imc sf.indymedia.orgindymedia
About Us Contact Us Subscribe Calendar Publish RSS
white themeblack themered themetheme help
Features
latest news
best of news
syndication
commentary


KILLRADIO

CopWatch LA

ABCF LA





IMC Network: www.indymedia.org africa: ambazonia canarias estrecho / madiaq kenya nigeria south africa canada: hamilton london, ontario maritimes montreal ontario ottawa quebec thunder bay vancouver victoria windsor winnipeg east asia: burma jakarta japan manila qc europe: alacant andorra antwerpen armenia athens austria barcelona belarus belgium belgrade bristol bulgaria calabria croatia cyprus emilia-romagna estrecho / madiaq euskal herria galiza germany grenoble hungary imc patras ireland istanbul italy la plana liege lille lombardia madrid malta marseille nantes napoli netherlands nice norway oost-vlaanderen paris/Île-de-france piemonte poland portugal roma romania russia saint-petersburg scotland sverige switzerland thessaloniki torun toscana toulouse ukraine united kingdom valencia latin america: argentina bolivia brasil chiapas chile chile sur colombia ecuador mexico peru puerto rico qollasuyu rosario santiago tijuana uruguay valparaiso venezuela oceania: adelaide aotearoa brisbane burma darwin jakarta manila melbourne perth qc sydney south asia: india mumbai united states: arizona arkansas asheville atlanta austin baltimore big muddy binghamton boston buffalo charlottesville chicago cleveland colorado columbus dc hampton roads, va hawaii houston hudson mohawk idaho ithaca kansas city la madison maine miami michigan milwaukee minneapolis/st. paul new hampshire new jersey new mexico new orleans north carolina north texas nyc oklahoma omaha philadelphia pittsburgh portland richmond rochester rogue valley saint louis san diego san francisco san francisco bay area santa barbara santa cruz, ca sarasota seattle tallahassee-red hills tampa bay tennessee urbana-champaign vermont western mass worcester west asia: armenia beirut israel palestine process: fbi/legal updates mailing lists process & imc docs tech volunteer projects: print radio satellite tv video regions: oceania united states topics: biotech
printable version - email this article - view hidden posts
link:

Black Americans Choose: Minutemen Go Home
by Leslie Radford Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 4:59 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net

More than three hundred Crenshaw District residents joined two hundred migrant rights' supporters and linked arms to keep the minutemen out of Leimert Park, the heart of Black Los Angeles.

Black Americans Choo...
defense_line.jpg, image/jpeg, 448x336

Anti-minutemen protestors, called by the Mayday Defense Committee and Unión del Barrio, linked arms across the 43rd Place entrance to Leimert Park three lines deep to defend the park against the minutemen.   Across the street, Choose Black America, a front group for the anti-immigrant march sponsors, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), and Save Our State, a minuteman spin-off, fretted and stewed.  The LAPD, obviously sensing the determination of the people and reeling from the public outcry against their violence in MacArthur Park last month, kept the groups apart, eventually moving cruisers in front of the entrance to prevent a minuteman incursion, and rescinded the minuteman permit to enter the park.

Choose Black America had called the demonstration as the kickoff to a nationwide campaign to force an apology from the Mexican government for the booing of Miss America at the Miss Universe conference.  Another CBA announcement told African-Americans, "Don't be fooled by the 'Black-Brown" Coalitions" and claimed co-sponsorship by Millennium Panthers and West Side Illegal Immigration Control.

By 1:00 p.m. CBA had mustered its marchers and stepped onto the street at Crenshaw and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevards to begin their parade down this major artery through the historically African-American neighborhood to Leimert Park, the public platform for Los Angles Black voices and the center of Black Los Angeles culture.  They put together a showing of about eighty-five, sixty-five or so anti-immigrant African-Americans, twenty white minutemen, and one or two Mexican-Americans.  Save Our State has undergone serious internal upheavals and splits because of its support of former homeless activist Ted Hayes, now the chair of CBA.   

As the minutemen assembled on the southwest corner, the counterprotestors, on the southeast corner, shouted at them, "Minutemen, KKK, racists out of South LA!"  An RCP member bullhorned, "We don't have an immigration problem--we have a capitalism problem!"  Another protestor was overheard explaining to a white protestor, "They try to pit Blacks against Latinos.  The system is the problem--that's what it is."  YLP, a Puerto Rican, found the historical parallel: "My people, the people [the minutemen] are persecuting, they're just like the Jews were in Nazi Germany.  And the minutemen are the Nazis."

