{"article":{"id":35116,"heading":"Protesters that give the left a bad name","author":"Mike Dee","created":"2003-03-12 21:38:32","modified":"2003-03-15 05:58:11","last_modified":"Sat, 15 Mar 2003 12:58:11","article":"

By Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, Staff Writer



LA HABRA -- Antiwar protesters burned and ripped up flags, flowers and patriotic signs at a Sept. 11 memorial that residents erected on a fence along Whittier Boulevard days after the terrorist attacks in 2001 and have maintained ever since.

However, although officers witnessed the vandalism Saturday afternoon, police did not arrest three people seen damaging the display because they were \"exercising the same freedom of speech that the people who put up the flags were,' La Habra Police Capt. John Rees said Monday.

\"For this to be vandalism, there had to be an ill-will intent,' he said.

Rees said in order for police to take any action, the owner of the fence would have to file a complaint.

Jeff Collison, owner of The RV Center in La Habra, who has allowed residents to add patriotic symbols to the fence on his property, said he just might do that.

\"Their free speech stops at destruction of private property. If they are allowed to come on my property and burn flags, does that mean I can go to City Hall or the police station and light their flags on fire because that is freedom of speech? To me, this is vandalism,' Collison said.

Some residents Monday hung signs criticizing those who destroyed the display.

Tracey Chandler, a Whittier mother of four who has maintained the spontaneous memorial since it was created by other area residents soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said she was shocked by the destruction.

\"They trashed 87 flags, ripped 11 memorial tiles made by myself and my children out of the ground and glued the Bob Dylan song to a sign that said, 'America, land of the brave, home of the free,' ' she said.

The Bob Dylan song she referred to is \"With God on Our Side,' an antiwar anthem of the 1960s.

\"It's unbelievable, because there were absolutely no political messages on this fence. It was all about supporting our troops, which could mean bringing them home, and about remembering 9-11.'

Les Howard, a sociology professor at Whittier College, said the incident might be an indication of some confusion among people trying to stop a possible war against Iraq but uncertain how to express their sentiments. However, he said he does not condone the destruction of symbols important to those who erect them.

\"Some think (the best way to support the troops) is to not question their role. Some think the best way is to pursue all means possible to avoid putting them in danger,' he said. \"That still does not excuse any desecration of people's symbolic participation.'

Chandler said she plans to rebuild the Sept. 11 memorial.

\"We are going to rebuild this memorial, and it will be brighter, bigger and better than ever,' Chandler said.

