Monday, July 18, 2005
LAGUNA BEACH COPS TACKLE WHITE SUPREMACIST TO THE GROUND: PART I
Police report expected to show that S.O.S. and National Alliance members allegedly tried to attack counterdemonstrator at 7/16 rally
By DUANE J. ROBERTS
duaneroberts92804@yahoo.com LAGUNA BEACH, CA -- "The rally in [Laguna Beach] this morning was better than I could even imagine," wrote OCAngel in a message she posted on the "Save our State" website last Saturday night. "Thank you to SOS for allowing me an outlet to announce this event, and a place to rant, rave, and bitch, as well as meet new friends. Thank you to those who couldn't make the rally but kept us in good thoughts." {1}
OCAngel (whose real name I'm withholding for the moment) is a Laguna Beach mom who is fed up with "illegal immigration". She's angry that a portion of the revenues the yearly Sawdust Art Festival generates for the beach community she calls home are being used to fund a day labor center for undocumented workers. So on the morning of Saturday, July 16th, she held a protest on the public sidewalk outside of the event "to educate the public and tourists about how their Festival of the Arts ticket money is being used to aid and support illegal immigration." {2}
By OCAngel's accounts, the rally she worked hard putting together was indeed a smashing success. More than sixty people showed up, while only five counterdemonstrators appeared to oppose them. Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist, an Aliso Viejo resident, dropped by for awhile to pay his respects. Barbara Coe, the venerable Chairwoman of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR) and co-author of Proposition 187, was also there. And Don Silva (aka "OldPreach"), one of Joe Turner's close allies, was running around dressed in camouflage again, waving around an American flag (for matter of record, the rally itself was not officially endorsed by S.O.S.). {3}
But members of the National Alliance, an avowedly white supremacist organization, appeared to be out in full force that day. In fact, somebody who calls herself occutegirl, perhaps unbeknownst to her at the time, posted a photograph she took of two reputed members of that group on the "Save Our State" website. The photo shows a young woman (alleged to be "dixieland_delight" on the Stormfront White Nationalist Community website) and a man suspected of being her boyfriend holding up a blue banner reading, "DEPORT ILLEGAL ALIENS," with the words, "www.SaveOurState.org," emblazoned just underneath them in much smaller type. {4}
After realizing that a good number of "white nationalists" had attended her rally, OCAngel, to her credit, took some steps to distance herself from them. In one cryptic posting on the "Save Our State" website, she hinted publicly to a person who apparently had sent her a private message that they had "an agenda I do not agree with" and would "have preferred your group [possibly the National Alliance] to set up further and separate from us [on Saturday, July 16th], and not aligned yourselves with us in any way. I appreciated that you did not openly flaunt your views ..." {5}
But the truth is, despite OCAngel's apparent despair over all the National Alliance members who showed up to her Laguna Beach rally, evidence is rapidly mounting that white supremacists from across Southern California are trying to work hand and glove with "Save Our State" and its members in every protest and demonstration they organize; in fact, in some circumstances, it appears some white supremacists are active members of that group. And for the very first time anywhere, evidence of loose ties between S.O.S. members and people known to be white supremacists are going to be documented in an explosive report soon to be filed by Officer Andy Peck, the Laguna Beach policeman who monitored OCAngel's rally against the day labor center.
Naui Huitzilopochtli, was one of five people who showed up to demonstrate against OCAngel's Laguna Beach rally last Saturday. A seasoned activist, he's been involved in many protests and demonstrations here in Orange County, defending the rights of the Mexican people against racism, oppression, and police brutality. Another person who showed up that foggy morning was Sam, a UC Santa Cruz student, whose parents came to this country from Bombay, India; she was spending her summer vacation at their home in the Northern part of the County. "Undocumented workers are NOT the enemy!" was a sign she proudly held up throughout the demonstration.
For more than an hour, Naui, Sam, and the other counterdemonstrators that came that day endured the crude insults and taunts of a bald headed white man (hereafter to be known as "Baldy") who attended OCAngel's rally. "You are my slave," he allegedly shouted to them in as loud a voice he could possibly could utter across the wide swath of pavement known as Laguna Canyon Road. Sam told me that Baldy appeared to be "obsessed" with them; he spent most of his time hurling racist, derogatory comments: "He said things like, 'Go back home! You're fucking up this country! You're making it like Tijuana!,'" she remarked.
At around 11:10 a.m, the Reverend Wiley Drake, a right-wing Baptist minister from Buena Park, walked directly across Laguna Canyon Road to interview the small handful of counterdemonstrators that had assembled along the fence. He was wearing headphones and was talking into a microphone to a Christian talkshow that was being broadcast live over internet radio. Noticing that Drake had jaywalked, a Laguna Beach policeman got pretty miffed. "Hey, what are you doing? Trying to cross the street when I wasn't looking, huh?" the officer allegedly blurted out to the Reverend, who at that time was talking with Naui and asking him if he would be interested in being interviewed. "Go back around the other side," the cop said.
