Men With Bats Allegedly Attack Picketer Attackers Flee When Security Guard Shoots Gun Into Air

KNBC Chanel 4 Website ^ | 11/10/2003 | NBC Channel 4, Los Angeles

[Smogger]

POSTED: 7:06 a.m. PST November 10, 2003 UPDATED: 10:08 a.m. PST November 10, 2003

LOS ANGELES -- Several men, some brandishing bats, confronted picketers outside a strike-bound Albertsons market in Laguna Niguel, Calif., sending a 21-year-old man to the hospital, authorities said Monday.

Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said five males showed up outside the market at 30241 Golden Lantern St. about 10:20 p.m. Sunday and taunted the strikers, challenging them to fight.

Three of them carried bats and began beating a 21-year-old striker, Amormino said, adding that the assailants fled when a security guard fired shots in the air.

The victim was taken to a hospital suffering from facial abrasions and a possible concussion, Amormino said.

Two juveniles are in custody in connection with the attack, but police are continuing to search for three or four more teenage boys between the ages of 16 and 18 are outstanding, according to Amormino.

[Smogger]

Looks like the security guard used restraint in not shooting AT the assailants.

Just another day in in violence ridden Laguna Niguel.

: P

[First_Salute]

Union thugs beat up union member; to make news; yet, no news here.

[Political Junkie Too]

Three of them carried bats and began beating a 21-year-old striker, Amormino said, adding that the assailants fled when a security guard fired shots in the air.

Clearly, the security guard is at fault and should be prosecuted. According the the Col. West rules of engagement, the guard was wrong to terrorize the attackers by firing his gun in a harmless way.

-PJ

[looscnnn]

Thank god that the anti-gunners have not taken all the guns away, it could have been worse.

What would have done, grab his finger, turn around and yell "this thing is loaded, don't make me use it!"? Would that be using a biological or chemical weapon? Wouldn't the enviornazis have a major fit about adding to the ozone hole? Wait a minute, isn't one side effect of being a vegan being "gassy"?

[South40]

After having a male picketer deliberately step in front of me and block my entrance to Ralph's I've made a point to cross the picket lines often.

I had heard the strikers decided to leave Ralph's so I went down to cross the line one more time before they did. In a conversation I had with one woman she told me when they leave Ralph's they're all going to Albertson's. So now I shop at Albertson's; I was there yesterday. They had signs saying "Don't criticize what you don't understand". I told them I understand fully; they're a bunch of spoiled punks who should keep their greivences with their employer between them and their employer and stop trying to drag the public into it. Not a one had an answer to that.

[Prime Choice]

I guess they wanted Peanut Butter Jelly to go with their Baseball Bat?

[Redwood71]

Interesting that they didn't call them assault bats, arrest the security guard for openning fire, or say the assailants fled in an SUV. Then they could have touched all the bases.

[Clemenza]

Laguna Niguel? Didn't he used to play for the Cincinatti Reds?

[thinktwice]

It's my hope that those impairing business at their employers's shop are never allowed to enter that business again.

They are biting the hand that fed them.

[Prime Choice]

They had signs saying "Don't criticize what you don't understand". I told them I understand fully; they're a bunch of spoiled punks who should keep their greivences with their employer between them and their employer and stop trying to drag the public into it. Not a one had an answer to that.

What they don't understand is that the rest of us have had to pay into our health care plans since the 1980s, even single people like I was then.

I know one guy who works in defense who worked as a stock boy for a grocery line to pay his way through college. He actually took a pay cut when he quit his stocking job went to work in aerospace programming!

[South40]

The most striking comment I've heard was when one FReeper posted a comparison showing that grocery workers, on average, make more than do our troops risking thier lives in Iraq. That's going to be my next comeback when I'm confronted entering Alberson's again.

I noticed also...something quite interesting. The strikers had 3 or 4 ice chests with them to which they directed an elderly woman when she offered a donation. Seems they don't want you to shop there but if you do they'll gladly take any food items you're willing to donate. That they see nothing wrong with that speaks volumes on their cluelessness.

[weegee]

Clearly, the security guard is at fault and should be prosecuted. According the the Col. West rules of engagement, the guard was wrong to terrorize the attackers by firing his gun in a harmless way.

Maybe the security guard was celebrating. In some areas, people fire guns into the air to celebrate. Of course, sometimes innocent people are hit by bullets from such "celebrations".

[Political Junkie Too]

Maybe.

In California, where the gun laws are so tight that only Senator Diane Feinstein can carry, I'm sure somebody will argue that it is ethnic persecution to prevent Middle Easterners from shooting guns in the air. Therefore, only Middle Eastern Californians will be allowed to carry guns.

-PJ

[woofer2425]

Gee..I wonder...Can they court marshall him like Col West in Iraq?

[navyblue]

I think you all have missed an important point here. The strikers, whether you agree with them or not, have a legal right to withhold their labor and demonstrate. If you don't approve, go to a non striking market. Nobody is stopping you.

But what I see as important here is that it appears that Albertsons is hiring "goon squads" to attack its employees. Isn't it always said that kind of tactic is to be expected from the unions? I guess management is just as guilty, right?

But I guess baseball bats will never equal the machine guns that Rockefeller used on his striking miners in Ludlow, CO back in the early twentieth century. You youngsters who know nothing about U.S. labor history wouldn't know anything about that, would you?

[ridesthemiles]

Good for you. I used to be a grocery checker in So Cal many many years ago. I actually sat in a meeting where the Votes were counted as to whether or not to strike.
The vote was not enough to strike, but close. The UNION dudes pronounced a strike anyway. Was out of work for long enough to have had enough.

When the same group went on strike here in N Cal about 9 years ago, I tried to go to the store. They were more than agressive, trying to stop shoppers from even entering the parking area for a total of 7 stores, not just the grocery store. I was so pissed- rain and all- that I marched into the grocery store and found the manager. I told him I was an experienced checker and I would work as much and as soon as he needed me. He put me to work that afternoon, and for about 2 weeks, near Easter time. ( Much easier to check these days with the electronic scanning and the codes on all the produce. We had to read and call the prices when I used to be a checker, and we had to learn the produce!!)
There are a great number of employees and self-employed workers that have NO health insurance, and these jerks are striking about $5/wk premium for themselves and $15/wk for their families. I would be very happy to pay only $5/wk for health insurance since I have none at all.
This time, I think they have gotten themselves in too deep, and there will be alot of unemployed workers when this is all over. I see self-checking checkstands on the horizon, which will need NO UNION worker at all. One of the really cheap food chains in the area has no box persons, you bag your own...and the patrons know that going in the door. Gelsons and the high end stores will still be expensive and high end, but the average market will undergo big changes very soon. Wal-Mart is coming into Calif with their Super Centers which sell food, also, and they ARE NOT union. I never got any bad groceries from the Wal-Marts I shopped in during a long trip in 2001.
The union auto workers in South Bend, Indiana, are still wondering when Studebaker is coming back to town. JMO.

[Dacus943]

When Bats are outlawed... Only Outlaws will have Bats!!!

[ASA Vet]

This punks were in the act of beating a person, not in the custody of the guard.
But you knew that.

[EternalVigilance]

I bet they were those nasty 'Assault Bats' too...

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

...call them assault bats...

Semi-automatic assault bats that can get through metal detectors.

AAAckkkkk!!!!!