by Next Move
Sunday, Jul. 17, 2005 at 6:33 PM
Report from the border as of 9PM Saturday
From a 1st hand source
Approximately 90-100 anti-Minutemen, anti-racist activists showed up in Campo today to oppose the Minutemen (California Border Watch). The Minutemn are planning to "monitor" border crossings for the next couple of weeks near Campo.
First hand reports state that the Minutemen fielded approximately 25-30 volunteers for their vigilante styled “patrols” of the border region. There numbers may have increased or may be higher than these accounts.
At 12 Noon a rally was held at the VFW in Campo, the original staging ground for the Minutemen. There was a major confrontation, which took place between the activists and the Minutemen. The crowd was loud with chants of “racist go home” etc. and at one point James Chase held a sign stating, “we’re headed to the border”. This ended up being a ruse and the activists didn’t bite.
The Minutemen were irate and extremely agitated to see such a strong opposition.
After the rally the activists headed to the border area, approximately 3-4 miles from the town of Campo, to set up camp and to monitor the Minutemen. They are approximately ¾ of a mile from the Minutemen campsite and both campsites are a mere 100 yards from the border.
The Minutemen (25-30, maybe more, it is hard to tell) are camped out in an area of oak groves and the activists are in an open area of chaparral. The police (San Diego Sheriffs and CHP) have a staging area nearby as well, on a ridge overlooking the area.
The border consists of a huge corrugated, metal fence but there are several places in the fencing that run across storm channels and some of the storm channel gaps are as much as 5 feet wide.
Nobody has been seen crossing the border.
At 6PM, the Minutemen were back at the VFW and the anti-MM activists headed back to the Campo VFW and held another rally. Some Minutemen came out of the VFW and called police and apparently told police that one of the protesters climbed an oak tree and stole the keys to Chase’s truck. That was a lie. Nothing came of that and so far there have been no arrests on either side.
The Minutemen have been sending recon patrols along the border along dirt roads and the police have driven through the area several times.
At one point the Minutemen had a spotter on a high plateau about 1 mile west of the activists camp. Several activists approached him and effectively flushed him out. He fled back to his car presumably back to the MM camp.
As dark falls, the anti-MM activists are expecting something to happen tonight as the Minutemen are known to patrol the darkened border areas at night.
Update to follow.