Appearing a bit confused, and not wanting to ignore what he thought was a policeman's order, Drake decided to head back to OCAngel's anti-day labor center rally. But instead of jaywalking, he walked South on the public sidewalk toward the crosswalk, which was about several hundred feet away: quite a long distance. Naui followed closely behind him, with the belief the interview was going to continue, but at a different location.
It was at that moment that all hell began to break loose. According to Sam, a number of people attending the anti-day labor center protest began yelling at the top of their lungs. "He's going to assault the preacher!" she heard one person remark. "Arrest him and deport him!" another person was alleged to have shouted. Suddenly, Baldy and two other males, including Frank, a Cuban-American member of the "Save Our State" organization, unexpectedly darted out into the street in front of oncoming traffic and began running like crazy across Laguna Canyon Road. Hot on their heels were two Laguna Beach policeman. "Hey, stop!" Officer Peck was alleged to have shouted at the men, all of whom were rushing toward Naui.
Naui, who turned around quickly to see what all the commotion was about, began to fear for his life; he believed he was going to get physically attacked. He claimed Baldy had a big knife and was allegedly told by the men coming after him that "his ass was going to get kicked." But before that could happen, Officer Peck tackled Baldy to the ground with such force that it caused his eyeglasses to come flying right off of his head. His partner then pinned Baldy down. "You came here with the intention of looking for a fight, didn't you?" Officer Peck allegedly told Baldy as he began to brush himself off.
Frank, one of the men that had been running toward Naui, demanded that the policemen immediately arrest him for "attacking the preacher." But that was of no concern to the latter. Reverend Drake had been so preoccupied with his Christian talkshow that he had continued to head toward the crosswalk; he wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to anything going on behind him, witnesses say. According to Sam, Officer Peck's partner ordered Frank "to return back to the group across the street." She told Frank the same thing, to go back: he allegedly told her to shut up. A photograph of Frank standing on Laguna Canyon Road shortly after Baldy was tackled to the ground was posted by on the "Save Our State" website by occutegirl. {6}
After the two Laguna Beach policemen interrogated Baldy for a couple of minutes, they both escorted him back to his vehicle across the street, did a brief but thorough search of it, and then released him from their custody. I went across the street to OCAngel's anti-day labor center rally while it was still in progress. and took several good photographs of Baldy as he talked with Barbara Coe and mingled with some of the other protesters in attendance.
When the opportunity arose, I then interviewed him, along with Suzie Harrison, a reporter for The Coast Daily Pilot (which is owned by The Los Angeles Times). Baldy identified himself to us as Robert Floyd of Pearlblossom. He told both of us that he ran across the street for "self-defense"; he believed Naui was going to "attack the preacher," so he just darted over. "To be honest, I didn't think about the cops," Baldy remarked to me. When I asked him about allegations that he had a knife in his possession, he said, "I did not."
But the Laguna Beach Police Department had a different story to tell. Officer Peck, who took down a police report at Naui's request in the lobby of their headquarters, confirmed that Baldy had a pocket knife on him when they tackled him to the ground; but he added that it was completely legal for him to carry one that size in the State of California. In addition to that, Officer Peck said that when both he and his partner initiated a search of Baldy's vehicle, they found another knife. Officer Peck said he seized all the knives that Baldy had, but returned them to him when he left the protest. "This guy was itching for a fight," he remarked. "I kept my eye on him."
Although Naui repeatedly pressed the Laguna Beach Police Department to file criminal charges against Baldy and the two other men running after him for allegedly attempting to assault him, Officer Peck said that there wasn't anything he could do. He said Baldy couldn't be arrested for carrying an ordinary pocket knife; and that he didn't see him make an attempt to pull it out of his back pocket shortly before he tackled him to the ground. In addition to this, he also said the two other men stopped running before they did anything else illegal.
Despite some clear differences of opinion between Naui and Officer Peck, the latter did agree on one point: he would be writing up a full and detailed report on everything that occurred that Saturday morning. And that's a good thing, because when LPBD Report #05-2891 is finally made available to the general public, the evidence will show that one S.O.S. member and two avowed white supremacists allegedly tried to assault a Mexican counterdemonstrator at the July 16th rally in Laguna Beach.
End of Part I
NOTES:
{1}
OCAngel, Jul 16 2005 message posted at 08:49 PM:
http://www.saveourstate.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3209&st=120&#entry31879 {2}
OCAngel, July 15, 2005 message posted at 08:09 AM:
http://www.saveourstate.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3209&st=40 {3}
See photos posted by occutegirl and OCAngel:
http://www.saveourstate.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3209&st=80 {4}
occutegirl, Jul 16 2005 message posted at 04:04 PM
http://www.saveourstate.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3209&st=80 {5}
OCAngel, Jul 17 2005 message posted at 10:19 AM
http://www.saveourstate.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3572&st=40&hl=flaunt {6}
See the man in the street wearing a red shirt and light blue jeans.
occutegirl, Jul 16 2005 message posted at 04:04 PM:
http://www.saveourstate.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3209&st=80 