Patriots Rally For America San Francisco version 4/20/02

21 April 2002 | CounterCounterCulture / Photographer: Syncro

[Fred Mertz]

You guys rock! Thanks for your report and thank you for taking it out to the streets. This is great!

[Drango]

A+ report!

My report will not try to duplicate what you've said...Instead in a rather disjoined fashion I'll try to amplify and give a sense of some of my “feelings” in the best liberal tradition. When I first arrived I noticed the buses. Buses from around the State had bused in the anti war scum. The left was organized!

The pictures show some of the melee as the scum stormed the steps where we were protesting. We had two 70 year olds and a saint with a cane in our small group. But the pictures can’t show the danger we were in from the “PEACE” activist. 10,000 protesters were no match for the 60 officers in front of us and they penetrated the police lines in a span of seconds. Captain Fagen, the office in charge from the SFPD was wonderful and a credit to LEO’s everywhere. A true diplomat with a very difficult task. He instructed us before the event where to go if the crowds overwhelmed his officers. We had an escape route. Let me make it VERY clear if we had a solid wall behind us, there would have been bloodshed and broken bones. Discretion was the better part of valor as we made a strategic retreat into City Hall.

At the same time I’m befuddled by the police’s unwillingness to support our right to “Free Speech”. I learned that my right was only as good as MY (and my co- FReepers) ability to defend it as the police weren’t about to stop the crowd. Lesson learned.

I had a great time.

[American Preservative]

From post #10 -

Demonstrators in S.F. march in support of Palestinians
By Sandra Gonzales
Mercury News

In what organizers called one of the largest showings of solidarity for Palestinians in this country, thousands of demonstrators descended on San Francisco streets Saturday, marching and chanting a rallying cry against Israeli and U.S. action in the Middle East.

They waved the Palestinian flag, sang and beat drums, and even did the tango as protesters urged peace in the region, not war.

The estimated 15,000 participants spilled onto the streets and blocked traffic as they marched more than two miles from Dolores Park to Civic Center.

The rally was largely peaceful. No major arrests or incidents of violence were reported by San Francisco police, who deployed more than 60 officers to patrol the rally. But there were a few tense moments.

As the first wave of marchers approached Civic Center for the rally, they pumped their fists and shouted down a group of about 12 counterprotesters who had been standing in front of City Hall, waving the American flag and voicing their support for the United States. To avoid any physical conflict, police wearing riot gear quickly ushered the small group of counterprotesters inside City Hall and stood in a single line blocking the entrance as the pro-Palestinian protesters chanted, ``Free, free Palestine,'' in cries that grew louder by the moment. The crowd eventually moved away from the City Hall steps as the rally at Civic Center began, with speakers demanding an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank in what demonstrators called a U.S.-Israeli war against the Palestinian people.

The San Francisco rally, one of two major protests organized in the country Saturday, was sponsored by a national coalition that calls itself ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism). The coalition was formed, its leaders said, in response to the war in Afghanistan and racist attacks against Arab Americans in the United States after Sept. 11.

In Washington, D.C., as many as 70,000 gathered for a similar protest.

Urging an end to aid to Israel, a spokesman for the group told the San Francisco crowd that the war could not go on without the billions of dollars supplied by the United States. ,p>``There is only one force on Earth that can stop it, and it's not the Democratic Party. . . . It's the people. . . . That's the only thing that's ever changed things in history,'' said Richard Becker, a spokesman for ANSWER, who also serves as western region coordinator of the International Action Center, a peace and justice organization.

Eman Desoukey of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in San Francisco also stirred the crowd. ``We stand in fierce solidarity with our indigenous brothers and sisters who have been struggling bravely for 509 years of colonization of this land that we stand on today,'' Desoukey said.

Organizers said more than 40 buses brought people from around the state and as far away as Seattle and Salt Lake City to the event.

Though the primary theme of the rally was support of Palestinian rights, other causes abounded. Vendors sold bumper stickers and T-shirts and handed out fliers on everything from nuclear policy to Mumia Abu-Jamal, the death-row political activist and journalist. Suzanne Saliba, who was born in Ramallah, on the West Bank, was encouraged by the large gathering.

``Seeing everyone here from different nations makes me feel good. All I've been doing is crying. It just shows that a lot of people are disenchanted with what the U.S. is doing,'' she said.

Many in the crowd wore a black and white covering on their shoulders or heads to symbolize the Palestinian struggle, and others carried banners. Not all, of course, agreed.

Patricia Brickman of San Jose, one of the dozen who had gathered for the counterprotest, said she was there to support the United States and the its troops.

``It's really sad,'' she said, ``that they don't have a concept of what America stands for -- freedom.''

[thunderdome]

Good job facing the enemy!

[Saundra Duffy]

Wish I could have been there, pal. You done us proud. Yahoo! Brave Freeper soldiers! For victory & freedom!!!

[rockfish59]

ahhhh, i can see my home town hasn't changed much.
i don't miss the rats nest!

