Maywood SOS protest, Round Two

There are already four updates to the post about the SOS protest in Maywood CA that saw a Mexican flag being raised over a U.S. Post Office, and the updates keep coming.

The L.A. Daily News' Bridget Johnson offers "Something's wrong with immigration protests" (also here with pictures):
...And if immigration proponents have been trying to pass off reconquista claims - the belief that immigrants want to take back "Aztlan" - as paranoid, these protesters weren't helping. One sign proclaimed "Stolen continent" - yet displayed two continents, North and South America. "White racists this is our continent" read one sign. Another said, "We will never live in peace until we get the European squatters off our lands."

...A couple of times, unwelcome people came into the counter-protesting crowd to take photos or video, and were quickly surrounded by an angry crowd and pelted with water bottles and debris. Shouts of "you little white b-" were directed at a blond woman; a man yelled "Get out of here, this is our town" through a bullhorn to others.

Some wearing lucha libre masks and some with bandannas obscuring their faces, counter-protesters tried to get close to the SOS demonstrators by cutting down side streets leading to Slauson, and were angry when the cops were already there. Others manned the front lines with signs depicting Arnold Schwarzenegger as a Nazi, chanting "Minutemen! Resist! They're the real terrorists."

Toward the end of the counter-demonstration, those protesters raised the Mexican flag on the pole in front of the U.S. Post Office. Don Silva of SOS said one woman with his group was assaulted while trying to move through the opposition crowd, and some of their cars had tires slashed and were vandalized...

...But when you have virulent protests that include a pre-teen boy yelling "f- that white b-" at a passing fair-skinned woman - me - something is seriously wrong. Especially when it comes from the side holding a banner that proclaimed "Say NO to racism."
And, WND offers pictures and links in "Mexican flag flies at U.S. post office":
The [KRLA] radio listener, volunteering for Save our State, said that when she arrived at the rally she was rushed by counter-protesters who called out, "Death to the Minutemen."

"They pushed me around and told me if I was to take one step further, they would beat the s*** out of me," Sandra said. "I looked to the back of me and there were about four police officers leaning on their vehicle just watching, doing nothing!"

As she stepped forward, Sandra said, the counter-protesters stole her sign and ripped it up as another threw water on her.

A police officer eventually escorted her to her group...
UPDATE: There's a radio interview with some of the participants here.

Comments

I defend the U.S. flag, and I'm a nut, a Mexican sympathizer and a jackass! Wow!

But I'll try once more, and I'll try to be a little plainer.

Maywood elects a city council, the city council does no more than pass (mostly on binding, "sense of the body"-type) resolutions that have been passed in other cities, notably Houston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Then a bunch of out-of-towners drag the U.S. flag (actually multiple large flags) into the city, unilaterally and without judicial process proclaim the city "lawless," and proceed to insult everyone in the town, most of their families, and their democratic process. Remember, this was announced as a protest against the City of Maywood, not against illegal immigration. They do this not, as one might think, to influence voters and engage in free speech; their avowed purpose is to cause the city to pay through its nose for police overtime and whatever. These invaders call all this "patriotism" and wrap it in the name of the U.S. flag, and announce that the citizens of Maywood "traitors."

Is that what you believe patriotism, free speech, and democratic process is or should be about? Again--terrorism, extortion, and overturning elections. It would be hard for me to get behind the U.S. flag if I thought that's what it stands for.

hey check out what is happening in mexico with Lopze Obrador who is calling out to his people to attack mexico city and setup a Red state to help take down the USA And kill Americans. but i like this guy he walks the walk and talks the talk. he will make a good enemy, and he has been setup to be just that, see alex jones.

"trying to overthrow the town's democratic government"

Wrong jackass, they were protesting the flaunting of U.S. immigration law.

ISN'T THIS FUN

11b3vq6 is dead on, but just look at mexico today the government is being ran by drug dealers and it is about to fall-a-part soon inside mexico city the population of mexico and the third world is being used against us and it is a WMD, Soon we who do not want to live under mexico and its flag and its people will have to start fighting for our! nation and its ideals against evil and mass murder, understand one fact the people of the third world are fools who love guys like bin laden and hitler and rats like castor, so understand little people we will win this coming war od life over death, long live the ideals of freedom against enslavement death to all who stand in the way of the bill of rights long live the USA. BUY GUNS BE FREE.

tol,

I've been enlisted, and I think you're wrong and a nut.
Stand with Mexico,you fool,there's a reason Mexicans are fleeing their precious country in droves. Though, I'm not sure you'll be able to figure it out.

-SDH

I am appalled at the MISUSE of the U.S. flag, and I hope any patriotic veteran would be, too. A bunch of zealots drag their flags out of their attics and haul them off to some U.S. town they've never been to. Then they march around tthat town trying to overthrow the town's democratic government, they insult and threaten the people and their families, they deliberately attempt to bankrupt the town, and then they leave, all the while claiming they're more patriotic than the town's residents. Most U.S. citizens now understand that attempting terrorism, extortion, and overthrowing elected governments under the U.S. flag only diminishes that flag. There's your PR for you.

If any of you think that's what the U.S. flag is for, then I suggest you enlist. The U.S. has a couple of wars of aggression for you--full-blown wars, not just little attack and retreat forays with the police protecting you--and you get to wear the flag on your sleeve.

Mexicans are standing up against vote fraud, against government land grabs, and I don't see Mexico taking over the middle east country by country. U.S. citizens are cowering in their middle class homes with their martinis, taking out their frustrations on their neighbors (like Maywood). If a flag stands for the people (and not the government), then I know which people I admire more.