Posted on 10/16/2005 9:21:36 PM PDT by chicagolady
Five demonstrators were arrested Saturday during a raucous protest in Arlington Heights after they clashed with police, who quickly called in about 150 additional officers -- many in riot gear with helmets and shields.
No one was seriously injured in the confrontation outside a meeting of the Chicago Minuteman Project, a group pushing for tougher restrictions on illegal immigrants.
The five people were arrested after they allegedly scuffled with police officers trying to remove about a dozen demonstrators blocking an entrance to the Christian Liberty Academy, where the Minuteman Project was meeting, Arlington Heights Police Sgt. Robert Murray said.
Some bottles and other objects were thrown at police during the clash, which erupted about 11 a.m., Murray said. About 20 officers on the scene called for assistance, prompting a rapid response that saw about 150 more officers from surrounding suburbs arrive to help end the disturbance.
The arrested were charged with resisting arrest and battery, both misdemeanors.
'Two unreasonable factions'
They were identified by police as Chicago residents Cynthia L. Gomez, 29; Kara K. Norlander, 23; Rehana Khan, 23; Eric W. Zenke, 18, and Marco A. Quiroz-Rojas, 29.
All were released from custody after posting $100 bail.
"Our actions were justified," Norlander said afterward. "Five people were arrested in a deliberate attempt to protest these people planning to hunt and trap immigrants."
The arrested were among about 400 demonstrators from a variety of groups protesting the meeting, authorities said.
Most of the protesters were from the Coalition of African, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois, a group that favors progressive immigration reform. That group opposes what it calls the "racist'' and "vigilante'' tactics of the Minuteman Project, which in other states has trained volunteers to patrol U.S. borders and report illegal immigrants.
The demonstrators arrested weren't from the coalition, organizer Khem Nuth said. "It was meant to be a peaceful protest,'' he said. "We're glad no one got hurt."
The confrontation triggering the arrests happened after several members of the Minuteman Project briefly came to the door to argue with protesters and tell them to leave the property.
I admit sometimes it is hard!
The speakers were great warm wonderful folks. What a great movement I am in. Most have their eye on the goal for the cause. After the conference we went out for dinner and I sat with a fine fellow. Kevin Fobbs and his wife.
It took a lot of work to organize, and it was all worth it.
Immigration Ping!!
I dunno what they're all bent out of shape about.
Hell, it's a catch-and-release program.
Moonbats are every where.
Ping
Minuteman Ping!
It is a Christian school. It is called Christian Liberty.
We will probably hear about it Monday!!
Protest march leads to arrests
500 gather outside meeting of self-styled border patrolers
By Jon Davis
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Sunday, October 16, 2005
About 500 people marched in Arlington Heights Saturday to protest a group fighting illegal immigration, in what led to five arrests and the shutdown of several streets for hours as 150 riot gear-clad police officers stood by to keep the peace.
Picketers said the Chicago Minuteman Project, a local branch of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps — a private group that patrols the United States-Mexico border — is anti-immigrant and racist because it specifically focuses on Mexican immigrants.
Five protesters were arrested on misdemeanor charges and later released on bond.
Those attending what was billed as the “America First Summit” Saturday at Christian Liberty Academy, 502 W. Euclid Ave., said they’re not racist but that they’re worried about lax border security and the economic impact of illegal immigration.
“We need secure borders; we’re a country at war,” said Rosanna Pulido of Chicago, a co-founder of the Chicago Minuteman Project. “We have a big problem here in Chicago and in Illinois.”
Bill Zars/Daily Herald
Arlington Heights police take away a protester in front of riot police Saturday during a meeting of the Chicago Minuteman Project at Christian Liberty Academy.
Nadia Ramirez of Des Plaines, who marched with the Coalition of African, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois, didn’t buy that argument.
“They’re not terrorists,” Ramirez said of Mexican immigrants. “They’re coming here to make a living.”
