...and one person who tried to make a scene.Freakin' idiot was dressed like the Unibomber. “Prosperity = White Supremacy.” (Wasn't prosperity a good thing when the impeached *Crinton was in office?)
Police put kibosh on disguised tea party protester
The Tax Day Tea Party in downtown Greensboro ran smoothly Thursday. Everyone sang the patriotic staple “God Bless the U.S.A.,” kids got their faces painted and the parched drank their Liber-Tea.
Well, there was one tiny glitch.
A man dressed in all black and a hood or mask came to the side of the stage by the old county courthouse while a person spoke and held up a sign reading, “Prosperity = White Supremacy.”
The crowd didn’t fancy the man’s sign and cast a round of boos in his direction. Pretty soon, three Greensboro police officers escorted the man away from the protest.
According to arrest reports, Daniel Emerson Stainkemp, 22, of 1602 West End Place in Greensboro was charged with wearing a mask or hood on public property, resisting a public officer, carrying a sign larger than allowed by a local ordinance, and interfering with the protest.
He was released from custody on a written promise to appear in court in May.
Posted by Dioni L. Wise on Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 10:50 pm
http://www.news-record.com/blog/2010/04/15/entry/police_put_kibosh_on_disguised_tea_party_protester
Greensboro police estimated 2,000 people attended Tax Day Tea Party at Phill G. McDonald Plaza in downtown Greensboro on Thursday."
2,000 tea party supporters raise voices in downtown GreensboroFriday, April 16, 2010 (Updated 6:44 am)
By Dioni L. Wise
Staff Writer
GREENSBORO — “Silence is consent.”
If the phrase on the protest sign holds true, then hundreds of people at the Tax Day Tea Party in Greensboro on Thursday made it clear that they disagree with the U.S. government.
“We’re opposed to a lot of things that’s going on in Washington today as far as taxes and government growing and the people being taken out of the picture,” said Tom Roberts, a real estate appraiser from Jamestown. “Our politicians aren’t listening to what the people are saying.”
Roberts and his wife, Dawn, said they likely will attend more tea party movement events. People who identify with the movement have expressed frustration with government expansion, taxes and the recently passed health care reform measures.
The Conservatives for Guilford County planned the tea party in the downtown governmental plaza on Thursday. It coincided with dozens of rallies in North Carolina and hundreds across the U.S.
People carried signs reading, “Big Government Isn’t The Answer, It’s The Problem,” and “Party Like It’s 1773,” referring to protests against British rule at the Boston Tea Party shortly before the American Revolution.
Some people spoke with political candidates, got their faces painted and registered to vote at the event Thursday.
Guest speaker after guest speaker urged the flag-waving crowd to let their voices be heard by their elected officials. Bill Flynn, the morning co-host on WPTI (94.5 FM), even called on the crowd to shout loud enough for the Guilford County commissioners to hear during their meeting in the old courthouse.
Joanne Wittenborn, an event organizer with Conservatives for Guilford County, joined a few chants, but she said people should hit the polls in November to make a real impact.
“(We’re) letting people know that they need to become active,” she said. “Voting is the way that we can really make a difference.”
She said the group will talk with candidates to try to gauge which ones are most conservative and then the group will distribute voter guides after the May primary.
Isabella Adkins, who heads event planning for the organization, also requested more voter participation during her speech.
“The progressive liberal left believes that by this November, and especially by 2012, we the people will forget and become complacent. I will not forget. How about you?” she asked.
Adkins then led the crowd in a chant: “We will not forget.”
The Romanian-born U.S. citizen said she wants to see her new country go in a different direction. “I think the election in November is so important to the future of this country, because unless we get a more balanced government in Washington,” Adkins said, “I don’t see the future of this country very well.”
Some restaurants supported the event by serving free “Liber-Tea ” — iced tea — to all the tea partiers who bought a meal.
But one restaurant hosted a quiet counterprotest to the tea party protest. The Reasonable Uprising in Greensboro met at The Green Bean coffeehouse on South Elm Street.
http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/04/15/article/tea_party_organizers_push_for_voter_participation