us as Robert Floyd of Pearlblossom. He told both of us that he ran across the street for "self-defense"; he believed Naui was going to "attack the preacher," so he just darted over. "To be honest, I didn't think about the cops," Baldy remarked to me. When I asked him about allegations that he had a knife in his possession, he said, "I did not."

But the Laguna Beach Police Department had a different story to tell. Officer Peck, who took down a police report at Naui's request in the lobby of their headquarters, confirmed that Baldy had a pocket knife on him when they tackled him to the ground; but he added that it was completely legal for him to carry one that size in the State of California. In addition to that, Officer Peck said that when both he and his partner initiated a search of Baldy's vehicle, they found another knife. Officer Peck said he seized all the knives that Baldy had, but returned them to him when he left the protest. "This guy was itching for a fight," he remarked. "I kept my eye on him."

Although Naui repeatedly pressed the Laguna Beach Police Department to file criminal charges against Baldy and the two other men running after him for allegedly attempting to assault him, Officer Peck said that there wasn't anything he could do. He said Baldy couldn't be arrested for carrying an ordinary pocket knife; and that he didn't see him make an attempt to pull it out of his back pocket shortly before he tackled him to the ground. In addition to this, he also said the two other men stopped running before they did anything else illegal.

Despite some clear differences of opinion between Naui and Officer Peck, the latter did agree on one point: he would be writing up a full and detailed report on everything that occurred that Saturday morning. And that's a good thing, because when LPBD Report #05-2891 is finally made available to the general public, the evidence will show that one S.O.S. member and two avowed white supremacists allegedly tried to assault a Mexican counterdemonstrator at the July 16th rally in Laguna Beach.

Protest decries day labor site
About 100 people carried signs near Art-A-Fair on Saturday. They picketed against the way the city's Job Center is funded.
By Suzie Harrison, Coastline Pilot

In an ongoing campaign, opponents of illegal immigration staged a protest Saturday on Laguna Canyon Road, near Art-A-Fair, to oppose city funding of the Job Center, a day labor site.

The group plans to protest at the Job Center on July 30, according to its website.

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Saturday, a scuffle between a demonstrator and a counter-demonstrator resulted in a knife being confiscated from a demonstrator, but no arrests were made, police said.

The protest took place less than a half-mile from the day labor site, in the vicinity of Laguna's three arts festivals.

The protesters say that money to fund the day labor center comes from the Festival of Arts. About 100 protesters carried signs and shouted demands that the city stop funding the day labor site.

Signs with messages such as "Laguna funds illegal aliens, unfair for US workers," "Deport illegal aliens," "I defend our borders," "Hiring illegal aliens is illegal and un-American, go home" were waved.

Attendees of the arts festivals appeared bewildered by the group, which dominated the sidewalk but did not appear to disrupt operations at any of the three festivals under way.

Members of the Save Our State group, which is mounting protests all over the region, showed up in large numbers. Information about the protest was posted on http://www.saveourstate.org, urging members to make signs and be heard.

A small group of five to six counter-demonstrators gathered on the opposite side of the road with signs, one of which read, "Stop the Hate."

Laguna Beach artist and resident David Milton saw the protest and was not pleased, especially with some of the demonstrators' antics.

"To me this is like performance art -- these are the same people who are for the death penalty and denying a woman's right to choose; you can't talk to them," Milton said.

Milton passed out fliers with images of hardware nuts that read, "Use common sense, don't pay attention to nuts, right wing nuts."

City officials said the Festival of Arts has nothing to do with the Job Center, where people may go to get temporary work.

"The festival has no control over it and is not involved in any way shape or form," City Manager Ken Frank said.

The festival's lease money goes into the City's general fund.

"The lease with the Festival of Arts is a percentage of gross receipts; it has been about $175,000 the last few years," Frank said. "The City Council sets aside that money to go toward community agencies."

The council has made a commitment that whatever money is received is placed in an account and divvied up among community agencies. This fund is called the Community Assistance Fund, Frank explained.

One of the recipients is the Job Center, which is run by the Cross Cultural Task Force.

"The Cross Cultural Task Force manages the day labor center and the City Council likes it -- before, we had people soliciting throughout the city, all over; it was a mess," Frank said.

In 1993, the city council passed an ordinance to have a day labor area in an industrial zone. The Cross Cultural Task Force coordinates the program.

"Now I don't have to worry about it or run it," Frank said. "It's well run, and that's why the city funds it. The fact is, people are looking for work and people are hiring them. It's better to have a supervised facility."

Frank added that because the Cross Cultural Task Force is a nonprofit the City pays less than it would to run the center itself. He said the Task Force raises half of its funding.

Frank said he has never heard any complaints from Laguna residents about the Job Center.

"The allegations that it's illegal; it's been operating through the task force for something like 10 years," he said. "Frankly, the complaints are coming from outside the community. There's a political agenda, and that's their right."

Co-protest organizer and Laguna Beach resident Eileen Garcia and her husband George Riviere said they were the only two Laguna residents protesting against the day labor center.

"Today we're targeting the city of Laguna Beach because it funds an illegal hiring site, and they get their money through the Festival of Arts," Garcia said.

Garcia said she would take the same position if city funds were used to facilitate illegal marijuana farms or prostitution.

Co-organizer Robin Hvidston from Upland said they have had three protests at the day labor site, calling it a modern slave industry.

"My biggest contention in Laguna is that ... [the day labor site is] funded by city taxpayers," Hvidston said. "One of our issues is that they have no payroll tax deductions."

The protest drew some well-known activists in the fight against illegal immigration.

They included Barbara Coe, who helped write Proposition 187, a 1994 proposition to deny illegal immigrants social services, healthcare and public education; James Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, a citizen border control group; and Michael Jackson, 2006 California State Assembly Candidate for District 54 and an illegal immigration opponent.

Garcia, Riviere and Hvidston also spoke at Tuesday's City Council meeting along with a few others who attended the protest and who live outside Laguna. They reiterated some of what was said at the demonstration.

Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider commented afterward that no taxpayer dollars go to the day labor hiring center.

"Prior to Saturday's demonstration, we notified the organizers that they had apparently misunderstood the facts, and provided contact information, asking them to call us so we could clear up this misunderstanding," said Sharbie Higuchi, Festival of Arts Director of Marketing and Public Relations.

Higuchi said they did not hear a response to the offer to facilitate a more accurate understanding of the situation, just a note referencing a quote in the newspaper from the chairman of the Cross Cultural Council that suggested that festival funds go to the Job Center.

"We can't speak for Mr. Peck or his organization, but the Festival is not engaged in raising any such funds, nor do we have any say in choosing which local organizations receive funding through any city-based granting program," Higuchi said.

During the demonstration, anti-illegal-immigration activist Robert Floyd of Pearblossom was wrestled to the ground by officers Andy Peck and Ryan Dossett after Floyd and two others ran across Laguna Canyon Road, against police orders, to confront Naui Huitzilopochtli, one of six counter-protesters.

"Then two guys began to attack me; this one guy had a knife," Huitzilopochtli alleged.

Laguna Beach Police Captain Danell Adams said a pocket knife was confiscated "as a precaution."

She said the pocket knife was not seen as a threat, so no arrest was made.

"What we try to do is respect people's right to demonstrate," Adams said. "We're hesitant to become involved and seek out arrest if they comply with the law."

QUESTION

Do day labor centers foster illegal immigration? Write us at P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, CA, 92652, e-mail us at coastlinepilot@

latimes.com or fax us at 494-8979. Please give your name and tell us your home address and phone number for verification purposes only.

Do Day Labor Centers Foster Illegal Immigration?

Why....YES!