NINE YEAR OLD ATTACKED BY REPUBLICAN EXTREMISTS AT WESTWOOD RALLY

Nine year old Tasha arrived at a planned Gore rally with her eleven year old

brother, myself (her father) and her mother only to discover a group of two

to three hundred Republicans. We stayed outside the fringes trying to figure out how to get through the Republican crowd to the small number of Democrats who had not been scared away. A number of Republicans came up to us and started talking about how this was their country now and we were to get out of it. Some of them were espousing praises of Hitler and talking of wanting to exterminate various groups of people. My wife asked one of them if he was a skinhead and he said he was. They started calling us Stalinists and Communists.

Tasha, her mother and I were physically attacked by Republicans (who had no

qualms about using their fists and poster-stakes on peaceful Gore

supporters). Tasha's sign was pulled away from her by a guy who tried to

tear it up and my sign was knocked into the street. Her brother remained

unharmed. As she, her brother, my wife and I made our way through the crowd, the children were greeted will nonstop calls of "Stalinist", "communist", "welfare case" and continual obscene language. They also kept yelling, "This is our country now! Get out of our country!"

When we got to the corner where some other Democrats were being oppressed, my wife asked some drivers to call the police. Then she borrowed a phone from a channel 4 (KNBC-TV) newsman and called the police. She told them about the attacks and that the Democrats needed a police presence to ensure their safety. With considerable slowness, the police finally arrived. The

Republican crowd, which could not stay civilized, finally left.

We had no idea that the Republicans that were attending this demonstration

were such extremists. The Gore supporters need protection at these. What is clear to us that the Bush campaign is getting a lot of mileage out of these violent demonstrators.

...This happened on November 25 somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00 pm.