Thread: Four Socialists arrested during immigration protest

http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_4111226

Article Last Updated: 07/29/2006 02:33:40 AM PDT

Four arrested during protest
, FROM STAFF REPORTS



FREMONT — Four people were arrested Friday evening as tensions rose again during an illegal immigration protest at Fremont Boulevard and Mowry Avenue.

About 6 p.m., a group representing the East Bay Coalition for Border Security left their usual position on Fremont and Mowry, moving their biweekly anti-illegal immigration protest to a Blockbuster Video farther south on Fremont in the Irvington neighborhood.

Opposing groups followed and confronted the group in an altercation that led to the arrests of three men and a woman, police said.

"We have charges ranging from assault with a deadly weapon to battery, and also an arrest because of a previous warrant," Lt. Mark Devine said.

"It is still under investigation."

There were no serious injuries because of the confrontation, Devine said.

Outside the police station, members of the International Socialist Organization awaited the release of those arrested.

"We're out here because we want people to know that Fremont is not a racist town," said Michael Smith of Berkeley, a member of the International Socialist Organization said.

Down with socialism! Argggh

Now there may be 6 who were arrested.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/0 ... 292521.php

Fremont PD Attack and Arrest 6 Anti-Minutemen Protesters on July 28th, 2006.
by Ollinkoatl
Friday Jul 28th, 2006 11:34 PM
According to on the ground eyewitness of the counter protest on July 28th, 2006 the Fremont Police department violently collaborated with The East Bay Coalition for Border Security, a racist affiliate of the fascist Minutemen, to attack and arrest upon orders from The East Bay Coalition for Border Security thugs, the pro-immigrant counter protesters.

Fremont PD Attack and Arrest 6 Anti-Minutemen Protesters on July 28th!

According to on the ground eyewitness of the counter protest on July 28th, 2006 the Fremont Police department violently collaborated with The East Bay Coalition for Border Security, a racist affiliate of the fascist Minutemen, to attack and arrest upon orders from The East Bay Coalition for Border Security thugs the pro-immigrant counter protesters.


Shortly after the commencement of the counter-protest of the
anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican East Bay Coalition for Border Security on the corner of Fremont Blvd. & Mowry Ave, the pro-human rights
protesters outnumbered the (10- 15) Minutemen wannabes by 50 to 60 protesters. The fascist East Bay Coalition for Border Security, coming to the realization that the people of the bay area and Fremont would not let the manifestations of hate go uncontested, canceled their protest--- only to relocate southward bound on Fremont Blvd, in the Irvington district, on the corner of Fremont Blvd and Washington.


The East Bay Coalition for Border Security setup prior to the
relocation of the counter protesters to the new destination. Fremont PD shortly followed. Six counter protesters arrived ahead of the main group of protesters from the Fremont Blvd. & Mowry ave. actions. As the small group of pro-human, anti-hate counter protesters arrived, the East Bay Coalition for Border Security thugs began to attack the group of three with picket sign sticks and bull horns. Then, according to eye witnesses, the Fremont PD then arrested the counter protesters! Six people in total were arrested , 4 adults and 2 juveniles.

Eyewitnesses state that Fremont PD took down statements from East Bay Coalition for Border Security thugs only. Ignored the eyewitness accounts of the counter protester, they refused to even write down statements! Then, the Fremont PD officers brought those who were arrested out of the squad cars so that the stories of the East Bay Coalition for Border Security thugs could be identified with each one of the counter-protesters detained, even though this was done over the objection of legal observers on site.


In addition, it was observed by many counter protesters that plain
clothes Fremont Police officers where among the crowd of East Bay
Coalition for Border Security hate mongers. This dynamic was not known until East Bay Coalition for Border Security began arresting the counter protesters--- they were Fremont PD! This is a travesty of justice and further proves that a culture of white supremacy
flourishes among the Fremont police department.


Your help is needed!


