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.