The LAPD allowed the swelling crowd of counterprotestors, a mixed Brown, Black, and white group led down Crenshaw by the Black Riders Liberation Party, to spill into the street as they marched fifteen feet away from CBA.  CBA and the minuteman rode and walked beside a flatbed float representing a slavers' ship decked out with signs calling for reparations, under the banner of the Church for Reparations Now!  CBA supporters held signs for another FAIR front group, NumbersUSA.  The white minutemen brought up the rear, saying nothing as the group up front chanted, "Choose--choose--choose Black America."  They were drowned out, even across the street, by the counterprotestors calling out "Asesinos!" and "Down with the Klan, down with the minutemen."  

One Black activist explained, "They're trying to separate and divide.  Ted Hayes is brainwashed.  The minutemen will turn their back on him when they're finished with him."

Residents along the march route were heard complaining that the Klan had shut down the buses on Crenshaw, as they drifted off to find alternate routes.

As we reached the park, the cops announced that we were to be penned on the east side of the park.

The anger had mounted as we marched, and the call went out when we found ourselves between the park and the minutemen: don't let them in the park.  The first arrivals took international flags into the park and stood at the gates, but the police had stopped CBA and the minutemen on the west side of the Crenshaw.  The counterprotestors repositioned themselves across the east sidewalk entrance between the cop cruisers .  People from the community, grandmotherly types, young men, shop owners, employees, with quiet and clear fierceness, were pouring through the park and coming north across 43rd Street to the sidewalk .   Then the call was "lock down!"  Three lines of people joined arms across the thirty-foot open space between the cop cars at the entrance, discussed how to handle police batons, and determined that the minutemen would not cross.  The Aztec danzantes protected the people with ritual dances and guarded the southeast corner of 43rd Street and Crenshaw.  The Black Riders alternated between patrolling the other entrances to the park and standing at the front of the defense line.  The International Socialist Organization ran off a minuteman truck circling around the looking for a back entrance.

A participant murmured, "They're using Black Nationalism.  I didn't know Black Nationalism sided with the Klan."  Then the triumphant cry:  "Whose streets?  Our streets!  People united will never be divided!"

The police stretched their yellow tape around the CBA and the minutemen, penning them in across the street, and told them that they wouldn't be going into the park today.  The counterprotestors roared, "Leimert, MacArthur, New Orleans: Smash the racist war machine!" and Black and Brown allies called out, "We are not the minority--we are the majority!"  One counterprotestor had a special message for Hayes: "You came to the community to stir up trouble!"

Two cop cars were moved in front of the line, effectively ending any hope the CBA had of charging the park.  At 2:40, the cops put their riot helmets on.  The defense line, which had relaxed after an hour of the stand off, snapped to.  The riot gear came off.

At 3:00, the cops forced the CBA and SOS onto the west sidewalk,  surrounded them, and offered them the choice of leaving or arrest.  Hayes and five of his followers stepped into the street in a last-ditch, staged arrest so Hayes, as one observer put it, would "earn his pay."  And the media ran to film Hayes being escorted into a police van.  They were taken to a substation and released.

In a protest in some ways reminiscent of Baldwin Park's first encounter with the minutemen, the Leimert Park defenders had turned hate and divisiveness out of their public space.  Some of the Crenshaw residents expressed concerns about the effects of immigration on employment; others responded that Black unemployment had a long history that preceded today's anti-immigrant backlash.  Whatever their position on the causes of unemployment, they were united in denouncing the rhetoric and tactics of the minutemen.  Hayes and his crew had failed, and the Black-Brown coalition held.

Before the day began, Muffy told me that, "There's nothing like the Nazis to bring people together."  Besides the groups mentioned, Mexica Movement, ANSWER-LA, Radical Women, the Sons of Jacob, Base Collective, the People's Liberation Party, and the Brown Berets were among those on Crenshaw Boulevard.

Report this post as:

add your comments


counterprotestors assemble
by Leslie Radford Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 4:59 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net

counterprotestors as...
counterprotestors_assemble.jpg, image/jpeg, 448x336

Report this post as:

add your comments


CBA and the minutemen assemble
by Leslie Radford Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 4:59 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net

CBA and the minuteme...
cba_mm_assemble.jpg, image/jpeg, 448x336

Report this post as:

add your comments


Hayes addresses the "masses"
by Leslie Radford Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 4:59 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net

