http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/count...12459%2C00.html

www.saveourstate.org

Activist feels a calling to oppose illegal immigration

By Zeke Barlow, zbarlow@VenturaCountyStar.com

July 8, 2005

Joseph Turner was a 150-pound white high school kid when he started his fight.

A senior at John W. North High School in Riverside in 1994, Turner took to a debate stage to support Proposition 187, which denied illegal immigrants publicly funded services.

The school was about 35 percent white, 35 percent Latino and the remainder Asian or black.

Most in the school were against the measure, remembers Principal Dale Kinnear. Those in favor of it "were in the minority," he said.

Turner was undeterred.

He took the microphone and started on his path as an anti-illegal-immigration activist.

"I talked about the ills of illegal immigration and all the problems with it," said Turner, now 28, a stay-at-home dad and Little League coach living in Ventura. "I couldn't get one person to stand with me."

Eleven years later, Turner has found people to stand with him. And his voice has gotten louder.

He started Save Our State, an anti-illegal-immigration group that has stirred up a hornet's nest of debate about race, racism and immigration. He's organized a few demonstrations against illegal immigration that have turned nasty, including two in Baldwin Park.

He's been alternately called a racist and a leader, a hatemonger and an activist. He says he couldn't care less about the negative labels.

"Deep down, I feel like I've been called to greatness," Turner said, explaining his journey to the forefront of debate. "If not me, who?"

Turner is a striking man with intense blue eyes and an unlined face that belies the scars of his childhood.

He grew up on and off welfare in the Inland Empire with parents who were often gone, forcing him to stay with friends of the family. Often, he was one of the only white kids in the many neighborhoods in which he grew up, he said.

He saw Mexican flags flown around town, people who spoke only Spanish and, his biggest peeve, people, he said, who refused to assimilate in the United States.

"I can't stand hyphenated Americans," he said.

Turner said he's not anti-Latino by any stretch, though his detractors say he's a racist. He loves his Latino stepfather, he said. A big baseball fan, he says one of his favorite baseball players is Baltimore Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada.

He worked as a Republican congressional page in Washington in 1994, then studied political science at Riverside City College and later transferred to University of Southern California to study business, he said. He became a junior trader in Chicago, putting aside his political beliefs for a few years.

In 1996, he pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace in Riverside. He said the charges were filed after he got into an argument at a demonstration with someone carrying a Mexican flag.

He moved to Ventura two years ago because his girlfriend got a job nearby. The couple, who share a home, decided he'd stay home and care for the youngest of their two sons, but he doesn't like to elaborate too much on his personal life. He would not allow her or his parents to be interviewed for this story. She does stand behind him in his fight, he said. She was the one who came up with the idea for his brand of activism, called "transference of pain," he said, making an entity pay for not doing as he wants.

Turner's biggest complaint is that he says too many illegal immigrants in the U.S. could lead to a revolution of sorts, when radical groups try to take back California for Mexico. Judith Baca, the artist who created the monument that has been the subject of his ire, said that's preposterous.

Even people who agree with his ideals question his tactics.

Took his cause to the Web

He said not enough gets done through letter writing and supporting candidates, so he took to the Web.

Riding the rising swell of the illegal immigration debate, he started http://SaveOurState.org last fall, letting others know about it by posting messages on other like-minded Web sites. He organized protests at Home Depot stores because, he said, they aid illegal day laborers by building them shelters. He lent a hand to getting a billboard taken down that read "Los Angeles, Mexico."

And then he really started raising a ruckus.

He organized two protests in Baldwin Park, where the vast majority of the residents are Latino, over wording on a monument he said is seditious and anti-American. One inscription reads, "It was better before they came," and the other says "This land was Mexican once, was Indian and always is, and will be again." He called it proof of the move to reclaim America for Mexico.

Though his May rally had only about 60 supporters, it drew 600 protesters. Hundreds of police lined the streets where protesters hurled slurs at Turner and crew and a police helicopter hovered above.

