Conversations With The Mob: An After-FReep Report

[AnnaZ]

 

 

 

We had to drive past the protest site twice. We thought it was going to be a rally site. We were mistaken. It was around seven-thirty a.m.

 

On the second lap we frenziedly scanned the signs and faces for something or someone familiar, or friendly, for Old Glory, anything. "There! I saw a freerepublic sign!" exclaimed HangFire. And ties. Ours was the only group with ties. We were seriously outnumbered.

 

We parked the car and walked to the intersection, a little nervously, yet HangFire still boldly unfurling his American flag. Ahead of us a man trod upon his.

 

We met up with the rest of Free Republic's LA Chapter: The Hollywood Resistance Force. RonDog and Tony in Hawaii* (*but not really, I guess) looked great in their ties, and they were flanked by diotima, Bob J, DoughtyOne, Floratina and daviddennis (and a couple of people whose names I didn't catch). feinswinesuksass showed up shortly thereafter. We were lucky. doug from upland, although also present, never found us.

 

Around three hundred protesters dwarfed and engulfed our small but valiant team. The mob filled the three open corners and sidewalks at the intersection of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards, site of The Regency Club where President George W. Bush was to be headlining a campaign fundraiser for California's next Governor, Bill Simon.

 

 

~~~

 

 

                Diotima: I fear for my country.

 

To our left (no pun intended) lots of young, attractive, mostly white people, voluntarily burqha'd it seemed with sweatshirt hoods over their heads and bandanas obscuring their faces from the eyes down, carried signs proclaiming various forms of communist rhetoric and condemning harshly all things Bush -- truth need not always apply. Our other flank was the unions-and-their-lackeys stronghold. Same signs.

 

                Diotima: They hate my sign.

 

One side of it read: HONK 4 SIMON. But it was the other side of it that she was referring to, the side she was holding aloft as she was walking up and down the sidewalk, holding it above the heads of the protesters: OSAMA FAN CLUB.

 

A Young, Handsome Tho' Misguided Protester (YMP) approaches.

 

                YMP: Hey, you know your sign's not fair. You shouldn't have that sign.

 

                A FReeper: She's using her sharp and biting wit.

 

                YMP: But she's misrepresenting us.

 

                Diotima: No, I'm not. That's what you are.

 

                A FReeper: What do you care, you outnumber us 30 to 1.

 

                YMP: But she's misrepresenting our message. That's not what we're saying.

 

                Diotima: But that's what I'm saying.

 

He shuffles off.

 

 

~~~

 

 

Another Young, Handsome Tho' Misguided Protester (YMP2) approaches.

 

                YMP2: You shouldn't have that sign.

 

                Diotima: Yeah, well I still have my freedom of speech, buddy, you haven't taken that away. Yet.

 

 

~~~

 

 

                Young, Pretty Tho' Misguided Protester: I don't know... I just don't think I like Bush but I think it's like really cool

                    that we all like have our freedom of speech.

 

She smiles.

 

 

~~~

 

 

Another Young, Handsome Tho' Misguided Protester (YMP3) approaches, handing out flyers.

 

                YMP3: Come see my show.

 

                A FReeper: What is it advocating?

 

                YMP3: A new State.

 

                A FReeper: What kind of state?

 

                YMP3: A better State.

 

                A FReeper: Based on what... because if you can come up with something better than the US Constitution you win a

                    really big prize.

 

                YMP3: The Communist Manifesto?

 

                A FReeper: Bzzzzt. Wrong answer. Tried, failed, and the millions of corpses'll prove it to you.

 

He shuffles off.

 

 

~~~

 

 

The President's motorcade arrives. Chants begin. Bob J and DoughtyOne use bullhorns to mess with their intonements. Where were these people when we were bombing Yugoslavia?

 

About ten minutes or so later we decide to go for breakfast together and begin to walk past the crowd to Denny's.

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

                AngryUnattractiveSpittlingVietnamProtestHoldover: Bee-atches for Bush!

 

 