First you must call the Fremont Police Department and demand two
things: 1) that all the charges be dropped for the counter protesters arrested on Friday July 28th, 2006; 2) demand that Internal Affairs officers Sgt. Swadener and Sgt. Mazzone conduct an investigation of the actions of every Fremont PD officer at Fremont Blvd. and Washington Blvd. that evening. Let them know the whole world is watching!

Second you must call Congressman Pete Stark. Congressman Stark is a friend to peace and civil rights, he is an ally. Ask Congressman Stark to also make a formal inquiry into this deprivation of rights under color of law in Fremont, and that he also make a formal complaint to the Department of Justice Criminal Section. Congressman Pete Stark's contact information is listed below.

Third, call California Assemblymen Alberto Torrico. Assemblymen
Torrico is a friend to peace and civil rights, he is also an ally.
Ask the same of Torrico, demand that he make a formal inquiry into
this deprivation of rights under color of law in Fremont, and that he
also make a formal complaint to the Department of Justice Criminal
Section. Assemblymen Torrico's contact information is listed below.

Fourth, Call the Department of Justice and ask that they make an
investigation into the event of July 28, 2006. The DOJ's information
is also listed below!

Fifth, Spread the word! Let the City of Fremont and the Fremont PD
know that the whole world is watching!


Contact Information Below:

Fremont Police
Main Phone Number 510-790-6800

Internal Affairs
Sgt. Chris Mazzone
510-790-6970
cmazzone [at] ci.fremont.ca.us

Sgt. Jeff Swadener
510-790-6941

Congressman Pete Stark

http://www.house.gov/stark/

WASHINGTON, DC
239 Cannon Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-5065
202-226-3805 (fax)



FREMONT
39300 Civic Center Dr.
Suite 220
Fremont, CA 94538
510-494-1388
510-494-5852 (fax)


Assemblymen Alberto Torrico
Dist. 20
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a20/

Capitol Office
State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0020
(916) 319-2020
(916) 319-2120 fax

District Office
39510 Paseo Padre Parkway
Suite 280
Fremont, CA 94538
(510) 440 - 9030
(510) 440 - 9035 fax



Department of Justice
Criminal Section
The federal criminal civil rights statutes provide for prosecutions of
conspiracies to interfere with federally protected rights, deprivation
of rights under color of law, the use or threat of force to injure or
intimidate someone in their enjoyment of specific rights (such as
voting, employment, education, public facilities and accommodations)
and criminal housing interference.


U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Criminal Section, PHB
Washington, D.C. 20530
(202) 514-3204
(202) 616-0372 - FAX

What a bunch of outright lies. For those who are interested click on the link to this article of misinformation and leave comments.

Here's one more article they wrote I would take with a grain of salt for accuracy and being fair and balanced.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/0 ... 292517.php

Immigrants' Rights Protesters Attacked in Fremont AGAIN
by Corrie Westing
Friday Jul 28th, 2006 11:12 PM
About 75 anti-racists confronted anti-immigrant racists in Fremont. At this bi-weekly counter-protest against the anti-immigrant hate group, Bay Area Coalition for Border Security, 5 Latino/Latina activists were assaulted by racists and arrested by Fremont Police--and taken to Santa Rita prison.
Immigrant Rights activists gathered tonight at Fremont and Mowry Blvds. tonight to counter the bi-weekly rally called by the racist "Bay Area Coalition for Border Security," which is looking to become an affiliate of the vigilante group, the Minutemen. Starting at 4:30pm, about 75 protesters claimed the intersection that in previous weeks, the racists had used to draw attention to their message of hate. By 5:20 or so, a couple of them showed up on a different corner, in front of the Valero gas station, holding signs and US flags. When the immigrant supporters realized we could overwhelm them, we crossed the street, and they decided to leave. We escorted them off the sidewalk and they shamfefully drove away. There were no cops present.