Hayes addresses the ...
hayes_addresses_the_crowd.jpg, image/jpeg, 336x341

Report this post as:

add your comments


discussion
by Leslie Radford Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 4:59 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net

discussion...
brown_berets.jpg, image/jpeg, 430x336

Report this post as:

add your comments


minutemen and CBA march
by Leslie Radford Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 4:59 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net

minutemen and CBA ma...
minutemen_marchers.jpg, image/jpeg, 448x252

Report this post as:

add your comments


reparations float
by Leslie Radford Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 4:59 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net

reparations float...
cba_float.jpg, image/jpeg, 448x241

Report this post as:

add your comments


counterprotestors reach the park
by Leslie Radford Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 4:59 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net

counterprotestors re...
reaching_the_park.jpg, image/jpeg, 414x336

Report this post as:

add your comments


danzante protection
by Leslie Radford Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 4:59 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net

danzante protection...
danzante_protection.jpg, image/jpeg, 336x410

Report this post as:

add your comments


never seen
by Leslie Radford Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 4:59 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net

never seen...
ever_seen.jpg, image/jpeg, 336x420

Report this post as:

add your comments


an international park
by Leslie Radford Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 4:59 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net

an international par...
international_park.jpg, image/jpeg, 448x291

Report this post as:

add your comments


legalization, reparations, stop the war
by Leslie Radford Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 4:59 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net

legalization, repara...
legalization_reparations.jpg, image/jpeg, 369x336

Report this post as:

add your comments


LATEST COMMENTS ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
Listed below are the 10 latest comments of 60 posted about this article.
These comments are anonymously submitted by the website visitors.
TITLE AUTHOR DATE
What I didn't say Leslie Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 5:34 AM
What I didn't say Leslie Monday, Jun. 25, 2007 at 5:35 AM
the Nazis will be in Santa Monica Wednesday, Jun. 27, 2007 at 3:38 PM
to the hidden poster Leslie Wednesday, Jun. 27, 2007 at 5:36 PM
never seen BorderRaven Thursday, Jun. 28, 2007 at 7:52 AM
What I didn't say BorderRaven Thursday, Jun. 28, 2007 at 8:09 AM
Ol' Burger Ravenous is a Nazi Ol' burger Raven-ous is a Nazi Thursday, Jun. 28, 2007 at 2:15 PM
Black????? not racist Friday, Jun. 29, 2007 at 9:00 AM
the Nazis will be in Ranch Cucamonga Tues July 3 '07 GuessWho Friday, Jun. 29, 2007 at 3:36 PM
hmmmm theded Friday, Jun. 29, 2007 at 5:17 PM
So there is no nazis for target practice Friday, Jun. 29, 2007 at 11:49 PM
Not a SOS even BorderRaven Saturday, Jun. 30, 2007 at 1:33 AM
pathetic Damn Saturday, Jun. 30, 2007 at 3:34 AM
one more time nazis for target practice Saturday, Jun. 30, 2007 at 3:36 AM
BorderBlob--fascist hypocrit 1st hand source Tuesday, Jul. 03, 2007 at 8:11 PM
poor gerry V Thursday, Jul. 05, 2007 at 10:41 AM
reply Jammer CC Thursday, Jul. 05, 2007 at 12:38 PM
see Burger Ravenous in action he's planning to take down Han Solo Thursday, Jul. 05, 2007 at 2:45 PM
reply Jammer CC Thursday, Jul. 05, 2007 at 2:51 PM
borderblob V Thursday, Jul. 05, 2007 at 6:49 PM
reply Jammer CC Thursday, Jul. 05, 2007 at 10:20 PM
reply Jammer CC Thursday, Jul. 05, 2007 at 10:23 PM
give it up gerry V Friday, Jul. 06, 2007 at 7:39 AM
border blob ch Friday, Jul. 06, 2007 at 9:42 AM
SOS Sunk By In-fighting TruthBTold Saturday, Jul. 07, 2007 at 6:15 PM
reply Jammer CC Saturday, Jul. 07, 2007 at 6:33 PM
borderingoninsanity ytc Saturday, Jul. 07, 2007 at 6:36 PM
leadership? BorderRaven Saturday, Jul. 07, 2007 at 11:12 PM
hee hee hee nazis for target practice Sunday, Jul. 08, 2007 at 1:18 AM
BorderRaven Got The Boot! TruthBTold Sunday, Jul. 08, 2007 at 3:37 PM
YTcommunitywatch aka ytc YTC Sunday, Jul. 08, 2007 at 4:09 PM
reply Jammer CC Sunday, Jul. 08, 2007 at 6:31 PM
The way to defend the community Fight2Win Thursday, Jul. 19, 2007 at 9:44 PM
FYI nazis for target practice Friday, Jul. 20, 2007 at 5:28 PM
Meltdown at SOS? reader Sunday, Aug. 05, 2007 at 9:05 PM
Unity feeder Monday, Aug. 06, 2007 at 4:13 AM
Taking a Powerful Stand Against Racism Varlet Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2007 at 5:43 PM
Workers of the World, Unite... BorderRaven Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2007 at 7:29 PM
how does it feel? to be or not to be - a tool Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2007 at 9:27 PM
Divided we are Stronger? The Anti- Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007 at 8:33 AM
grandfather Z Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007 at 10:37 AM