Radicals on both sides showed up. White supremacist groups sided with Turner, and one man chanted pro-Osama bin Laden chants on the other. Turner's Web site said the supremacists are not welcome in his group, but he can't stop them from showing up at public events. Baldwin Park spokesman Adan Ortega said Turner has never denounced the supremacists publicly.

Baca said Turner took the quotes out of context and that Turner's is a hate group.

"His actions have led to tremendous hostility and rage," said Baca, a Chicano studies professor at University of California, Los Angeles. "This is not a person who has in his mind what is best for the community. ... We are talking about a person who uses inciting words and yells fire in a theater."

The two protests cost the city more than ,000, what Turner calls "transference of pain." If the city won't take the words off the monument, he'll hurt them financially, he said.

He said the monument isn't the greatest of evils, but as part of a small group, he needs to fight small battles that "create positive momentum" toward the anti-illegal immigration cause.

One woman standing with Turner was hit by a water bottle and has since retained a lawyer, who has filed a claim against the city for million in damages. The city has not responded.

But the best thing people can do is just start ignoring him, said Baldwin Park Mayor Manuel Lozano.

"This is a person who is a racist," Lozano said. He questions why Turner comes so far for protests. "Why doesn't Joseph Turner just go home."

Only a handful are from county

Only a handful of the 700 people who Turner says are registered on his Web site are from Ventura County. And even those who live in the county who side with him wonder about his methods.

Camarillo resident Freeman Sawyer, who stood watch on the Mexico border as part of the Minuteman Project this spring, is all for stopping illegal immigration, but he questions the way Turner is going about it.

"I don't think that speaks well for what we are trying to do," said Sawyer of Turner's tactics. "I've heard some people say that he's too radical, that his words are too harsh."

Sawyer said many people involved in the anti-illegal-immigration movement are conservatives who don't like paying taxes. For Turner to propose a city pay more money for the fight flies in the face of conservative tax values, Sawyer said.

"I would say eventually we are going to need people like Joe Turner, but I would hope that he could think about his words a little closer," he said.

But one of the reasons that Don Silva got involved with Turner's group was because of the words he chose.

"I think he's a good leader on this issue. He's really sharp as a tack in giving an answer," said Silva, 31, a taxi driver in Reseda. He says the San Fernando Valley has "become overrun by illegal immigrants."

"I think he has a lot of potential," said Silva.

So does Turner.

He doesn't care about the racist labels, about people saying he's a bigot or otherwise. He feels he has a righteous purpose.

"The American people," he said, "I believe if you will lead them, if you are willing to take all the crap, if you are willing to take the brunt of the attack, if you are willing to be called a racist, willing to risk your personal safety, all that stuff, I think the American people will follow you through the door

"Indymedia leaders"

Amusing. This SOSMM rightard _couldn't_ think it's because there _are_ no "Indymedia leaders."

Here's a clue: Not only if there were "Indymedia leaders" they wouldn't be in the news because they're not white supremist scumbags.

The IQ of these people. "Mexicans cause earthquakes."

Who is the leader of indymedia? Fred? Johnk? Chop Chop? It's amazing how clueless these people are. Indymedia is simply a website.

The leaders are Fresca and BushAdmirer. They're my boys.

The right wing is always obsessed with leaders. They like leaders.

It's because most of them are just followers.

Wow, thanks for the illuminating clues about Joe Turner's past. Now I know where I've seen him before.

In Spring of 1996, Riverside Sheriff's Deputies were videotaped beating immigrants. About a week later, anti-Latino racists came from all over SoCal to Riverside City Hall, to voice their support for the beating. I was there. I have never seen such hate-filled people in my life. I went there with two Latino friends from La Resistencia to counterdemonstrate. One had a poster which I drew, showing a Native American pointing and saying, "Hey, White Man, where's your green card?" and the other, his son, had a Mexican flag.

We were all alone, in a crowd of several hundred haters -- it was the opposite of Baldwin Park 2005. Actually, it was worse. We fully intended to make our point peacefully, but the hatemongers surrounding us did not want to be peaceful. (They're so brave in great numbers, aren't they??? Thank God Baldwin Park reversed the equation!!!!)

