Posted on 03/30/2003 7:24:51 AM PST by Pern
A group protesting for peace in Iraq faced unexpected confrontation Saturday afternoon when a hastily-organized crowd met them with threats of violence and profanity.
During their march from the Baton Rouge Beach to LSU's Greek Amphitheater, about 70 peace demonstrators said they support American armed forces, but they oppose the government that sent them into war.
About the same number of people, incited by a local radio station, shouted them down with obscenities, patriotic chants and cries of "Traitor!"
Along with plenty of American flags, several of the signs they carried demeaned the marchers: "Protesting this war while our troops are being killed is equal to treason," read one. "You should all be shot."
Police at the beach to escort the marchers stepped in to separate the sides when shoving started.
"Radio disc jockeys called to inform me they had asked their listeners to come and use profanity, to insult us," said Caitlin Grabarek, a student organizer who said she got harassing phone messages after KOOJ mentioned the peace rally on the air.
For the sake of demonstrators' children present, she asked the police to make sure no fighting broke out.
Many of the people carrying bullhorns and singing 'Give Peace a Chance' were students, along with other activists and a handful who drove in from New Orleans.
They had just begun to gather at the beach on Stanford Avenue around noon when a shouting match erupted between the anti-war camp and the crowd that showed up to oppose them.
"You swore to serve your country, but you are not serving it now," one man yelled at veteran Brian Roos, who opposes the war. Like most of the disrupters, Roos' antagonist was careful to point fingers without coming to blows.
"You remember the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, don't you?" one peace demonstrator responded angrily. "They're why you have a right to speak your mind."
"So do it at home," one man shouted back. "Quietly!"
"They don't know what they're talking about," said Roos. "You can't argue with people like that."
Richard Condon, a morning show host for rock station KOOJ, said he wanted the hecklers to "put these goofballs in their place."
"This has been going on since World War I, and it's the reason they have the right to feel the way they do," Condon said, pointing at the peace protesters marching down Stanford toward LSU.
Despite that right, he concluded, "I think these son-of-a-buggers deserve a bullet in the head."
This followed his proclamation to the crowd at the beach about American military aims that ended with: "And it's about time we nuked Canada's ass!"
Condon's station is one of six in Baton Rouge owned by Las Vegas-based Citadel Communications, one of the largest radio conglomerates in the United States.
Citadel's largest competitor, Clear Channel Communications of San Antonio, Texas, has drawn attention recently for organizing support-the-troops demonstrations through local stations.
Business managers for Clear Channel, which owns four Baton Rouge stations, and for Citadel were not available for comment.
Police kept the counter-demonstrators a few yards from the top of the Amphitheater, leaving them to yell down at the peace crowd.
"I see the 'Sieg Heil' people are here!" laughed Al D'Souza, warming up his synthesizer on-stage at the Amphitheatre before marchers finished their two-mile route.
He walked to the top and repeated himself several times, greeting the jeering disrupters with the raised-arm salute popular in Hitler's Germany. They didn't get the joke.
After the marchers arrived, a young woman walking by talking on her cell phone stopped and stared at the people near the stage.
"There's some kind of damn socialists down in the theater, talking about how we need to end the war," she said just when one of the peace protesters, talking through a loudspeaker, denounced the "fascism" of President Bush and his government.
There was little confrontation at the theater, mostly each side yelling to its own, until Condon worked out a plan to drown out the anti-war speakers. Some of his group rode motorcycles, and they dropped the machines into neutral and blasted their engines at deafening volume.
The noise went on for several minutes, but the theater's acoustics amplified the anti-war speakers enough to be heard. As raindrops started to fall and the temperature dropped, the peace demonstrators handed out bananas and oranges, and their opponents lost interest and left.
"They incited the masses to feel their American fervor, drink some beers and yell at us," sighed Alcena Rogan, an LSU English teacher. "I guess this is democracy."
She hit the nail right on the head.
No, a democracy is when 3 wolves and a sheep vote on what's for dinner. A constitutional republic such as ours is similar except that you aren't allowed to eat sheep. These people want to eat sheep. What they are doing is treason.
This whole scenario illustrates the rising anger in this country against the extreme left. Much as one should avoid violence, I hope to see more of this impromptu counterattack.
Mercy me, a college student offended by profanity! What are the chances?!
A group protesting for tyranny in Iraq...
Last time I checked this was a Democratic Republic...So what form of government do they want? One of these maybe...
OR
"You remember the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, don't you?" one peace demonstrator responded angrily. "They're why you have a right to speak your mind."
Perhaps young lady ....you should realize that the BOR are Protected only in this country....BY US! So you are in MHO "Baby killers" and "enblers of Baby KILLERS"
He walked to the top and repeated himself several times, greeting the jeering disrupters with the raised-arm salute popular in Hitler's Germany. They didn't get the joke.
Joke MY A$$!!!!!!.......... That idiot and his ilk enbled the NAZI bastards!!! JOKE INDEED!!! HEY BOY MUST FEEL GOOD TO SEE YOUR "BOSSES" kill the "plague on your society"!!!
"They incited the masses to feel their American fervor, drink some beers and yell at us," sighed Alcena Rogan, an LSU English teacher. "I guess this is democracy."
YES it IS AND YOU FREAKS LOST!!!!! GET OVER IT!!!! On a final note to the @#$%* Rogan......Stop hiding behind "tax exempt status forcing me to pay for your shit!!!
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