Thread: Rally set for Castro Valley, California

JUSTICE RALLY for the Border Patrol Agents +

Date: Saturday February 24, 2007
Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Location: Castro Valley Blvd. / Redwood Rd

I heard that this was announced early in the week on one of the local radio stations.

The Sheriff's department has been told of our plans.

For more information Personal Message me or contact the Golden Gate Minutemen website.

Good Luck and God Speed.....

The Castro Valley Rally set for Saturday has caught the attention of our local paper the Argus.

Here is a link to the story. Note the comments section at the bottom.


http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/ci_5287690


Minutemen rally for another East Bay chapter
Controlled immigration supporters encouraged to use 'appropriate' signs
By Karen Holzmeister and Eric Louie, MEDIANEWS STAFF
Article Last Updated: 02/23/2007 02:30:31 AM PST


CASTRO VALLEY — In 2005, President Bush characterized civilians in the Minutemen Project, who monitored illegal immigrant crossings on the Arizona-Mexico border, as "vigilantes."
The project, nonetheless, has grown in its campaign to support border patrols and to challenge immigration policies.

The Golden Gate Minutemen chapter will rally Saturday in Castro Valley in hopes of launching another chapter. They'll be in a community where racial tensions erupted less than a year ago on the Castro Valley High School campus.

The group's anti-immigration efforts aren't ethnically based, spokesman Charles Birkman said. Secure borders and controlled immigration are the issues, he said.

The rally is scheduled for 1 to 2:30 p.m., rain or shine, at the intersection of Castro Valley Boulevard and Redwood Road. Flags, noise-makers and "appropriate" signs are encouraged, according to the group's Web site.

"We screen wackos out," said Birkman, who is also co-founder of the Fremont-based East Bay Coalition for Border Security, with which the Minutemen chapter is affiliated.

Birkman said the groups focus on unchecked immigration that overburdens schools and hospitals, fills courts and jails, and threatens the U.S. economy and security, Birkman said.

Rallies have also been held in other Bay Area communities, including Fremont and Redwood City, over the past year.

Scott Campbell, an organizer with the Bay Area Coalition to Fight the Minutemen, said he didn't know of any planned counterdemonstration Saturday.

Larisa Casillas, director of the BayArea Immigrant Rights Coalition, said her group is planning a demonstration next week at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in San Francisco, with groups in the coalition planning activities throughout the week, including in the East Bay.

"We're not going to focus our resources on counterdemonstrating a group of people with opinions," she said. "We're working on policy change."

Castro Valley resident Ken Carbone agreed both sides of the immigration issue have valid points, but he said Minutemen activities pose a problem.

"Our state hasn't handled things correctly," said Carbone, an Alameda County planning commissioner. "This needs to be dealt with on a state level. Things aren't going to change in the Bay Area, though, because it's one of the most diverse areas in the state."

Castro Valley has been the site of other immigration-based protests, but Minutemen organizers said Saturday's rally has nothing to do with any of them, including last year's events at Castro Valley High. Rather, the group wants to start another chapter, and is going to different communities in the Bay Area.

School officials said last year's problems at the high school started after the May 1 Day Without Immigrants demonstrations, which were then followed by other Castro Valley students bringing American flags to campus on Cinco de Mayo to protest.

That, in turn, led to student demonstrations and confrontations at and near the school — largely divided along Latino and Caucasian lines — with groups of students bearing American flags and others carrying the Mexican flag.

Alameda County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. J.D. Nelson said organizers have been notified about Saturday's event and are determining whether added officers should be sent.

Birkman acknowledges that nonwhites could start chanting, "Europeans, go home."


Visit http://www.goldengateminutemen.com or call Charles Birkman at (510) 789-7118.



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The Rally in Castro Valley, California turned out to be a good and safe rally. The City or County had someone there video tapping what was happening in case anyones civil rights to free speech was being violated. The Sheriff's department was there early like some of us setting up and helped us by being fair and impartial about keeping everyone safe. They kept the opposition and us on separate corners.

It was a lot of fun. I met many new faces and we signed up quite a few new members to our Golden Gate Minutemen mailing list. I heard Melisa from, "Let Freedom Ring America"was there. She is organizing a march to Washington D.C. on June 14-16th 2007.