Local News

This Friday: Protest at ICE detention Centers A20 9:19AM

AJLPP Calls for The Resumption of Peace Talks, Warns of US Intervention A19 2:20PM

OUT OF THE SHADOWS- UNDERGROUND UNDERGRADS SPEAKS OUT A19 1:39PM

OC Civil Forum Induces Protests A19 1:31AM

SEIU Pres Stern's Hand Picked CA Operative Investigated For Rigging Elections-Cover-up A18 8:29AM

South Central Farmers Demand Ethics Investigation of Local Officials A18 1:50AM

FAL Children’s Reading Program --- Aug. 30 in Montebello & Sep. 6 in San Pedro A17 12:26PM

New Long beach Coalition, Formed A17 11:41AM

Full Spectrum Protests in Lake Forest at Election Debate. A16 6:46PM

Journey to My Home: China, Hong Kong, Beijing Olympics 2008 (Part Two) A15 6:45PM

California Becomes First State to Condemn Use of Torture in 'War on Terror' A15 11:23AM

END UC-IRVINE CAT VIVISECTION A15 10:34AM

Pro-Cuba celebration triumphs over right-wing terrorist threats A14 5:19PM

The August 10 Tribute to Don White A13 4:31PM

East Los Angeles Charter School Students Arrive from China Marking the First Cultural Exch A13 10:09AM

Historic Filipinotown Day- Two Celebrations, Two Cultures A12 8:18PM

STOP THE MILITARY OFFENSIVES, RESUME PEACE TALKS NOW! A12 6:46PM

California Water War Enters New Front with the 'Battle of the Reports' A12 2:56PM

Targeting Immigrants - The Largest Ever US ICE Raid A12 7:59AM

San Fernando Valley (A)narchist Federation Meeting A11 9:50PM

FIRST THE AMERICAN BLACKS, AND NOW ALSO OUR LATINO AMERICANS !!! A11 4:18PM

Cmdr. Cres Abad, 88 A11 12:34PM

RAC = Fascistas A10 1:26PM

SEIU Pres Stern's Key CA Operative Tyrone Freeman Linked To Corruption A09 5:44PM

EPCC SUPPORTS CALIFORNIA STATE WORKERS PROTESTS A08 12:37PM

Lee Siu Hin Journey to My Home: China and Hong Kong 2008 (Part One) A08 3:51AM

Long Beach Mayor Vows to Close Main Library A07 4:57PM

Sunday 8/10: Evening to Celebrate the Life of Don White A06 1:07PM

More Local News...

Other/Breaking News

Peace Mom v. Guardian of Power A21 12:40PM

Brentwood Autumn Art Show A21 10:23AM

Russia Never Wanted a War A21 4:42AM

When Will Media Recognize McCain's Serious Dementia Problem A21 4:38AM

French troops bombed A21 2:03AM

Youngest ever British person visits longest serving men in solitary at Angola Prison. A20 4:55PM

Architects & Engineers Respond to NIST Final Report on WTC Building 7 - Thurs A20 4:47PM

Architects & Engineers Respond to NIST Final Report on WTC Building 7 - Thurs A20 4:29PM

Save the life of Reginald Blanton A20 2:47PM

Obama advances agenda of global militarism A20 12:52PM

The Taliban Rule Man A20 8:07AM

Bush admin. disconnected from reality A20 6:02AM

La CIA y la espada de Simón Bolívar A20 2:52AM

Gremach Infrastructure's Google India Attack, Mozambique Coal Baron's Squalor A19 10:08PM

Were you Injured on a Bike made in China??? A19 7:23PM

The Tribute to Don White and Racism in LA A19 6:54PM

A cataclysmic financial storm is about to bring down U.S. economy A19 1:57PM

Democrat's Reality Check: Obama Provides No Hope of Change of the Permanent War Economy A19 2:57AM

ITALY. WHY DON'T WE USE THE GYPSY BOYS AS SLAVES? A18 5:07PM

Uphold the Militant Tradition of International Women's Movement A18 4:44PM

AFP orders Military Offensive Vs MILF, Fighting Escalates in Mindanao A18 3:14PM

Blockades: Acts of War A18 1:07PM

Mindanao Bishops, MILF: pursue peace process, call for ceasefire A18 9:23AM

The Destruction of America - series four-Politics A18 7:55AM

55 years since CIA coup in Iran: take action A17 10:34AM

DNC Protest, Split, and the Principled Stand of Cynthia McKinney A16 2:54PM

PRINCE CHARLES,PLEASE HELP US RESCUE OUR FORGOTTEN AND TRAPPED AMERICANS ? A16 1:40PM

Corporate Media Bash New Chavez New Enabling Law Decrees A16 12:21PM

More Breaking News...


© 2000-2003 Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Running sf-active v0.9.4 Disclaimer | Privacy