Most of the protesters were peaceful, if loud, shouting slogans through bullhorns and banging on drums. But a small group of “anarchists” came looking for trouble, Arlington Heights Police Sgt. Richard Marcinkowski said.
That trouble began when protesters tried to block people from entering a school door on Walnut Avenue. As officers tried to move them out of the way, protesters linked arms and a scuffle ensued.
Officers retreated and called for reinforcements from the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System, which sent more than 100 officers from Deerfield, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Glencoe, Lake Bluff, Lincolnshire, Palatine, Schaumburg, Skokie and Wheeling.
Police also closed several blocks of Euclid, Ridge and Walnut avenues to traffic and posted camouflage-clothed spotters on the academy’s roof.
Marcinkowski said police planned to arrest the people who were trying to block the school entrance. But when five busloads of people arrived at 11 a.m. for their own protest, “some people learned they were targeted for arrest and tried to leave the area” by blending in with more peaceful marchers, he said.
When police did move in at 11:45 a.m., while the crowd marched west along Euclid Avenue, a riot almost broke out as officers pulled two women out of the crowd while other marchers screamed, “Let them go!” and stepped into the street.
Marcinkowski said some of the Minutemen baited protesters by demanding to use the Walnut Avenue entrance even though several other doors were available. “In my opinion, we had two unreasonable factions here, and we were caught in the middle,” he said.
“We were there to protest the racist Minutemen” and ask U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk whether he supports the Minutemen because of his votes in favor of the Patriot Act, Real ID Act, and a law requiring local police departments to fight illegal immigration, Nuth said.
“I don’t know how much of that was lost because of what happened today,” she said. “We wanted to let the community know that we protested the Minutemen being there, and I think that message was sent.”
Matt Towson, a spokesman for Kirk, said the Wilmette Republican “has no comment on the Minuteman Project.” Kirk, a Naval Reserve intelligence officer, was on duty at the Pentagon and could not be reached directly for comment.
Arrested Saturday for battery and resisting arrest were Cynthia L. Gomez, 28, Rehana F. Kahn, 23, Kara K. Norlander, 23, Marco A. Quiroz-Rojas, 29, and Eric W. Zenke, 18, all of Chicago. All were released after posting $100 bail. Their court dates are all Dec. 1 at the courthouse in Rolling Meadows.
Good or bad ya think?
"Our actions were justified," Norlander said afterward. "Five people were arrested in a deliberate attempt to protest these people planning to hunt and trap immigrants."
It never fails to amuse what these people think; they really believe that minutemen are planning on meeting to discuss how to shoot at or collect people for prize like animals?
The rights afforded to people may be no better than animals in certain places in Latin America, but here in the US, people are not treated like animals even those who break laws, such as illegal immigrants.
Ironically unlike the US, trespassers are hunted like animals in Latin America and shot on site for things like immigration violations. Also, unlike Latin America people in the US have rights to free speech, but these very rights that we have here in the US, these people get away with criticizing and spinning a story in the media that what is happing here is wrong, and this place should be more inclusive of the culture and customs of socialist / communist Latin America?
Bye-bye go back under the bridge...
Pics!
*WARNING! Site is Liberal, Communist, Anarchist and anti-US*
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/64231/index.php
“They’re not terrorists,” Ramirez said of Mexican immigrants. “They’re coming here to make a living.”
Seems like the hijackers too came here to make a living, how else could they afford rent and a place to plan the destruction?
What does making a living that have to do with anything that would negate the argument; illegal immigrants have no background checks, can be criminals, and if anything are economic terrorists forcing socialist governmental policies in the form of higher taxes to the legal residents of the US?
In before the zot!
Did the Rats pry your "sarcasm" key off your keyboard?
Most of our ancestors were LEGAL immigrants. No one in any group that I've ever heard of is protesting, trapping, hunting or even looking for legal immigrants, just the ILLEGAL ones.
Go back to your cage, DUmmy.
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