<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/www.whittierdailynews.com\/Stories\/0,1413,207~12026~1234836,00.html","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"These fools are who gives the left a bad name.","numcomment":24,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/03\/35116.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":35119,"heading":"Was it still a memorial?","article":"First of all, not all anti war protesters are liberals.\r\n\r\nThere are some conservatives and many moderates out there on the streets as well.\r\n\r\nI haven't seen this memorial. It sounds like it was very nice. I'm guessing, however, that it had recently changed from 'memorial' to more overt slogans of 'take saddam out,' 'bomb iraq' etc.\r\n\r\nIf, indeed, the memorial had changed into a pro-war propaganda stage, I can't say I'm surprised at its destruction.\r\n\r\n","author":"Mr president","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-12 22:10:14","modified":"2003-03-12 22:10:14","fileurl":""},{"id":35146,"heading":"Destroying Flags?!?!?!","article":"Isn't that all they're good for? Fuck all that nationalistic bull shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!","author":"Acirema","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-12 23:34:40","modified":"2003-03-12 23:34:40","fileurl":""},{"id":35169,"heading":"Why is anyone surprised","article":"These commie pukes hate this country. They always have and always will. They hated this country when they were protesting WWII and they showed their true nature when the Soviet run labor unions sabotaged our war effort. Some 60 years later they revealed themselves again when they were protesting possible military action in Afghanistan mere days after the 9\/11 terrorist attacks.\r\nNow they raid a MEMORIAL in protest of possible action in Iraq. All of you protesters, Muslim, liberal, communist, "Christian" or "conservative", you are all scum. I just hope the US government has the guts to put you anti-American pukes in prison when the war starts and you start your campaign of "civil disobedience"","author":"Chris","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-13 04:14:53","modified":"2003-03-13 04:14:53","fileurl":""},{"id":35220,"heading":"get a fucking clue","article":"I agree with Jeremy Sapienza in the article below --- this looks like a Cointelpro-type operation, and as Sapienza predicted, the right-wingers have picked this up.\r\n\r\nAntiwar.com, and Sapienza and his Antistate.com, are libertarians, capitalists on steroids. So please refrain from calling this leftist crap. It ain't so. \r\n\r\nWhy would protesters do this, and why would the cops sit by and let them. \r\n\r\nAs Kurt Vonnegut sais recently, you don't need to be an ichthyologist to know when something is fishy.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/orig\/sapienza2.html\r\n\r\nPhony 'Antiwar Protesters' Trash 9\/11 Memorial\r\nby Jeremy Sapienza\r\nMarch 11, 2003\r\n\r\nFrom the Tuesday, March 11, 2003 Whittier Daily News:\r\n\r\n"LA HABRA -- Antiwar protesters burned and ripped up flags, flowers and \r\n\r\npatriotic signs at a Sept. 11 memorial that residents erected on a \r\n\r\nfence along Whittier Boulevard days after the terrorist attacks in 2001 \r\n\r\nand have maintained ever since."\r\n\r\nThe first question that enters my mind is, what good is done for the \r\n\r\nantiwar movement when vandals trash a memorial to thousands of \r\n\r\nslaughtered civilians? The answer is none, and that's why it seems like \r\n\r\nless an antiwar protest and more the act of saboteurs. This incident \r\n\r\ncan be seized upon as a defining characteristic of the antiwar movement \r\n\r\n(a bunch of anti-American vandals) by the War Party and pulled out \r\n\r\nwhenever a point needs to be made about our convictions.\r\n\r\nThis whole thing smacks of COINTELPRO-type tactics. It seems to me that \r\n\r\nsomeone really wanted to smear the antiwar movement...how do we know \r\n\r\nthat this wasn't a horde of pro-war thugs with "Peace" buttons on their \r\n\r\nshirts and some time to kill?\r\n\r\nAnother curious side of this already-odd story, is the fact that this \r\n\r\nwas done in plain view of La Habra police officers. And they weren't \r\n\r\nstopped or warned – they were protected. La Habra Police Capt. John \r\n\r\nRees said the vandals were "exercising the same freedom of speech that \r\n\r\nthe people who put up the flags were." The problem is that destroying \r\n\r\nprivate property isn't free speech, and the memorial's builders and \r\n\r\ncaretakers had the permission of the site's owner.\r\n\r\nNo comment as of right now from the La Habra Police Dept., but I am \r\n\r\nwaiting for a callback.\r\n\r\nSo cops hurl obscenities and throw us in jail if we open our mouths or \r\n\r\nslip off the sidewalk in a herded protest, but if you actually destroy \r\n\r\nsomeone's property, they stand by and call it free speech! Is this what \r\n\r\nwe have police for? To beat the peaceful and protect the violent!?\r\n\r\nWe condemn this action no matter who is responsible, but the bottom \r\n\r\nline is, we have no evidence that these are actually antiwar \r\n\r\nprotesters. It simply doesn't make sense. As peace activists try to \r\n\r\ngain recognition from mainstream America as something other than just a \r\n\r\nbunch of anti-American patchouli-drenched semi-communist \r\n\r\ngranola-crunchers, an incident like this has the potential to throw a \r\n\r\ngiant wrench into the gears of the Antiwar Machine.