They tried to grab the poster and partially ripped it, and a young cracker punk came running up to assault my friend with the flag. He didn't succeed in tearing down the flag, but he did leave me with a bloody scrape on my elbow that lasted for weeks. This violent young thug was arrested, and according to the article above, it was Joe Turner!

Later on, I showed my bleeding wound to some of the racists, and one "nice" old lady snarled, "You deserved it." Maybe this is the same old lady who, nine years later, would claim she was hit by a water bottle. That's what I call karmic justice!

As a result of this experience, I have NO sympathy whatsoever for anti-immigrant, anti-Latino racists, and nobody can tell me that they are NOT racist, potentially violent, anti-American, anti-free speech thugs. If Baldwin Park had been reversed and it was 10-to-1 on their side, you damn BET they would indulge in violence -- just like Joe Turner did violence to me on that day in 1996. Their whole raison d'etre is anti-people, anti-human, so they don't care if people get hurt.

I have NO sympathy whatsoever for some dotty old bitch-hag who claims she was gravely injured by a water bottle. At least she didn't get knocked down and bloodied. Hateful racist bitch. I bet she "deserved" it, just like I "deserved" what happened to me. Again: bitch. Ambulance-chasing litigious fake martyr bitch.

Hey, thanks again for the information you posted. Now everybody definitely knows that Joe Turner is a violent, racist thug who hates American civil liberties and free speech, just like the Brownshirts in Germany in the '20's.

(I can't believe these whiny pricks have the fucking nerve to complain about people "shouting" at them,l and claim that it's a "riot". They can dish it out, but they can't take it.)

I'm NOT Latino, but I'll say it:

VIVA LA RAZA.

and,

FUCK ALL YOU RACIST PIECES OF SHIT. GO FUCK YOUR MOTHERS.

Los Angeles: 6,000 Blast Cop Beating Of Mexicans

BY CRAIG HONTS AND DAVID CREED

LOS ANGELES - Six thousand people poured through the streets of downtown Los Angeles April 6 to demand prosecution of the cops who clubbed several Mexican workers near Riverside, California, southeast of here. The April 1 beating, videotaped by a TV crew flying in a helicopter overhead and shown on television throughout the United States and Mexico, has caused widespread outrage. Chants of "Raza Sí, Migra No!" and "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us!" rang out from the predominately youthful demonstrators.

Many carried home-made signs and banners that were written after individuals heard about the demonstration on the radio. "No More Latin Blood!" read one placard. "Wilson, Buchanan, Salinas, Zedillo - the blame is yours!" referred to California governor Peter Wilson, ultrarightist politician Patrick Buchanan, and the former and current presidents of Mexico Carlos Salinas de Gortari and Ernesto Zedillo. "Full Citizenship for All Immigrants!" and "I am not a Piñata!" read other signs.

Another woman carrying a sign saying "The real illegals are the police - Jail the cops who beat us!" said in an interview, "I'm here because there should be justice. They should punish the police, they should kick them off their job. They're racists and don't belong in a place with authority. Instead of giving them vacations we should be giving them convictions."

At 5:30 a.m. that morning before the march, border patrol agents followed a truck they claimed was stolen, which overturned on a rural road near Riverside killing seven men and injuring 18. The police said they suspected the vehicle was carrying undocumented immigrants and claimed they did not chase the truck, they just followed it. The victims are between 20 and 30 years old.

"This is not exceptional; cop beatings and killings of immigrant workers happen every day," said Verónica Poses, another demonstrator who came here from Miami. "What was exceptional in the April 1 incident was the TV camera. We've got to fight to stop racist police violence." Poses, a leader of the Young Socialists, joined the march along with several YS members and hundreds of other youth.

Around 300 demonstrators also marched at the same time from City Hall to the county jail in the city of Riverside.

Prominent in the march were contingents of students from the University of California Riverside, Chafee College, and Riverside Community College.

