The Save Our State group held an anti-illegal immigration protest in Maywood, California earlier today. According to various posts in their forums (1,2) there were allegedly a few incidents, including:

- An elderly couple being swarmed and having to go into an auto parts store and then be escorted out by police to avoid the crowd... (picture at one of the links)

- One of their female members being roughed up...

- Several of their cars being vandalized with spray paint and given flat tires.

And, at this link you can see a picture of the Mexican flag being raised over the Maywood Post Office, as in United States Post Office.

As it says in the front page (no permalink yet) of la.indymedia.org: "Sat., 2:00pm Counter-protesters raise Mexican flag up Maywood post office flag pole Caller reports 100 counters and 30 SOS-MM still facing off in Maywood near post office. A small group of counters have replaced the US flag at Maywood post office with a Mexican flag. Police tried to pull the Mexican flag down but the ropes got stuck and it still flies at this time."

In the pictures, the "counters" are seen with the usual banners from ANSWER LA and from various reconquista groups ("White racists this is out continent", "We are Indigenous! The ONLY owners of this continent", etc.)

Reading these reports I'm continuously reminded of this John Derbyshire summary of what he was told by someone involved with immigration enforcement:

Grass roots immigration-enforcement groups: They are babes in the wood. The La Raza types run rings round them. They easily fall into factional squabbling. They attract kooky fringe types, and don't know how to get rid of them. The enemy has all the heavy artillery: AILA, Republican elites, pretty much the entire Democratic Party (though there were some kind words for James Webb), all the media, the universities, etc.

SOS might indeed have some fringe members, and they also have a problem with realizing who the real enemy is. It isn't the "Mexica Movement". Rather, it's those in the "mainstream" who come close to their views, such as Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa or state Senator Gil Cedillo. And, it includes those who shelter or lie about such groups, such as the media.

They complain in their forums that a KABC reporter didn't want to cover one of their members supposedly getting shoved around. Leaving aside the question of why they let one of their female members get into that situation in the first place, shouldn't they have been videotaping everything that went on? And, shouldn't they also have videotaped the KABC reporter refusing to cover this matter? Shouldn't they be trying to discredit those in the mainstream who are the ones with actual power instead of engaging in low-level street protests with loonies and Communists?

UPDATE: There are more pictures here from the L.A. Daily News' Bridget Johnson. There are more pictures here: tinyurl.com/ft8wn Note the resulting link; unless I misunderstood the rest of his posts, that may be one of those on the fringe mentioned above.

UPDATE 2: Still more pictures at this far-left site: tinyurl.com/htogl and tinyurl.com/j8a5y (SapphoManifesto). From the second link: "...the Mexican flag is raised, & refuses to come down, even for Maywood police! In pic # 2, the crowd of pro-immigrant rights supporters reacts with cheers as they watch the new flag wave..."

UPDATE 3: There's a clear picture of the Mexican flag flying over a United States Post Office here. A commenter points to a KCBS video report which he says is biased (and he's probably right). If it is, contact them here: cbs2.com/contact. LA Opinion has a fairly stock article, here's a translation:

[...ANSWER is an "antiwar" group... one of the counter-protestors says:] "They dare to come here to Maywood that is a sanctuary, where the mayor declared itself against the racist laws, and come to say to us that we do not have to be here... They think that they can say to him to people that is illegal, when it is a right of humans to look for a better life." ...While the demonstrators of the side of minutemen them observed from the other end of the barrier, several people raised a Mexican flag in the post of the post office, causing shouts and applause of the side of the immigrants and curses on the part of their opponents, who waved American flags.

UPDATE 4: What a productive protest. There's a video of the Mexican flag flying here. I only watched the beginning; the sound is bad and includes one or more people on the SOS side making a lot of noise rather than, for instance, trying to catch the sounds of the other side cheering or saying things. There may be some of that later on in the video. And, someone who claims to be a cop who was there left a comment in the SOS forums; a copy is here:

...About the parking situation, the original plan was to have everyone park in the grocery store parking lot. Unfortunately, the store's manager was on the side of your foes and would not cooperate... The city council is out of control in Maywood. There are 2 good councilmen and 3 bad ones. The leader is the Vice Mayor. He takes all his orders from the church. The police dept pretty much has its hands tied. They did disband the traffic unit by order of the city council. They do still impound cars but can't put the state's mandatory 30 day hold on them. Another agency has been enforcing traffic laws and impounding cars. The city has no authority over their officers. The city council is now drafting a plan to move from being a general law city to being a charter law city. For those of you that don’t understand the ramifications of this, here it is. Under a city charter, the city council makes all the decisions. Nothing has to be voted on by the people. The police officers can lose civil service rights. This will make them 'at will' employees. Can you see a cop getting fired for enforcing the law on one of the city's migrant children. This sounds like a tyranny to me. By the way, in case you didn't know, the Vice Mayor was at the demonstration. Guess which side he was on...

UPDATE 5: See "Maywood SOS protest, Round Two".