Posted on 04/21/2002 9:36:20 PM PDT by CounterCounterCulture
Today the main Freepers rally to counter the Palestinian/Anarchists/”Peaceniks” /whatever was in Washington D.C. There was a west coast version in the Baghdad-by-the-Bay (San Francisco).
The total attendance on our side was about 14-15. Freepers included…
Deeel-me-in (David), Pat, and myself commuted up from San Jose to voice our disgust with the opposition. Perhaps it was an omen, but we barely escaped getting sideswiped by a pickup truck that spun out of control on the I-280 freeway and ended up facing the other direction without rolling over by the time he or she stopped.
We arrived the civic center parking lot at about noon, our rally start point. Drango and mac_truck were all ready for us and somehow our patriotic garb gave us away. :-)
By about 12:20, we had our signage and bullhorn all set for Freeping in front of City Hall. The other side was doing a 2-mile march from Dolores Park to the Civic Center Plaza, across the street from City Hall. But there was already a large contingent of Palestinians and supporters across from us who weren’t doing the march. We could see many Palestinian flags as well as the various left-wing booths, soundstage, and of course buses.
Soon we caught them off guard with our pro-America/pro-Israel group that was about ten strong at this point. Once American Preservative and Syncro (a.k.a., Dr. Zoo) arrived, we gave them a good showing.
The media, KPIX-5 and Spanish language station KDTV-14, along with the San Jose Mercury News, covered and interviewed our unexpected group. Other stations had coverage too but probably followed the parade of fools and were too late by the time all hell broke loose at City Hall.
Early in our rally, the police captain came over to strategize with our group, fearing for our safety with our small numbers compared to their thousands in what the news coverage had described as the “largest march in twenty years,” which is saying something in lefty demonstration friendly San Francisco. The captain was friendly to us and we were equally concerned about our safety. He said if the other side was to get out of hand, which of course was probable, then our group would retreat inside City Hall until things calmed down.
By 1:45pm, the Paleswinians were about halfway across the street chanting inane and hateful slogans toward us and then the parade of fools veered left and headed for City Hall instead of the park. At that point the police officer gave us the sign to move back and then inside City Hall for our own protection. So the leftists trumped our First Amendment rights, not too unusual.
While we were huddled inside near the doors, there was a wedding inside the central part of the building, so we had to keep the noise down in the echoing building. The members were, I think, Japanese, so the police were able to use a little racial profiling to know which ones to let in the building in which ones to keep out.
We looked around and noticed Syncro was missing from our group but were relieved to see him outside playing the part of photographer, documenting the insanity close up.
After a while, the head of security inside City Hall was uncomfortable with our presence at the front and gave us options of either hanging out in the cafeteria downstairs or leaving out the back. About half of us split and the other confabbed downstairs. The catch was that we had to leave our signs off to the side at the front of the building, not being allowed to carry them inside.
So in the cafeteria, a.k.a., The Bunker, myself, Joseph, Pat, deeel-me-in, American Preservative, and eventually Syncro. Also in the bunker were other cops on break before they headed out to join the insanity outside. We could hear over their radios that an Israeli flag was being burned, which Syncro was able to catch on film.
After a while when it seemed too risky to go back out to finish our protest, we gathered back our signs and headed out the side door and stored them in Syncro’s Dr. of Phenomenology vehicle and, except for Joseph, went out for lunch at a Japanese restaurant and shot the breeze. By the time we got done, about 5pm, the leftist swine were taking down their soundstage and stuff, with the park looking like a mess, as usual. And so we live to fight another day against the hateful left in our closest call thus far.
More pictures to follow...
Salute to the San Francisco FReepers.
....A handful of counter-demonstrators carrying Israeli flags confronted the first arrivals at Civic Center Plaza. Marchers nearly surrounded the group until police intervened and took the pro-Israel group inside City Hall before dispersing them.
"It was for their own safety," police Capt. Alex Fagan said. "There are thousands of people here on the other side, and I couldn't guarantee their safety. So they made their point and then I asked them to leave.".....
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Guess the reporter missed the huge American flags we carried....but sure saw the two tiny Israel flags we also had! And, I guess the reporter didn't want to profile us as Americans (even though some of our FRiends were decked out in red, white and blue)!!
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