Posted on 03/26/2006 5:54:35 PM PST by EternalVigilance
Blaring car horns, racist slurs and angry fisticuffs punctuated a volatile encounter of protesters and counter-protesters Saturday morning outside Bank Calumet.
"God bless America! Stay out of our business!" yelled members of the locally based Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement.
"Go home (expletive) Nazi racists!" yelled members of an opposing group of circling counterprotesters.
The federation, a public interest organization advocating what it calls immigration policies with an impact, demonstrated against bank loans for undocumented aliens, echoing six similar previous local protests.
Several members of the Chicago Minuteman Project joined the federation, hoisting protest signs to passing motorists and exchanging verbal jabs with visibly angry counterprotesters.
"We're not racists, we're LEGAL Americans," Minuteman members yelled under American flags whipping in a fierce wind. "Those people are Communists."
The counterprotesters -- some from the Progressive Labor Party of Chicago, others from Purdue University Calumet or there on their own -- chanted in bilingual defiance: "¡Obreros unidos jamas seran vencidos!" or, "Workers united will never be defeated!"
Susana Findley, a Gary native whose parents were born in Mexico, said illegal immigrant workers arrived here for the same reason federation members' ancestors arrived: To find work and a better life.
"But those racist immigrants forget about that," said Findley, nodding toward the federation's camp.
Several counterprotesters arrived earlier than the scheduled 10 a.m. federation protest, setting up shop at the corner of Calumet Avenue and Ridge Road.
When 63-year-old Chicago Minuteman member Rick Biesada arrived and pulled out his protest sign, he claimed that two counterprotesters yanked it from him. When he yanked it back, the men assaulted him, knocking him to the ground, he said.
The Lindenhurst, Ill., resident was treated by paramedics at the scene for a gash over his eye and dizziness, spending a few minutes inside an ambulance before returning to the protest.
"I wished he fell to the ground harder," Findley said.
Munster police Sgt. Nick Hudak, one of several officers showing up to stand between the opposing groups, said no arrests were made and no other injuries occurred.
Protesters on both sides said the escalating debate over U.S. House Bill 4437, the so-called Border Security bill, may have inflamed the controversy of offering bank loans to illegal aliens.
The bill, which would strengthen enforcement of existing immigration laws and enhance border security, has already passed the House and could be voted on by the Senate as early as this week.
Federation co-founder and Valparaiso resident Cheree Calabro, while passing out fliers to motorists, said similar demonstrations at Bank Calumet had no such problems with counterprotesters.
"I think they're feeling more emboldened with all the national protests (supporting illegal immigration)," said Calabro, whose group is the Indiana chapter of the national Minuteman Project.
You seem to be p!ssing off a lot of FReepers here. Bad judgement. IMOHO
There's a lot of that going around these days. I don't know why. Some must think it's cool.
i thought this was a meritocracy, not based on seniority
I think you're a pretty recent retread troll, trying to mask who you are with your little lower case juvenile game.
we arent going to have a civilwar here, that is nonsense...and to say it is as dangerous as Islam is profoundly ignorant...there is not one ounce of similarity between latin american culture and islamic culture.
I agree. He's not too bright. Surprised the kitties are not trolling the troll.
Ha ha. You'd have been out the door in five minutes if this was a meritocracy!
To you, Ms. Troll, I did not compare the Latin American and Islamic cultures. I compared the danger to this nation.
That picture says it all. Trampleing the flag to intimidate and silence (with a fist) all opposition to their illegal act.
i dont know why you would say that:
I:
never said anything pro-illegal immigrant
but i dont think it is a big a threat as Islam
I do have a good read of history and somethign tells me that if hundreds of thousands of peopel were protesting for illegal immigration, then they arent to afraid of any retaliation
4437 will not pass the senate, Reid will filibuster
there is nothing but a realistic view point here.
None of the crap you are spewing from that piehole of yours has any merit. Your better off on DU where the lack of merit is the norm.
this is no comprable danger to this nation...go study what is happening in France and I dont mean the simple buring of cars...there is nothing like Sharia in latin america..sharia is being imposed in france, mexican law is not being imposed here...there are entire areas of Paris that even the french police will not go to...no such places exist in the USA...there is no fundamentalism and idealogy behind mexican immigration, there is with islamic immigration...Aztlan and those other wacko hispanic militant groups have less support with hispanic than the black panthers did in 1969-70 with black americans
why do you say I am from DU???
what am I saying that is liberal?? nothing
Shows how little you know. The Mecha thugs have shown a tremendous affinity for the Palestinian 'cause'.
'America's Palestinians'
On its website, a group called "La Voz de Aztlan," the Voice of Aztlan, identifies Mexicans in the U.S. as "America's Palestinians." Many Mexicans see themselves as part of a transnational ethnic group known as "La Raza," the race. A May editorial on the website, with a dateline of Los Angeles, Alta California, declares that "both La Raza and the Palestinians have been displaced by invaders that have utilized military means to conquer and occupy our territories."
But the threat of secession is not merely from groups that might be considered on the fringe, Spencer insists, noting the declarations of Mexican leaders, up to the highest office. Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo said in a 1997 speech in Chicago to the "National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, that he "proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders and that Mexican migrants are an important a very important part of this."
Zedillo said that because of this fact his government proposed a constitutional amendment that allows Mexican citizens to hold dual citizenship. Spencer believes that the objective is to enable Mexicans in the United States to vote in the interest of Mexico.
Ultimately, many Mexicans hope for a "reconquista," a reconquest of territory lost when Mexico signed the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo at the end of the Mexican-American War.
"One could argue that while Mexico lost the war in 1848, it will probably win it in the 21st century, in terms of the numbers," Navarro told WorldNetDaily.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25920
I just posted this on another thread...
I find it rather.....interesting......that there are so many n00b's signing up this weekend, agreeing with us.
Methinks something's afoot...
Stop it. This is an invasion of our nation. Crime, disease, costly social services, closing hospitals --- it is all the result of this invasion. I don't need to go study what is happening in France. I am watching something horrible right here in Southern California. These people are not here to become Americans and strengthen our nation. They are destroying this nation. We are held together by a common language. They have essentially told us to hell with our language. To hell with our culture. To hell with our nation we know as America. I have had quite enough.
Whose spelling and punctuation skills are are good as its ideas.
I have been to CA twice. Once in 96 and the next time in 2000. I dont recall in 96 there being *that* many latinos, but when I went again in 2000, to see a friend of mine who was a 1st grade teacher, she said all of her students were spanish, and some of them she suspected of being illegal.
After reading this thread, I'd personally rather be invaded by Canadians. Having to listen to Gordon Lightfoot on the radio is probably preferable to being gangbanged by a hood of illegals in your own home.
I not you didn't say "we're gonna lose". Who's side are you on?
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