Secure Communities Protest, Counter-Protest (Los Angeles)
Althea Shaw (www.JamielsLaw.com) organized a counter-protest of an illegal alien tantrum festival against the Secure Communities Program, in Los Angeles.
Here's how this is supposed to work: All the "Dream Activists" are rounded up/corralled in, at Noon, in Downtown L.A. They show up in large numbers (at least a hundred). The Spanish language press is notified and awaiting them. They then march, en masse, to where busses carrying immigration detainees enter the federal building, and have a very public and loud sh-- fit.
The press records all of this, disseminates the information to The Pipples, and the undocumented masses are heartened to see that the immigrants' plight is being fought for and that social justice is drawing nearer, etc. etc. In short, it's a big public relations stunt.
Here's what actually happened: We (border security advocates) showed up in larger numbers than expected and the "Dream Activists" were few and late. Consequently, the press was filming and interviewing us out the yin yang. This did not sit well with the some of the event organizers and one of them blows his stack b/c of all the coverage we're receiving.
Affiliates of pretty much every pro-illegal alien outfit in L.A. were there (Nat'l Day Labor Organizing Network, IDEPSCA, UCLA Day Labor Center, etc.). I don't know who #1 in the video, with the darker suit and age-inappropriate haircut, is, but I THINK (as in, I'm not 100% certain) that #2 is Jim Lafferty, who is associated w/ Nat'l Lawyers Guild and does or did a radio show on KPFK (NPR). He's a hardcore illegal alien supporter. The guy who tries to shove him out of the squabble is Victor Narro, a former employee of MALDEF and current Chicano Studies faculty member who teaches "Labor." He's the one (Narro) who catches an earful about the attention the press has been giving us.
I showed up about 5 minutes before the whole shebang was supposed to get underway and we were all being filmed and photographed. Meanwhile, the event organizers, some of whom I recognized and some I didn't, were unhappily looking at their watches and pacing around b/c the intended stars of this PR presentation had yet to arrive.
It went really well. The Jamiel's Law folks are to be commended for assembling the local forces!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAwCRMywm5g
