PALMDALE - A protest Saturday at Four Points rapidly devolved into a profanity-laden shouting match as passers-by and protesters butted heads.
When the shoving started, deputies stepped in to defuse the conflict.

By that time, a roiling crowd had engulfed a gas station at the corner of Pearlblossom Highway and Fort Tejon Road, with fuel customers leaving their vehicles to join the fray. Profanity and insults flew from both sides. At one point a protester with a bullhorn asked a laborer he referred to as "Fisheye" to "run and get me some tacos." He went on to give a detailed order over the loud speaker. Moments later, a teenaged girl jumped from an SUV and confronted him, first shouting and then shoving the man with the bullhorn. Then deputies intervened.

The event began as the latest in a series of protests by the Antelope Valley Independent Minutemen. The Independent Minutemen are not affiliated with the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps or similar organizations. The Antelope Valley group opposes illegal immigration by protesting the presence of day laborers and by lobbying local city councils to enact and enforce ordinances that make hiring illegal immigrants more difficult.

Early this month, the Palmdale City Council banned vehicles from stopping near the Four Points intersection, which has been a popular gathering spot for day laborers looking for work.

On Saturday, about 30 protesters started the day lining the east side of Fort Tejon Road, waving flags and toting banners bearing octagons and the slogan "Stop Illegal Immigration."

Across the street, 25 day workers stood in the shade near the Mobil gas station, presumably waiting for work.

Deputies in a trio of squad cars looked on from a distance.

At past protests, the Minutemen groups kept largely to the east side of the street, sometimes shouting across to the laborers on the other side but directing their message primarily to passing cars.

This time they crossed the street.

First in ones and twos, and finally en masse, the protesters made their way across the traffic-clogged intersection for a face-to-face encounter with the men they believe to be causing a communitywide problem.

About midway through the migration, Frank Jorge, the leader of the Antelope Valley Independent Minutemen, used a megaphone to call across the street.

"We do not approve of illegal immigration," he said. "We are not against anyone. We simply want the laws of our country enforced."

One of the workers shouted back, "Shut up!"

"Why don't you go back to Mexico and say that?" Jorge responded. "You'll have to shout a little louder. … Don't tell me to shut up in the United States. Go home!"

"We know that some of you are very good people who don't have enough work, but we don't have employment either," Jorge said. "What I want is (a) cop to come over and pick you up. … We're going to make sure that no one hires you here."

By the time Jorge reached the other side of the street, a line of Minutemen had formed between the dwindling group of day laborers and the road. One held a sign facing the street that said, "Hiring Illegals is Illegal."

Chelene Nightingale , of Palmdale, had engaged a cluster of four laborers. As she spoke, she held a sign over them that read "Save the American Worker. No Amnesty!" Nightingale told the silent men that people like them were responsible for taking jobs and even lives of American workers and that problems in their nation of origin did not excuse them from entering the United States illegally.

"You guys are cowards. You should have a revolution in your country," she said. "We're not lazy. That's propaganda. We were picking fruits and vegetables before; we were working construction before. … You people are being used for cheap slave labor."

Nightingale later said that she recently returned from El Paso, Texas, where U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone sentenced two Border Patrol agents to more than 10 years of prison time for allegedly injuring a drug smuggling suspect during an attempted arrest. The suspect, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila , a Mexican national, reportedly received full immunity and government payment of his medical treatment at an El Paso hospital.

"I'm angry now, after seeing those two turn themselves in," Nightingale said. "There is going to be a revolution. … Outside the federal courthouse in El Paso, we started yelling 'Revolution!' That was the first time those words came out of my mouth and I meant it."

Over the next two hours, Nightingale confronted one person after another, punctuating her sentences by holding out the sign.

Sergio Maria , one of the laborers, listened to her silently for perhaps 15 minutes. When asked, he indicated that he did not know enough English to respond. Later, he found a patron at the gas station to translate his feelings.

"He says they just want to work like everybody else," the customer said.

As the number of Minutemen outside the gas station grew, the day laborers executed a staged retreat, falling back from the curbside to the shade of the building, then around the front of the minimart to the far side of the building.

Customers left the fuel nozzles stuck in their gas tanks and joined the tumultuous crowd of bodies and automobiles filling the gas station's east entrance.

Jose Martinez, of Palmdale, and several of his friends engaged the Minutemen in heated debate. The four young men, who are bilingual, said they are citizens of the United States.

"Are you people going to be out here building your homes? Are you going to do it?" Martinez asked the protester.

"No. You're too lazy!"

After several more heated exchanges, including repeated obscene shouts and hand gestures on both sides, Martinez and his friends returned to their van.

"Gang bangers," muttered several of the Minutemen.

As he put the gas nozzle back on its hook, Martinez said, "They're making such a big deal. They ought to just let us be. (The day workers) are out here looking for a job."

Meanwhile, Don Silva of Encino, a coordinator for saveourstate.org, had taken over the bullhorn.

As Martinez returned to his car, with middle finger extended, Silva finished leading the Pledge of Allegiance and began asking one of the day laborers to fetch him a dozen tacos. He referred to the worker as "Fisheye" and gave a detailed description of the food he wanted.

The taunt spurred Sheryl Morales , of Palmdale, to confront Silva. Morales said she was of Irish descent.

"I'm married to one of them," Morales said, pointing to the day laborers. "You guys would get a lot further if you didn't mock these people. … This country was built on the back of immigrants."

Nightingale and a half dozen others confronted Morales with cries of "Traitor!" and "You're not American!"

"This is nonsense," Morales said, as she finished pumping her gas.

When the protesters had moved away, she said, "I believe in free speech for everybody … but it's a disgusting display when they would get up in those people's faces. Especially when they have a megaphone. There's no need for that."