As more locals showed up, we found out that this victory would be short-lived, since they reported having seen a sizeable crowd (10-20) of Minutemen a couple miles away, at Fremont and Washington, in front of the Blockbusters at that intersection. As people got in their cars to drive down there, other folks decided to take the crowd on a march there.

It was on this march down Fremont that we ran into a carload of Latino/as who had been part of our protest, and who had been pulled over by the cops on some bullshit charges of "registration," which we only found out later, since the cops wouldn't let us near them. Of course some car registration problem requires no less than 6 pigs to resolve, when you're talking about racially profiling people headed over to protest racists in their own town. We heard reports that the cops were very calculated and may have arrested at least one of the men for some warrent, except that there were no less than 50 people witnessing the whole thing, taking pictures, recording the badge numbers of the cops doing the harrassing, and chanting, "Migra, Policia, la misma porqueria" (INS/Police: The same reason) and "Let them go!" and "The Cops and the Klan Go Hand in Hand!" There was a debate among the protesters about if you could call it "brutality," since no one was obviously being physically assaulted. You ask me, racial profiling and forcing them all to sit on the ground like criminals is brutal.

So our second victory of the evening was that they let those guys go, so they got back in their car and kept driving toward the other site of the racists' rally. We kept marching but stopped at one point so people could get their cars, since we realized the march still had quite a ways to go to get there.

I heard the next things that went down second hand, but I can tell you that while I rode my bike ahead, I heard all the cops in Fremont on their bikes and cars rushing ahead, so I knew something was happening, and it wasn't good. By the time I got there, they had--not surprisingly--some of the same guys that got pulled over earlier about to be arrested at that intersection. All I know is that one of the lead Minutemen, with NAZI TATTOOS, an open racist, had brought a lead pipe and had beat up some activists. You better believe he was confident since he beat people up last time and didn't get arrested then, so he went for it again this time--yeah, he wasn't the one arrested! So the racists instigated the violence, and they arrested 4 young men, some of them under 18. I saw them arrest the woman they were with, too. It was outrageous. They're charging HER with assaulting a cop because she got in the crossfire as they were hauling her friends off.

All the other folks then caught up, after all the people had been detained in the paddywagon. We rallied for a bit, yelling at the few remaining bigots across the street and the cops they were hanging out with, with our side getting lots of support from people driving by, happy to see a pro-immigrant presence in their town. Then we made plans to go to the jail we thought they would take them, about a mile or two away, on Stevenson St. It was there that we found out that the National Lawyers Guild Legal Observers who had stayed with the arrested folks that this is what the effing cops did: they took the activists out of the paddywagon, one at a time and PARADED them in front of the racists, asking them what these Latinos did TO THEM. the NLG folks tried to intervene, saying they had witnesses too, but of course the cops didn't want to hear our side of the story, because it would implicate the violent racists.

Once the NLG folks saw that the paddywagon was leaving, with our folks inside, they met up with us at the jail, but we heard from a (the lone) reporter that showed up that the cops told her they had taken the folks to Santa Rita jail, and they wouln't be likely to be relased until Monday. We have legal representation on it, and updates will be posted about their legal status, so we can stand with them at the araignment. We won't leave our brothers and sisters out to dry.

And come out next time, on August 11, to stand against the racists, both those in uniform and not.

There are two sides to every story, now let's hear the other side! Come on, I mean when I read those two articles, I was shocked at the language used describing the police and anti-illegal immigrant protesters:

Vigilante Minutemen, facist Minutemen, cop pigs, anti-immigrant racists, "Migra, Policia, la misma porqueria", "The Cops and the Klan Go Hand in Hand!", NAZI TATTOOS, bigots, violent racists, The East Bay Coalition for Border Security thugs, anti-immigrant hate group, racists, racially profiling, stand against the racists, both those in uniform and not.