\r\n\r\nThe original article in the Whittier Daily news is at:\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.whittierdailynews.com\/Stories\/0,1413,207%7E12026%7E1234836,0\r\n\r\n0.html","author":"this is a psy op","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-13 07:38:45","modified":"2003-03-13 07:38:45","fileurl":""},{"id":35223,"heading":"I totally agree","article":"This shit is getting old. \r\n\r\nThe sad part is it will work against some portion of the populace. The portion that gets all their information from the TV and doesn't have\/doesn't want\/can't afford a network connection and\/or doesn't know how to use one to goto anywhere but cnn.com\r\n\r\nAlso getting old is how they will try to elect the movements leaders for us. For instance, madmaxim here has been very fond of refering people off to some dick ben seattles writing the last couple days, at approximately the same time freerepublic issued a 'know your enemy' warning for this guy, on the same day this guy posted the same privacy invading 'essay' \/ feedback form on every IMC website in the world.\r\n\r\nI have since loudly and repeatedly denounced this dick as a cointel op, and his response was right out of their manual ("prove i'm a psyop" -> "ok, well you're just a dick then" -> "and you have poor spelling"). I am still completely convinced i have him pegged, no one has stepped up to offer any arguement or testimony on his behalf, and his reponses have, imo, completely justified my accusation. And his writing is this horrible tripe designed to do nothing but paint us all to be ignorant shortsighted assholes caught up in fancy verbage and seperate the opposition into opposing factions. Not gonna work you dumbfucks, come up with something better. Or just die.\r\n\r\nDickhead psyop bastard traitor fucks, get it through you thick empty heads: we will never give a shit if we develop a 'name' for ourselves. we are not in it for the money, or the fame, or even the chicks (ok so i'm in it a little for the chicks). We want our damned freedom back. I could change my name daily (and i do have many names) and it wouldn't disolve my intent or my effect at all.\r\n\r\nAnd we will win.","author":"Pissed Off in Ohio","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-13 07:52:59","modified":"2003-03-13 07:52:59","fileurl":""},{"id":35264,"heading":"How stupid can you get?","article":"The idea that there would be such a thing as Cointel aimed at discrediting the anti-war protest movement is entirely laughable.\n\nThe Anti-War dorks do a fine job of discrediting themselves without needing any help from Cointel or anyone else.","author":"Bush Admirer","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-13 14:19:17","modified":"2003-03-13 14:19:17","fileurl":""},{"id":35265,"heading":"Great story","article":"I can't confirm whether or not this is a true story. But it sure ought to be!\n____\nDinner in Montana\n(Celebrity Perks to Warm Your Heart)\n\nStar 100.7 was doing one of their "is anyone listening who" bits this\nmorning. The first one was, ever have a celebrity pull the "do you know who\nI am" routine.\n\n A lady called in and said that when she was visiting her cattle rancher\nUncle in Billings, MT a few years ago, they went to dinner at a restaurant\nthat does not take reservations. The wait was about 45 minutes. Lots of\nother rancher types and spouses already waiting. In comes Ted Turner and\nJane Fonda. They want a table. The hostess says they'll have to wait about\n45 minutes.\n\nJane asks if she knows who she is. "Yes, but you'll still have to wait 45\nminutes."\n\n"Is the manager in?" she says.\n\nThe manager comes out, "May I help you?"\n\n"Do you know who I am?", ask both Jane and Ted.\n\n"Yes, but these folks have all been waiting already and I can't put you in\nahead of them."\n\nThen Ted asks to speak to the owner. The owner comes out. Jane again asks\n"do you know who I am?"\n\nThe owner says "Yes, I do. Do you know who I am? I am the owner of this\nrestaurant -- and a Vietnam veteran. No only will you not get a table ahead\nof all my friends and neighbors here, you also will not be eating in my\nrestaurant tonight or any other night. Good bye."\n","author":"Bush Admirer","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-13 14:25:00","modified":"2003-03-13 14:25:00","fileurl":""},{"id":35267,"heading":"Hey monkeyboy...","article":"Who gives a flying (bad word) and what does this\r\nhave to do with anything anyway?\r\nThis is weak.","author":"Sheepdog","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-13 14:51:02","modified":"2003-03-13 14:51:02","fileurl":""},{"id":35288,"heading":"Agreed","article":"They are running out of even remotely rational arguments, they're running out of time, and I think they're a little scared.\r\n\r\nAnd thus, this crap...\r\n\r\n"The idea that there would be such a thing as Cointel aimed at discrediting the anti-war protest movement is entirely laughable." <- The very fact that you deny it as flatly as you have here leaves me utterly convinced that not only is there a "cointel" group, you are a member of it. Rational arguement would conceed that there at least *could* be such a group. But you're not rational, or honest. You're a self serving traitorous bastard hell bent on corrupting america for the sake of filling your pockets and helping your superiors establish a new american-nazi regime by browbeating the opposition, collecting information on its members, and distributing lies to further you and your parties private agenda.\r\n\r\nAnd its not working. You're terribly obvious. You should just give up. Abandon your cause. If you weren't so far gone, I would say 'Join Us', but you can not join us, you are not welcome. You can at least stop working against us though. You know it's right thing to do.","author":"Pissed Off In Ohio","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-13 17:50:07","modified":"2003-03-13 17:50:07","fileurl":""},{"id":35299,"heading":"The Sum of All Fears","article":"The one thing that Psymple Psymon and his Merry Gang fear the most is the truth.\r\n\r\nIt is the antidote to their lies and they fear it like a Vampire a Cross.","author":"Diogenes","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-13 18:53:03","modified":"2003-03-13 18:53:03","fileurl":""},{"id":35302,"heading":"Simple","article":"JEFFREY\r\n\r\nA telephone call? That's communication with the outside world! Doctor's discretion. Hey, if alla these nuts could just make phone calls, it could spread. Insanity oozing through telephone cables, oozing into the ears of all those poor sane people, infecting them! Whackos everywhere! A plague of madness.