~~~

 

 

Later, two men are in an idling station wagon in the parking lot as we are on our way out. They were seen earlier in the viewfinder of daviddennis' XL-1 at breakfast as we watched the replay of them repeatedly giving the camera the finger.

 

                BlondeMale: Oh, it's "Luvya Dubya" girl.

 

                OtherMale: Are you a native of California?

 

                A FReeper: No, I'm a political refugee of the socialist democracy of Canada. I'm trying to save California from a

                    similar fate.

 

                HangFire: I'm half Native American... I go back I don't know how many generations. And leftist liberal loser policies

                    are destroying this State.

 

                OtherMale: You're a traitor to your own people. They used to worship the oil when it was in the ground, they

                    were thankful for it.

 

                A FReeper: What the heck are you talking about?

 

                BlondeMale: Yeah, and now you and Bush are pumping all that oil and spraying it in the air and causing all these

                    earthquakes.

 

                A FReeper: What?!

 

                HangFire: Uh huh. Well you just keep telling yourself that as you drive home in your car, okay?

 

They drive off, the BlondeMale repeatedly spitting through the passenger side window as they exit stage left.

 

 

 

---

 

 

We should never be that outnumbered. Where were the GOP people? The Simon people? An eighty-year old lady had joined us only because she had heard doug from upland on one of his many announcements on local AM radio yesterday.

 

FReepers do things that heretofore were solely the domain of the Left. Our side needs to learn. It's time for all of us to Network.

 

---

 

Pictures forthcoming.

 

 

[SteelTrap]

I agree. Back during the Florida fiasco, I made the trip to downtown Dallas to participate in a counter-protest so the Gorons wouldn't have the streets all to themselves. We Freepers were outnumbered but we were competitive! Two of the three local network affiliates led with the observation that our presence was a shock to the other side; they had not counted on us being there and they sure as he|| didn't expect us to try to beat them at their own game! Oh the warm feeling inside when the 6 O'clock news ran footage showing the leader of the Gorons maniacally pulling a Bush/Cheney sign out of the open window of a passing car. Not the image they were aiming for I'm sure. Besides, if we weren't there, who would have held up the Sore Loserman signs?

[glock rocks]

you've never gotten over it, have you bill.
and you are going to drag everyone who runs into you over the rest of your sad life
into wondering just what it is.
did it ever occur to you that few give a shit?

[MinuteGal]

Sadly, one of the most prevalent phrases on FR activism threads since GW was elected is "Congratulations on the great freep, wish I could have been there."

Leni

[Little Bill]

'Pod

Most people don't realize it is not the commies we are trying to sway, it is those walking by. One articulate person with a sign can make a difference.

[GmbyMan]

This sounds incredible! The pictures are great! Just for the record, I live in Victorville and I work nights so it would have been difficult for me to get there to LA. I'm new to Free Republic but I REALLY, REALLY want to go to your next "Freep"! I may not be able to make it but I don't just "wish I were there", I am kicking myself for not being there.

A counter protest, eh? Other than Pro-Lifers, I didn't think us on the right had it in us. It appears that I was wrong!

[DoughtyOne]

I like your post but didn't see the attractive people you were refering to. As for that woman, she was doing good to balance on two feet let alone express a coherent thought.

[Libertina]

FReepers ROCK BUMP!


Anna Z, excellent FReep report - especially the conversations you relayed and I'm glad to see all you FReepers looking so intent in the pictures - despite hangin' in the vicinity of the Great Unwashed and Uneducated :) The Washington Puget Sound chapter had a party & potluck today so I was late returning home and getting on FR, but kudos to you all.!

[Musket]

Nice report-both of them. THANKS! I wish we could just dump them all in one state--say New Mexico-- and be rid of them!

[nutmeg]

Great FReep, great pics! Thank you, patriots!

