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Article Last Updated: 08/02/2006 02:31:29 AM PDT

Protesters may change their tactics
Violent activities at anti-illegal-immigration rallies call for new strategies
By Chris De Benedetti, STAFF WRITER



FREMONT — In the wake of an illegal-immigration rally Friday in Irvington that turned violent and led to six arrests, protesters who repeatedly have clashed with each other said they may change their tactics.

"We'll keep having meetings and rallies, but we're not announcing anything publicly," said Charles Birkman, co-founder of the East Bay Coalition for Border Security, a Fremont-based group that opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants. "We're being more discreet with how we communicate."

On the other side, leaders of the International Socialist Organization's Oakland branch said they will shift their focus this week to providing legal help to counter-protesters who were arrested at the rally — even though they are not ISO members.

Meanwhile, police said they will work to prevent incidents such as Friday's, which was the most violent immigration protest in Fremont since they began May 1.

"What we'll try to do is get the two sides to talk, instead of having them stand on opposite corners and yell at each other," Sgt. Chris Mazzone said.

Officers also will continue to monitor both groups. "We need to stay neutral, we're not going to take sides," Mazzone said.

But Priscilla Perry, an Irvington resident who was arrested Friday on suspicion of obstructing an officer, said that officers showed bias in favor of East Bay Coalition members atthe expense of the pro-amnesty demonstrators.

"There have been no arrests on the coalition side, and no statements were taken from our side," said Perry, a lifelong Fremont resident. She thinks that some coalition members also should have been arrested — or questioned, at least — because both sides engaged in the scuffle.

Police strongly denied the accusations.

"That is a bunch of nonsense," Mazzone said. "We were not embedded with anyone. The goal was to stop a fight."

Police also said that coalition members were defending themselves when five males, ranging in age from 16 to 28, attacked them.

"What happened was insanity, total chaos," Birkman said.

"It looked like a big cowboy brawl," said Perry, 26.

The anti-illegal-immigration activists were gathered peacefully at Irvington's Five Corners intersection until Perry's husband, Mike Perry, and four teenage neighbors disrupted them, police said. They struck coalition members, some of whom were elderly, and knocked signs out of their hands, police Detective Bill Veteran said.

"I saw the whole thing unfold," he said.

Mike Perry, 28, said he was arrested on an outstanding warrant related to an unresolved traffic violation. Two minors — ages 16 and 17 — and 18-year-old Tony Rounds also were arrested Friday on suspicion of battery, police said. David Anaya, 18, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.

Police said that all four of the teens taken into custody have gang affiliations.

"One of them admitted it to us, and we have them on videotape flashing gang signs," Mazzone said. But Priscilla Perry emphatically denied that she, her husband or the four teens have any gang ties.

The rallies in Fremont have simmered with tension since pro-amnesty protests began nationwide on May 1 in response to various proposed immigration legislation.

About three months later, Congress still is trying to reconcile House and Senate immigration and border security bills. The Senate bill provides a pathway for citizenship for illegal immigrants who have been here for five years or more. But the House bill, which the East Bay Coalition for Border Security supports, provides no such provisions and makes it a felony to be an illegal immigrant or to assist one.

Previous local rallies have been held at the corner of Mowry Avenue and Fremont Boulevard, near the Fremont Hub shopping center. But East Bay Coalition members said they moved nearly two miles south to the Five Corners intersection in Irvington for Friday's demonstration to avoid what they described as harassment by the International Socialist Organization members.

ISO members said that they followed coalition protesters to the intersection after finding virtually no one at Mowry Avenue and Fremont Boulevard. Most of the ISO protesters were en route to Five Corners when the brawl started, and thus did not witness it, ISO spokesman Michael Smith said.

"They have surrounded us and held their signs as close to us as possible, and placed their bullhorns close to our ears," said Mary Washington, an East Bay Coalition member. She said that the coalition's First Amendment rights and physical well-being have been threatened.

Art Bush is a 64-year-old Redwood City man who has attended several illegal-immigration rallies sponsored by coalition members. But after receiving a black eye and a chipped tooth in Friday's melee, he is not sure if he will be returning.

"I'm afraid of a drive-by shooting now," Bush said, expressing fear that future rallies will be targeted by gang members.

"I'm afraid we've unknowingly unleashed the hounds of hell on Fremont," Washington added.

Meanwhile, leaders of the International Socialist Organization, who support granting citizenship to the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants, disagreed. They painted a contrasting picture of Friday's events, blaming coalition members for starting the violence.

"You don't go to a community as diverse as Fremont and say, 'Immigrants go home' and 'Build a fence on the border,' unless you're looking for a fight," Smith said.

Smith echoed Perry's complaints of police bias, stating that police seemed to be in "collusion" with coalition members.

ISO leaders also began to work this week with the National Lawyers Guild — a legal activist organization — to form a defense committee to weigh legal strategies for those who were arrested.

"We are them. They are us," Smith said. "They are not members of the ISO, but they're with the protest. We're proud that they're there."

Acrimony steadily has escalated between the opposing groups of demonstrators as they have protested, nearly shoulder-to-shoulder, in Fremont in recent months. The groups often have accused each other of chanting racial insults, and they blamed each other again this week for starting Friday's brawl.

And while the ISO plans to demonstrate in Fremont again on Aug. 11, members of the East Bay Coalition for Border Security said they may take a break, as they rethink their modes of operation.

"We want to give everybody some time to cool down," Birkman said. "We're going to be more secure in how we do things."


Staff writer Ben Aguirre contributed to this report. Staff writer Chris De Benedetti covers Fremont issues. He can be reached at (510) 353-7002 or cdebenedetti@angnewspapers.com.



''I'm afraid we've unknowingly unleashed the hounds of hell

on Fremont."

Mary Washington

EAST BAY COALITION MEMBER