There were several news stations there they had time to talk with many of us. I've seen us on one news show already. This is a link to a video of one.

You have to click on, "East Bay Immigration debate heats up".

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sec...ews&id=4833752


Here is a link to a story printed version.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=l...&id=5065872

Some came from Sacramento. I sort of remember someone mentioning coming from another state but I don't think it was just for our rally.

The public passing by gave the honk of encouragement and many waved.

There are a lot of people that have had enough of the lies and phony bills and laws that are passed knowing they will never be enforced.




























P.S. More pictures should be up soon on the GoldenGateMinutemen website. Look in the, "Rally Pics" section.

Thumbs up

Thanks for the pics Stokey!
~~~~~~~~~
http://origin.insidebayarea.com/trivall ... ci_5302300

Minutemen rally draws counterprotesters
Immigration, imprisonment of Border Patrol agents addressed
By Rachel Cohen, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Last Updated:

CASTRO VALLEY — Horns honked and cars slowed at the busy Redwood Road and Castro Valley Boulevard intersection Saturday afternoon as drivers scrambled past a rally staged by the East Bay Minutemen, with a counter-rally staged across the street by the Castro Valley Progressives.
"We are here to spread awareness of the miscarriage of justice of the border patrolmen in prison," said Mike Jones, a Fremont resident for 58 years and sergeant of arms for the East Bay Minutemen.

The Minutemen formed about a year ago largely in response to the Immigration March last May 1 held in cities nationwide that called for citizenship or amnesty for illegal immigrants. The nonpartisan Minutemen do not physically watch the border, rather they are politically focused. While rallying last July 28 in Fremont, they were physically attacked and went underground. A rally last week in Redwood City discussing the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids brought them out again.

At Saturday's rally, more than 40 people from the East Bay Minutemen and Save Our State or S.O.S. chapters out of Santa Clara and Sacramento waved American flags. The majority of their picket signs called on the president to pardon Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, who were sentenced to prison for shooting a drug-smuggling suspect as he fled across the U.S.-Mexico border.

"It scares law enforcement and ties their hands behind their backs so they can't do their normal operation of duties," said Minutemen organizer Charles Birkman of Fremont.

He said a porous border and lack of a firm immigration policy have created problems ranging from job availability, health care, the tax system and national security.

"What is the definition of legal?" one protester said. "It's real simple. I have to obey the law and everybody has to. You don't give people privileges; people have to earn them."

At the request of organizers, a couple of sheriff's deputies cars were at the event. Georgia Gayle, a Hayward resident of the Sunset neighborhood, said the rally was largely a free-speech issue.

"Do I feel safe going to my car?" she asked, carrying a flag. "I've got a stick with colors that don't run."

Across Redwood Road, the Castro Valley Progressives declared, "Welcome to Peace Corner!"

They waved American flags mixed in with Mexican flags, sombreros, mariachi music and a man dressed like Jesus. In response to the Minutemen rally, organizer Dave Siegel sent out an emergency

e-mail Friday afternoon that drew a crowd about an hour before the Minutemen rally began. He said the Castro Valley Progressives have held weekly vigils at the corner for four years, before the Iraq invasion began.

"The problem is that the government is behind corporations, and they are passing trade policies that make people desperate to come here," Siegel said. "They (the Minutemen) want to blame the victims."

Under the cover of trees from the rain, Chabot College student Tanya Vogel was busy making posters that said, "Honk if you love racists" and "Nobody in America is legal." Vogel, 18, was one of the founding members of the last May 1 Immigration March for Hayward. She had just found out about the rally Saturday morning and brought her 8-year-old sister.

"I support this cause, because my parents are illegal immigrants," Vogel said, "I don't think they're taking any jobs or causing problems."

Bob Swanson, constituent liaison for county Supervisor Nate Miley, walked around the two corners that soon spread to all four, with a camera to observe that people were acting peacefully and to report back to the supervisor.

"One of the common denominators between the two groups is that they both hate Bush," he said. "The Progressives because of the war, and the Minutemen because of the guest worker program."


On "Peace Corner" also stood members from Puente Club at Chabot College and the national community and campus-based MECHA, or Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanos de Astlan.