Now, on the other hand, the side reporting the story used a totally different language describing their people/side:

anti-racists, Latino/Latina activists, 75 protesters, carload of Latino, 50 people, some of the same guys, activists, 4 young men, woman, her friends, other folks, arrested folks, Latinos, with our folks, brothers and sisters.

Now, you tell me, who sounds like the racist? Need some help? Okay, the authors of the two articles (and the pro-illegal crowd) are the racist! Also, you know the pro-illegal crowd was looking for trouble by their actions. There is no other explanation to explain why they followed the anti-illegal immigrant protesters. This is one sided journalism with a serious biased twist!

StokeyBob was there. Look for post in general about Freedom of Speech.

It's evident that indybay is biased because of the language they use. They couldn't just say, the Minutemen. Instead, they inserted derogatory and qualifying labels preceding the name Minutemen. Clearly a sign of unprofessional reporting. Are they practicing absence of malice?

Dixie

A new article I ran across today indicates now gang members may have instigated a fight against illegal immigrant protestors

http://www.fremontbulletin.com/local/ci_4132166

Rally turns violent

On July 28 at 7 p.m., officers arrested several people after an altercation at an anti-illegal immigration protest at the Five Corners in Irvington.

Police said about four members the East Bay Coalition for Border Security set up a protest at the corner of Fremont Boulevard and Mowry Avenue earlier that evening.

Counter-protestors, largely consisting of affiliates of the International Socialist Organization, also set up their own protest.

About seven men arrived who did not appear to be affiliated with the counter-protestors, but stood on their side of the debate, police said.

The men appeared to have been drinking, and began to flash what officers believe were gang signs at the coalition members, police said.

Coalition members left the area, and went to the Five Corners to continue their protest, followed by the large group of about 70 counter-protestors, police said.

Upon arrival, officers said the seven suspects walked into the middle of the coalition's small group and began punching people.

Officers quickly intervened, arresting six counter-protestors.

Priscilla Perez, 26, of Fremont, was arrested on charges of obstruction and resisting arrest.

Also, one man was arrested on prior warrants, and another man was arrested for striking an officer, police said.

Police said members of the East Bay Coalition for Border Security made citizen's arrests on two teen boys for alleged battery, and an adult man for battery.

I discovered one of our forum members has some pictures on some of these protests that can be found here.

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ht=fremont

I saw this message in a different thread.

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?nam...topic&p=192955

There is also this thread going.

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?nam...wtopic&t=36127

Originally Posted by Brian503a

Hey StokeyBob were you at the July 28 protest that some of the Socialists supporters attacked your group? I posted several article about it in the news forum and just discovered you had this thread going in the pictures forum. I would love to hear what happened from someone that was there.

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=36161

This what I've been using to try to share with others what happened.

Minutemen Attacked in Fremont California

8/1/2006

Dear Sir or Madam,

Actually we are group of neighbors that have banded together because of the problems we see happening concerning illegal immigration. I use the term Minuteman generically as a way to describe all of us that have risen up across the nation as a way to unite us.

For the last few months we have been having anti illegal immigration rallies. Some of us would like to see the immigration laws enforced. We don't really want new ones at he moment because every time they re-invent the same laws over again, they work in new amnesty and gravy parts for the illegal aliens. They never get around to busting employers or the aliens themselves but boy howdy do they dish out the new amnesty and gravy parts.

A group of International Socialist Organization people started showing up and were very loud and confrontational. The last time we had a rally at our original spot they were screaming chasing us back and forth and beating on our new banner with their sign sticks.

This last Friday we all met at a new corner. There wasn't as many of us that made it to the new spot but it was mellow. We could talk and move about freely.

After about an hour and a half some of the ISO started showing up on the corner across the street from us. It was weird. Usually whenever they would spot us they run over block the view of our signs so people passing by can't read them or something along those lines.

This corner is a little weird in itself in that it is five streets meeting instead of the usual four.

