Posted on 04/02/2003 8:11:22 AM PST by Rabid Dog
They were teachers and nurses, grandparents and veterans, students and retirees, and they gathered at Elton Gallegly's office Tuesday to let the Republican congressman know they oppose the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Three of them became the first people in Ventura County to be arrested over it.
"I think our country is going down a very dark, dangerous path," said Norman Eagle, a 79-year-old retiree and World War II Navy veteran.
"Simply because we are the only superpower, we are preparing to go to war all over the world in order to control the world's resources," Eagle said, as about three dozen protesters filled the waiting room in Gallegly's Thousand Oaks office. "We are not threatened by Iraq, (the Bush administration's) assertions there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have not been substantiated, and really the result of the war is the certainty that we are creating thousands of new terrorists every day."
The protesters, who met in a parking lot outside Gallegly's office and walked into the building singing "We Shall Overcome" around 11 a.m. Tuesday, sat in the waiting room for most of the day. Two slipped into the inner office.
"We've asked them to leave," Brian Miller, Gallegly's district chief of staff, told the group in the waiting room. "You've all made your point, and there's no reason to stay unless you want to get arrested."
Miller said the two protesters in the inner office were preventing the staff from conducting business.
"They were answering telephones, calling out, and looking at stuff on top of the desks," he said. "They were sitting in our chairs, shouting so loudly you could not talk on the phone."
Protester Grant Marcus, 53, of Ventura, said that was the point.
"We are not going to allow business to be conducted as usual," he said. "The least we can do is disrupt our congressman's office for one day and let him know people, Americans and Iraqis, are dying every day in Iraq."
By 5 p.m., Marcus and protesters Lucille Duffy, 57, and Chris Vestuto, 47, both Ventura residents, had been arrested by Ventura County sheriff's deputies.
The others left peacefully. The building's other tenants were evacuated by sheriff's deputies.
"The reason we were called was the congressman was calling and said one of the individuals was urinating in the sink," said sheriff's Capt. Harold Humphries, who led more than 40 department personnel and FBI agents who responded to the incident. "He called to alert us to the situation. He and Brian did not want to arrest anybody."
Marcus, Duffy and Vestuto were booked at Ventura County Jail on charges of misdemeanor trespassing. If convicted, they could face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, deputies said.
In a statement, Gallegly called the group "professional agitators."
"My staff was unable to help our constituents under the circumstances, and I would not allow them to be subjected to lewd criminal behavior," he stated. "I offer my personal apology to the other offices that suffered loss of business because of the criminal acts by a few agitators."
You have to be forceful get to these little guys. And get to them when their young. But, with patience, they can be housebroken.
Gotta love those "Your-A-Peein"s...
That ranks right up there with anti-American creeps in San Francisco vomiting and defacating on the sidewalk for "peace." What is it with these people and bodily functions?
Poor toilet training? Anal retentive?
2427 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515-0523
(202) 225-5811
FAX: (202) 225-1100
2829 Townsgate Road, Suite 315
Thousand Oaks, CA 91361-3018
(805) 497-2224
FAX: (805) 497-0039
I called Congressman Gallegly's office a few weeks before, got an appointment set up for us, and we visited him in his office in the Rayburn building. War started that day, but we had the most incredible time that week! Mr. Gallegly and his staff treated us like VIP's, and my young daughter now says she wants to go into government service!
Mr. Gallegly has always been a great conservative in our county.
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