"It's wrong for the cops to beat anyone who comes to this country just to work," said Malcolm Johnson, a young worker who is African-American. "Blacks, Latinos, and whites should struggle together. We should be united."

A well-attended news conference preceding the rally was held at the headquarters of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Union officials who condemned the police violence at the news conference included Bill Robertson, acting secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County AFL-CIO; David Sickler, regional director of the AFL-CIO; and Steve Nutter, regional director of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

"This is not an isolated incident," Nutter told the press. "What was their crime?" he asked. "The woman beaten was a garment worker. It could have been me or our members. Her crime was making our clothes."

Nutter was referring to Leticia González, 32, one of the passengers in the pickup truck that stopped on the side of the highway after being chased by the police April 1. As she got out one of the cops beat her on the back with his baton, slammed her face into the pickup's hood, yanked her by the hair, and pulled her to the ground.

González was released after being treated for injuries. Another Mexican worker, Flores Martínez, 26, suffered bruises and a hairline fracture of an elbow; he was jailed after being briefly treated at a hospital.

Similar protests took place in several other cities. Some 75 people turned out at the Federal Building in downtown Seattle April 5. The picket line was called by El Centro de La Raza. Bernie Whitebear, executive director of the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, called on U.S. attorney general Janet Reno to bring federal civil rights charges against the cops involved in the April 1 beating.

NEW YORK CITY - Chanting "Aquí estamos y aquí nos quedamos!" (We are here and we are here to stay) and "Immigrants Yes, La Migra No," about 350 demonstrators marched from the Federal Building here to Thompkins Square Park on the Lower East Side on April 6. Along the way the marchers stopped for rallies in immigrant communities in Chinatown and on Delancey Street.

"We are here to protest the beating of Mexican workers by the cops in California," announced Miguel Maldonado, an organizer of the demonstration and leader of the Immigrant Workers Association. "This is a fight not just for Latinos, not just for Asians, not just for immigrants, but for all people who believe in justice."

The march was part of a series of activities being planned by the local organizers of the Coordinadora/Campaign '96 in the months of April and May. According to the publicity for the march, Campaign '96 is a "nationwide effort to create an immigrant grassroots movement." The group is planning a national demonstration in Washington, D.C., on October 12.

In addition to protesting the police beatings of Mexican workers in Los Angeles, the April 6 action was a protest against a number of other anti-immigrant measures being considered by the U.S. Congress (see article above).

A group of teachers and their family members from Public School 169 came to the demonstration to protest this law. They carried homemade signs demanding education for all children. Danny Stone, a young teacher, expressed his outrage at "the scapegoating of immigrants, people that have fewer rights to defend themselves."

The majority of the demonstrators were Spanish-speaking workers and youth, including a large contingent of Mexicans carrying a big Mexican flag. Many found out about the march in an editorial in El Diario/La Prensa, the main Spanish- language daily in the city. The editorial denounced the police violence in Los Angeles and encouraged people to join the protest.

The article you posted was indeed about the same Riverside beating incident I referred to, which happened on April 1, 1996. However, the demonstrations the article described were not the same one I wrote about. The racist rally occurred on or around April 17, during the day on a weekday. It was front-page news in LA OPINION the next day, with a color photo of my older friend, Sid Sierra of Pomona. Unfortunately, you can't find it in an online archive -- LA OPINION was not yet online at the time.

This white supremist group -- "Save Our State" a.k.a. "Minutmen" -- have all the classical earmarks of a typical personality hate cult. The amusing belief that there are "Indymedia leaders" evidences the mindset of the typical white supremist hate cult which only exist once the form around an insane megalomanic white supremist hate monger whose equally hate-filled Christian followers look up to as a father figure.

It's just so amusing to see one of these sick scumbags type "Indymedia leader." It's yet another brick in the overall Temple of Racist Stupidity that these Republican hate mongers are building for themselves.

And it's even more amusing to note how pathetically impotent these white supremist scumbags are when compared against the history of their fellow white supremists of the 1960's through 1980's that came before them.

I have got to party with you....Your one crazy SOB...

And that thing you did with the cow..Crazy man...Crazy