Then we started noticing Hispanic people piling up on the far corner. It was like the movie The Birds. This all happened in just a few moments.

All of a sudden the drummer starts up with some sort of march beat on the Hispanics corner. He had a big drum like from the Civil war. Not as big as a Bass drum or a small as a Snare.

Anyway he starts out. Drumming hard, sticks rising high into the air. The Hispanic group started out behind him maybe five paces behind.

The drummer dropped off with the Socialist and the gang of Hispanics continued over until they were amongst us.

I said something like, “ What’s happening” and the one nearest struck at me. My signs went flying. My fists were soon to follow. I was able to keep three busy for a few seconds. Then I was facing the sky while lying on my back still trying to get a good punch in. All of a sudden people started getting dragged off of me and someone was yelling, "you are under arrest" at someone a few feet away.

I have no idea where the plain cloths police came from or how they materialized so fast. They just showed up like the Secret Service might do. Or like the Calvary used to do in the old movies.

As I was leaving someone asked me where my glasses were. I went back and found my new camera lying on the sidewalk. I found something like a phone or a lighter and gave it to someone. I was having no luck spotting my glasses and ask for help. Someone spotted them yards away. They are scratched to all get out but I had them and was on my way home before anyone noticed me.

And that’s all I’ve got to say.

Sincerely, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


P. S. Here is what another person in the group had to say.



The East Bay Coalition for Border Security has held bi-monthly rallies for America at the corner of Fremont and Mowry Blvds. in Fremont, CA since May of this year. The coalition's actions have always been peaceful and attended by a broad range of American citizens from the Fremont area, including senior citizens, veterans, high school and college students, and a diverse group of people of different cultures and ethnicities, brought together because of their concern for Border and National Security and Illegal Immigration.

Some time in June the International Socialists from San Francisco and Berkeley have "counter protested" the EBCBS using increasingly violent tactics and also enlisting and inciting various racist Hispanic groups, such as the radical Brown Berets, and La Raza Rising to intimidate, harass and physically attach Coalition members at the rallies and in adjacent parking areas.

At today's scheduled rally, the site of the EBCBS Rally for America was moved to a different location due to security concerns especially since the ISO has threatened via their literature, signs and website to "smash" "stop" and even "kill" us. As the EBCBS was leaving their Rally today a group of ISO people violently and physically attacked several members of the EBCBS while other stood on the corner taunting, screaming and inciting the attackers (they had been cruising the city searching for us and showed up enmass about 1 1/2 hours into the Coalition's Rally). Their attack began with their friends throwing full cans and glass bottles of soda at us from passing cars.

These unprovoked physical attacks were witnessed by several people outside of the Coalition including local area business people and undercover police. Five ISO people were arrested, one Police Officer was attacked by the ISO all the while the main group of ISO were taunting and screaming vile and hateful things to both the coalition and the police.

One of the ISO members is Todd Chrieten, Green Party candidate for US Senate. We find his active attempts at harassment, intimidation, support of violence against the Coalition, and participation in "smashing" our constitutional right to free speech and peaceful assembly despicable.

We encourage you to peruse the websites of the East Bay Coalition for Border Security and the ISO to see for yourself the difference between the two groups, their signs, literature, goals and rhetoric.

We find it appalling that our constitutional right to free speech can be imposed upon with impunity and that ordinary citizens of the community are physically attacked by outsiders who is some cases cover their faces with bandanas or wear military garb. These groups goal is to forment revolution (see their literature and websites) and to stop and smash anyone who disagrees with them.

If you wish further information please contact me via email. Thank you.


Sincerely,

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX,
Media Spokesperson
EAST BAY COALITION for BORDER SECURITY

http://www.eastbaycoalitionforbordersecurity.com/




P. S. P. S. And last but not least here is what the opposition had to say.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/0 ... 292517.php

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/0 ... 292521.php




P.S.P.S.P.S. This is a link to a report in the local Argus newspaper.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_4124535



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