Scott Jodice , also of Palmdale, joined her in that argument.

"Instead of attacking the poor people for coming here, why don't you attack the politicians?" Jodice said. "This is not aimed at the government. This is aimed at the immigrant."

When Morales left, an SUV took her place. Four teenage girls jumped out and immediately joined the shouting match.

Silva, who stood with three young children in tow, greeted the Hispanic girls with the words, "Look, some ghetto trash."

He then alternated between repeating the words "Shut up, shut up" and "Ghetto trash," while the girls shouted back at him and one shoved his bullhorn.

When the girls returned to their vehicle, Silva followed, talking to one through the window as they pulled away.

One of them reached out, grabbed his shoulder and started shaking him, then opened the door and got out.

Just then, the deputies arrived with their lights flashing. Silva turned away from the girl with his arms in the air.

After interviewing Silva and the girl, deputies let them all go and began dispersing the crowd.

Within 30 minutes, the gas station was nearly empty and the Minutemen had packed their signs and gone.

Jorge summarized the fervor of the Minutemen group, which has become increasingly vehement in recent months.

"We are going to keep pushing. … 2007 is going to be a decisive year," he said.

An hour after the Minutemen departed, 20 day laborers gathered on the sidewalk near the gas station at Four Points. A man in a cowboy hat stood talking to them and motioning toward a nearby pickup truck.

tgee@avpress.com

Way to go donkey picking on young girls.

If the events involving Silva happened exactly as described in that article, I'm not surprised. I've seen him behave like that in Lake Forest with his kids there. I wish I was there to video tape this new incident, but I'm not about to drive all the way to Palmdale for that. Besides, one of the Minutemen/SOS members will probably do that, thinking there's nothing wrong with that behavior.

Would I rather go to a gas station and see some people looking for work, whether or not they're here according to immigration laws? Or see a bunch of grouchy people yelling at anyone who disagrees with them and be called a traitor and video taped and put on youtube? I'll take choice A, thank you very much.

Smile, you're on Jammer-cam!

Here is the link to one of the videos posted online by SOS member Dennis (aka americanpatriot77). http://americanpatriot77.com/videos/Lancaster012007Part5.wmv
The video file is 40megs and runs 7:21min. The video can also be seen here: http://americanpatriot77.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=287

Here is the link to one of the videos posted online by SOS member Dennis (aka americanpatriot77). http://americanpatriot77.com/videos/Lancaster012007Part5.wmv
The video file is 40megs and runs 7:21min. The video can also be seen here: http://americanpatriot77.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=287

They were flirting with u. Right Donkey. They cant have enough with you manly boob.

SOS members are now acting out of sheer frustration. Why? They're screaming and no one is listening to them anymore. The public has moved on to other topics, like the Iraq War.

Their actions are born of manic desperation. The organization is not going anywhere and members continute to back bite each other. The result? Now, they've even got passing motorists and pedestrians going instant "goon" on them at protests at Home Depots and DLS.

It's a sad, sad turn of events indeed for the racists when the "regular" goons don't even show up but SOS still gets opposed angrily by the local community.

This definitely was not the situation a year ago. Sad, so sad. They can't go anywhere without people coming off the street to punk them in the face.

I'm not surprised. People think going thru a supermarket entrance and having to deal with those annoying solicitors is bad. Now when SOS is in town, you can't go to a gas station or liquor store without being hassled by grumpy people calling you "Unamerican" or a "traitor" just for disagreeing with them. In their Irvine rally, that loud Minuteman guy kept pestering a motorist to honk their horn. No one wants to have that kind of attention on them when they're just trying to make a right turn to the Irvine Spectrum. I think there may be a public disturbance issue at hand.

Here's that Chelene person yelling at day labor workers calling them drug smugglers and human smugglers, perhaps taking out her frustration on them. Frustration that was built up by the point of view she decided to build for herself in her mind. All out in public.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXYHuGOlqU8

You know what? Chelene has a point. "Americans" aren't lazy. American workers work longer hours than their comrades in any other industrial country.

But the unfortunate restrictions placed on her by her nationalist ideology don't allow her to see how the current immigration "crisis" is a product of global capitalism.

If she could, she would see how the future of "Americans" is tied to that of workers around the world. A successful revolution in Mexico would be a gain for workers everywhere.

So, for the Minutemen, going where the day laborers are and protesting is actually doing the bidding of global capitalists everywhere. They just love it when the workers fight each other. No, they really love it. Way to go Chelene, your short-sighted ideology is a betrayal to your own class.

Good point. I don't have the whole general understanding with the global aspect, my focus of observation being the behavior of the Minutemen in public and the things I've personally seen. But I do see how what they do out in public, like seen in the video, aren't really amounting to anything to their benefit. They'd like to claim credit for things like the security guard and crackdown in Lake Forest. Whatever the case is there, I'd like to remind the LF city council to make it clear that they aren't doing it for the Minutemen, if that's the case of course. Otherwise people like Gilchrist and others will cling onto it and act all proud like big sh**, just like they cling to people like the families of Ramos and Campeon and try to make it sacrilege to speak against them. They'll bash people like Cindy Sheehan, then become what they portray in her the next minute. They complain about tactics their opposition use, which is true for some. Yet they do the very same thing.

I personally held Don in high esteem; this is very unbecoming of him. Don had, at one time, offered to negotiate a truce to find common ground between us and the SOS - Leslie was also involved.

Unfortunately, the SOS misread our offer and considered it a sign of weakness; thinking we had been defeated when the Wall was being supported by vote-hungry politicians - little did the Antis know that they are just puppets whose strings are pulled by the powers that be.