Diotima - brilliant idea to infiltrate the enemy camp with the 'Osama Fan Club' sign! ;-D

nutmeg & zelig

[nutmeg]

Welcome to Free Republic. FReeps are amazing! (We've done a bunch in the recent past out here on the east coast.) Hope you can make future FReeps.

nutmeg & zelig

[daviddennis]

As many of you know, I brought my Canon XL1 MiniDV camcorder to the event. I am presently going through something like 150 different shots to have my event video ready. It will probably take much of tomorrow before it's ready -- but it will be worth it!

I just wanted to let you folks know that I was still alive and haven't forgotten my promise to get the video up.

Hope you'll enjoy it when it's ready!

D

[DoughtyOne]

To be honest, I'm not against holding my own in a confrontation. But doing so with 30-40 to 1 odds, just isn't prudent. We had AnnaZ, Diotima, AnnaZ's two children, and an 85 year old lady on our side. The last thing I wanted to do was start something that would have jeopardized them too. Then there's the problem with some of the folks who were causing the problems. One was a 5'6" female black who probably weighted in excess of 150.

As I tried to use the bullhorn she became angry and kept trying to put her fact up to mine in order to yell through it. After several minutes of her shoving and putting her face in mine, I turned the bullhorn torward her and continued chanting. I would imagine her brain is still vibrating from the experience.

This took her completely by surprise. She was forced to back off to about three feet and place her poster between her and myself for relief. Not to be stopped from her nonsensical behavior, she then moved closer placing her posters right up against the bullhorn. Then she lowered them and used one hand to shove the bullhorn into my face cutting my lip. This is what I had expected to happen all morning. Finally it occurred.

The problem with this type of sitution is that I could have easily responded by decking the twit, but you can't win one of these so it's best to just forget it. I told her I'd appreciate if she wouldn't push the bullhorn in my face and let it drop.

My lip was puffy and bled a little bit, nothing really serious. It wasn't worth creating an incident, but it was an assult. I could have tried to give the woman grief over it by reporting it to the closest officer, but I didn't.

About ten minutes later this same woman approached me with an oversided cup of some coffee based drink saying, "I oughta throw this on you. You deserve it. You did't even appologize." By this time I had already turned and walked away from her several times, so you know what, I appologized. About this time one of the organizers of the other side made a half-assed attempt to get her to back off, which she finally did.

Any guy out there knows you never win one of these situations with a woman. She could take out an 36" sword and cut your arm off, but if you retaliated it would be "your" fault. The only thing the group would notice was that you took advantage of a woman.

I don't like being put in that position. You have to have a lot of patience. I think AnnaZ and a few of the others didn't have quite the problem I did because they weren't driving the other side nuts with a bullhorn. Those bullhorns can really even the numbers if yours is five times louder than theirs. And mine is. It was driving them crazy that I was stating, "Hey hey ho ho, Governor Davis has got to go!" and "$6 billion dollar surplus to a $24 billion dollar deficit in just four years, where's the $30 billion Governor Davis?" and "The state budget was $65 billion four years ago, today it's over $100 billion, that's a 54% increase in just four years governor Davis!"

Evidently the other side agreed that a few chump comments about Tax evasion didn't carry the same weight. LOL, these folks are brain dead.

[DoughtyOne]

Yep, communism has never worked anywhere it has been tried. It's people must be fenced in just to keep them from fleeing the system. Yep, it's the answer alright. That's quite typical of the thought processes of these people.

[WaterDragon]

Fantastic, Fabulous, FReepers!

[Skeet]

Bumped for later comment (Late for Church). You guys rock.

[Drango]

SF Bay Area BUMP for the south land!

[HangFire]

Great FReeping with you yesterday! Looking forward to the pics;-)

[Barset]

Thank you and other Freepers for standing tall.

[doug from upland]

HERE IS THE ENEMY AMONG US

[Bob J]

You got it Steeltrap. We can't let the naysayes and keyboard cowboys get us down! Even if they apparently are from our own side!