\r\n\t\t\t\t (suddenly sly and confidential)\r\n\r\nIn fact, very few of us here are actually mentally ill. I'm not saying you're not mentally ill, for all I know you're crazy as a loon. But that's not why you're here. Why you're here is because of the system, because of the economy.\r\n\t\t\t\t (indicating the TV)\r\n\r\nThere's the TV. It's all right there. Commercials. We are not productive anymore, they don't need us to make things anymore, it's all automated. What are we for then? We're consumers. Okay, buy a lot of stuff, you're a good citizen. But if you don't buy a lot of stuff, you know what? You're mentally ill! That's a fact! If you don't buy things...toilet paper, new cars, computerized blenders, electrically operated sexual devices...\r\n\t\t\t\t (getting hysterical)\r\n\r\nSCREWDRIVERS WITH MINIATURE BUILT-IN RADAR DEVICES, STEREO SYSTEMS WITH BRAIN IMPLANTED HEADPHONES, VOICE-ACTIVATED COMPUTERS, AND...\r\n\r\n","author":"Simple Simon","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-13 19:01:08","modified":"2003-03-13 19:01:08","fileurl":""},{"id":35304,"heading":"Strange","article":"It is also very curious that this article was published the same day that an antiwar proposal was being discussed by the Whittier city council,\r\nwhen this incident took place on Saturday.\r\n","author":"Tony","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-13 19:23:47","modified":"2003-03-13 19:23:47","fileurl":""},{"id":35313,"heading":"Even Stranger","article":"Simon\r\n\r\nWhats your deal man? Is their programming conflicting with your sense of (haha) morality and or (hahahaha) common sense? You sound like vader trying to figure out whether or not to toss the emporer off a cliff. DO IT. DO IT SIMON. DO IT NOW!\r\n\r\n(btw: don't flatter yourself into thinking you actually are a vader of any sort... you're really more like that genera-troop vader killed with a ugly look, but still the analogy stands)\r\n\r\nCome back to humanity simon.","author":"Pissed Off in Ohio","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-13 20:38:38","modified":"2003-03-13 20:38:38","fileurl":""},{"id":35344,"heading":"Bottom Line","article":"George Bush sucks.","author":"Nicholas Cage","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-13 23:52:47","modified":"2003-03-13 23:52:47","fileurl":""},{"id":35350,"heading":"uh, simon Poser?","article":"Simon typically doesn't act like this way.\r\n\r\nIf it really is Simon, maybe the doc wrote his scrip\r\nwrong and poor old Simon has got the wrong meds.\r\n\r\nGo get your platelet, and white blood cell checked.\r\n\r\n\r\nnothing wrong with being off-balance, \r\n\r\n Simon?","author":"Indy anna Jones'n","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-14 00:12:54","modified":"2003-03-14 00:12:54","fileurl":""},{"id":35471,"heading":"Simple","article":"I was just funnin' you with the post above. Diogenes was making some pompous pronouncement that sounded so off base, I felt that I should respond with something that would make him feel comfortable.\r\n\r\nSo I quoted Brad Pitt's character 'Jeffrey' from 12 monkeys.\r\n\r\nSorry if I misled you all, Should have sourced the quote.","author":"Simple Simon","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-14 06:49:01","modified":"2003-03-14 06:49:01","fileurl":""},{"id":35477,"heading":"OneEyedMan","article":"Fido: "Diogenes was making some pompous pronouncement"\r\n\r\nThis is what is commonly referred to as "the pot calling the kettle black".","author":"KPC","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-14 07:05:40","modified":"2003-03-14 07:05:40","fileurl":""},{"id":35542,"heading":"Simple","article":"There's a difference between using a large vocabulary and being pompous. To the uneducated they can sound the same.\r\n\r\nSo now I understand your confusion.","author":"Simple Simon","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-14 17:16:41","modified":"2003-03-14 17:16:41","fileurl":""},{"id":35554,"heading":"Psymon is just jealous...","article":"...of my having a superior command of our common tongue.\r\n\r\nPsymon: I would have never guessed you were anti-intellectual.\r\n\r\nWould you prefer I dumb down my prose for you?","author":"Diogenes","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-14 18:19:31","modified":"2003-03-14 18:19:31","fileurl":""},{"id":35584,"heading":"Simple","article":"Thank you Diogenes, for so ably demonstrating (yet again) what pomposity sounds like. Arrogating to yourself a superior command of our language.\r\n\r\nAgain, Thanks.","author":"Simple Simon","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-14 20:59:12","modified":"2003-03-14 20:59:12","fileurl":""},{"id":35592,"heading":"OneEyedMan","article":"Fido: "Arrogating to yourself ..."\r\n\r\nThis is what is commonly referred to as the "pot calling the kettle black".","author":"KPC","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-14 21:23:49","modified":"2003-03-14 21:23:49","fileurl":""},{"id":35593,"heading":"With all due humility Psymon.","article":"Thank you.","author":"Diogenes","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-14 21:25:43","modified":"2003-03-14 21:25:43","fileurl":""},{"id":35723,"heading":"X","article":"hey is this site being censored now? how come all my threats, insults and blather arent being published?","author":"X","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-15 05:51:07","modified":"2003-03-15 05:51:07","fileurl":""},{"id":35725,"heading":"Sorrow","article":"Try again, haven\u2019t had a good dose of idiotic nonsense today!","author":"Knuckles","parent_id":35116,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-03-15 05:58:11","modified":"2013-11-10 23:49:03","fileurl":""}]}