SANCHEZ FUNDRAISER/JOE DUNN GIG BUSTED UP BY PROTESTERS!
Sunday, June 30, 2002
LIVELY AND ROBUST DEMONSTRATION DISRUPTS SANCHEZ FUNDRAISER
Last Saturday, more than twenty demonstrators
converged on Shelly's Courthouse Bistro and Boardwalk
Cafe in downtown Santa Ana to protest Congresswoman
Loretta Sanchez's support of stationing INS officers
in the Anaheim City Jail.
Through an anonymous tip, the demonstrators learned
that the National Women's Political Caucus was holding
a special fundraiser at this tiny sidewalk cafe and
that the Congresswoman was scheduled to be the
featured speaker.
Under the watchful eye of a United States Marshal and
two Santa Ana police officers, demonstrators armed
with homemade signs literally surrounded the cafe and
spent two and a half hours expressing their opposition
to policies that hurt the rights of undocumented
workers to the captive audience inside.
The lively and robust demonstration was a real eye
opener to most of the upper-middle class women in
attendance who each plunked down to hear the
Congresswoman speak, most of whom incidently drove to
this function in their Mercedes Benz's, BMW's, and
Lexus automobiles.
The cafe was packed with so many people that most of
the waiters and waitresses were forced to sit outside
throughout the entire duration of the fundraiser,
eating salad and ice cream while listening to the
shouts and taunts of the demonstrators.
All the work they spent neatly placing forks, knives,
spoons, and napkins on the tables outside the cafe
went to waste as most of the people they laid them out
for had to remain inside due to the demonstration.
The manager of the cafe, a blonde woman in her early
forties, angrily complained to one of the two police
officers standing outside that the demonstrators
surrounding the cafe were "seriously disrupting the
meeting."
But he was quick to inform her that there wasn't
anything he could do as the U.S. Constitution
protected the right of the demonstrators to shout,
yell, and scream whatever they wanted.
In fact, the demonstrators were so noisy that the
Congresswoman appeared quite flustered when she turned
around to glance at them while she was at the podium
trying to speak.
Shortly before the fundraiser ended, one of the police
officers called for additional reinforcements to
protect the Congresswoman as she prepared to leave the
cafe.
Santa Ana police cars soon began swarming throughout the streets surrounding the cafe, and more than eight officers arrived to "keep the peace."
At around 3:45 P.M., Congresswoman Sanchez suddenly
ran out through a side entrance of the cafe directly
into a car that was parked along the curb for her
convenience.
As her driver quickly zoomed her away to safety, a
Santa Ana police car followed her vehicle at a high
speed.
A handful of demonstrators later traveled down the
street to the Santa Ana home of State Senator Joseph
Dunn, who himself was having a fundraiser that
Congresswoman Sanchez was scheduled to appear at that
same day.
When the Congresswoman drove up and saw demonstrators
walking along the sidewalk with their homemade signs,
her driver hurriedly drove her right out of the
neighborhood without dropping her off.
Soon, more than a half dozen Santa Ana police officers
and a California Highway Patrolman appeared on the
scene, telling the demonstrators that it was unlawful
to picket the home of a public official in a
residential area.
The demonstrators left without incident.
Original: Raining on Loretta Sanchez's Parade