Fort Lauderdale Tea Party

[sig226]

The Fort Lauderdale Tea Party was held in front of the Federal COurthouse on Broward Boulevard this afternoon. I got there at 4:30. It was supposed to start at 5:00, but there was already a good crowd. Lots of bemused (and bored) looking Broward County Sheriff's deputies attended. I honestly did not know that my county had that many horses. There must have been 25 mounted officers.

So let's get to the pictures. Liberals claim that conservative women look like Helen Thomas. The ones I saw did not look, or act like some liberal slug.

The lady in the red t-shirt had one of the best signs.

Plenty of young people attended.

This picture was taken on Third Street, away from the main group.

The sign says, "Wake up America. We're losing!"
Plenty of black men and women attended, too.


Allen West stopped on Third Street to speak with a lady about supporting Israel.

I thought this guy had the best sign.

A small group of hippes were waving silly signs on the south side of Broward Boulevard. Midway through the presentation, they decided to march up to the stage and make noises. To their chagrin, they learned that conservatives have got hold of their Saul Alinsky readers. The hippies were immediately surrounded and shouted down with a roaring "USA!" chant. I was about six feet away and I took a picture. All I got was the backs of a bunch of tea partiers. The counter protesters were invisible.

I have one last picture. Note the condition of the ground. I estimated 2,000 people, and I couldn't see the whole crowd and I'm not good at crowd estimating.

[Brugmansian]

That is a terrific photo. Do you have other versions of it? More information on the altercation?

[sig226]

It’s a news picture. I can say that I watched the stoners/ antis when they were on the corner across the street with a small counter protest. There were maybe a dozen of them. Allen West spoke, then I left the stage area with a friend so we could talk and meet some other friends in the crowd.

We saw the hippies march in a group up to the edge of the stage. One had a drum, a couple of others were banging on pots and pans. They started chanting at the edge of the stage and the tea partiers immediately surrounded them and chanted USA over their comments. I walked over to try to get a picture of it, but it was like the counter protestors weren’t even there. They were invisible. So my friend and I walked away again, over to his wife and her friend, and also his pastor.

Several minutes went by, then the entire group of counter protestors skulked away with their shoulders drooping and without banging the drum and the pots and pans. A few federal police officers were standing on the building entrance above the speakers’ platform. We were on the steps of the federal courthouse, so the federal security (real cops) were there. They could see down into the crowd. I’m guessing that they saw the altercation get heated and contacted the Broward Sheriffs, who told the counter protestors to leave.