http://www.avpress.com/n/04/0904_s2.hts

AV day labor protest leader booked
Accounts vary on confrontation between Minutemen leader, Hispanic motorist
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Monday, September 4, 2006.
By TITUS GEE
Valley Press Staff Writer



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PALMDALE - The first official protest of the Antelope Valley Independent Minutemen ended Saturday with the arrest of their leader, Frank Jorge.
More than a dozen protesters gathered near Four Points on Fort Tejon Road.

The group waved American flags and played patriotic anthems over a set of loudspeakers attached to a pickup truck. The signs they waved along with their flags bore slogans including "1 flag, 1 language, 1 people ," "Get all illegals out of the AV" and "Think you're privileged? Get back in line!!!"

A more permanent set of signs towered above the protesters and their vehicles with a message from the Sheriff's Department - "No Parking, No Peddling."

Across the street, a similar number of men, mostly of Hispanic origin, stood in the shade of a street sign wearing baseball hats and jeans - and steadfastly ignored the Minutemen. The men, in work clothes, were likely looking for work as day laborers.

Before the protest had finished its first hour, the confrontation got physical, said Carol Debear, a member of the Minuteman group.

Debear said an "older Hispanic lady" left her car in the traffic lanes of Avenue T and confronted the group.

"She got out of her car and assaulted Frank Jorge first - hit him in the head with her hand," Debear said, adding that other members of the group immediately called authorities.

"She was out of control," Debear said. "One of the guys that was with us … twice pulled her out of the way of passing cars."

The "older Hispanic lady," Esther Halabi of Palmdale, had a different way of looking at the way the confrontation happened.

"They pulled me out of the car and they hit me and told me to go back to Mexico," Halabi, 54, said when she phoned the Valley Press expressing the desire to "tell her story" about what happened during the incident.

The woman said that she was coming from Riverside and got stuck in the heavy traffic caused by the demonstration.

"The guy who got arrested (Jorge) kept cussing at me in Spanish and he spit at me," Halabi said. "They said that I was an illegal. I'm an American citizen and I've lived in Palmdale for 22 years.

"That man (Jorge) was a Cuban and I said that you're a Hispanic, why are you doing this?"

The confrontation continued for nearly an hour before deputies arrived, Debear said.

"It was pretty intense," she said. "We thought it was really going to escalate."

By the time the authorities arrived, according to Debear, Halabi had reportedly struck two other women, had thrown hot coffee in Jorge's face and nearly hit him with her car while pulling the vehicle off the road, Debear said.

"She had to be in her late 50s. It's not in our morals to swing back at her," she said.

A man from across the street came to Halabi's aid, asking, "Why are doing this to this grandma lady?" according to Halabi.

Several other drivers stopped their cars to confront the protesters, but none of the others were cited, Debear said, who claimed Halabi eventually grabbed an American flag from one of the Minutemen.

"She started waving the flag when the police got there and saying she was an American citizen," Debear said.

Authorities cited Jorge and Halabi for misdemeanor battery, and arrested Jorge on charges of felony vandalism.

He was booked into the Lancaster jail, according to law enforcement authorities, and was expected to make bail shortly before press time.

He is accused of kicking Halabi's car door during the incident. (Debear said the kick was a defensive move when Halabi tried to hit him with the car.) Property damage of more than $400 constitutes a felony, an official said.

The woman was given a citation to appear in court but not booked, which is standard procedure for a misdemeanor not committed in the presence of a law officer, he said.

The standard bail amount for felony vandalism is $20,000.

Earlier Saturday morning, Jorge told the Valley Press that the purpose of the protest was to oppose loitering of day laborers in the Four Points area.

"We're going to push to have this place cleared out of loiterers every day," he said. "There's no reason why there should be dozens of men on every street corner."

He called the sheriff's station at 10:30 a.m. to report the men waiting near the Four Points intersection.

"They've let this mess at Four Points fester for too long," he said. "This is a game of hardball. We've been soft long enough."

Jorge asked the City Council to make illegal immigration an item on its agenda, but the council refused, citing legal issues, he said. Jorge said that is unacceptable.

"We want a discourse on this issue, and we will have that with them or without," Jorge said.

Moments earlier, on the other side of the street, Rene Paladino had offered a different perspective on the groups of gathered workers. His English was limited, but the message came through clearly.

"People are coming here for working," he said. "Not to steal, not to (be) rough. … These are honest - all these people here."

The American people will not go to the field to pick their own food, Paladino said, and the work gives people from Mexico the chance to move up in the world.

"It's hard, you know," he said.

tgee@avpress.com