[American Preservative]

My comment - Yesterday 12 patriotic Americans had our freedom of speech of standing up for our country ~America~ (and for Israel) silenced (in a sense) because thousands of Leftist basturds could not tolerate us and our point of view here in America and only wanted their point of view heard and surged towards us...so the police suggested we withdraw.

I guess "peace" and "free speech" don't mean what they used.

IMO, AMERICA better WAKE UP...or non-Muslims in America may be "submitting" (Islam means "submission") to Mecca in the future.

Here are some pictures from www.sf.indymedia.org

Note: Slow loading. Need to scroll across - the pictures are large.
Note the second picture - The new "Streets of San Francisco" - coming to a city near you (?!)

_____________________

To all the FReepers and FRiends who made the effort to stand for America (and Israel) against the "peace-lovin'"
HATE-FILLED [fill in the blank] who "occupied" the San Francisco Civic Center, THANK YOU! : )
It was an honor to FReep with you. We tried!

Again, CCC, excellent report! Dr. Zoo....faaaabUlooooous! : )

[American Preservative]

FReeping report-ping.

The new Streets of San Francisco?!

Wake up America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Syncro]

Thanks Triple-C...grate report!

One of the saddest thing to see there was chubby young boys with an icecream in one hand and a sign which they probably didn't even understand in the other.

And these girls:

If only these brainwashed teenage girls knew that if they were in a Middle Eastern country they could be shot for appearing in public like this. They are using the right of freedom in this country to destroy those same rights.

The reporter from channel 2 was interviewing the Police Commander and I listened in.She asked if there were any arrests, and the Commander said yes there were several, but were just detainments for trespassing at City Hall.
She asked if it was worth it to report them , and he said no. I suggested that she report that several terrorist supporters were arrested and the Commander kinda swore under his breath...LOL

Shortly before the large group of terrorist/supporting marchers showed up and just after I was using the bullhorn to explain to the crowd across the street just where their "Palistinian" state was, a reporter from Channel 14 (Spanish TV) interviewed me for about 3 minutes.
Afterwards I wondered who would hear this and understand it translated into Spanish...then it dawned on me that about a third of the people in California are from Mexico.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Thank You
God Bless You All

[Syncro]

That is neat that quote from Pat (post # 23)got into the paper.

[Syncro]

"Yesterday 12 patriotic Americans had our freedom of speech of standing up for our country ~America~ (and for Israel) silenced (in a sense) because thousands of Leftists..."

That is a sad commentary...when the police are outnumbered, they cannot stand up for the Constutional rights of Patriots, but protect the rights of those whose actions are geared towards destroying America and all it stands for.

[LurkerNoMore!]

:-)

Thank you, left coasters.

[American Preservative]

The new "Streets of San Francisco?"

("Muslim men at prayer" Posted by kevin on www.sf.indymedia.org on 4/20/02)

[abigail2]

JUST A NOTE OF THANKS FOR THE GREAT PICTURES! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK sf!

[Humidston]

EXCELLENT pictures and report, CCC. You brave people make me proud!

[American Preservative]

Yep. And if you've heard the reports from the other FReeps across our country, it is sad.

Let's see - how many incidences have there been? Marines murdered in Lebanon, WTC in '93, Somalia; Saudi Arabia(?), USS Cole-Yemen, New York, The Pentagon, Flight 93, and in September 2001 (after the New York, Pentagon, and Flight 93 massacres) President Bush told us to be kind and be respectful of all Muslims/Arabs in our country. O.K. Fine, Mr. President. Even though there were very few voices (there were a few, weren't there?) in the American Muslim/Arab community who condemned the massacres against our fellow citizens (and other countries' citizens, too), the majority of US said OK, we'll follow what the president is asking. And, the country had a sense of unitedness. The Left saw an opportunity - Stop the War. Stop "racism" against Arabs/Muslims - when America went to Afghanistan to seek justice. They started to "rally" in the streets. And very few pro-Americans went out to counter them. Well, as one who did go to a few FReeps to stand up for our side, I've noticed some things - they started small (remember Hitler started small) and the PLOers (imo) were a few and among the group. As time has gone on, (7 months!) the country has become divided, the PLOers have moved from the middle of the "protests" to being at the forefront and the "protest" pictures of belligerent, frenzied, ranting you used to see in foreign countries are now here on our shores and not even across the street, but at the door (as the pictures at City Hall showed). And their numbers have now grown so huge, that they feel they don't have to show us the same courtesy of holding a peaceful, law-abiding demonstration and let an opposing voice be heard, and the police are overwhelmed and can't help guarantee or safeguard OUR rights. (And, around the corner other Americans were taking for granted their freedom to go for a sunny Sunday drive with their families, unaware that a block away from them were THOUSANDS of a ranting, hate-filled, jealous, envious mob who would love to see an end to the American way of life.) So, where this is leading.....

So, that's my opinion. : ( If anyone has any suggestions of what to do.....

G*d bless America and Israel and both countries' soldiers and G*d help us.

[VaMarVet]

BTTT for being out there. You guys did great and we are very proud! Slowly but surely we are making a difference. AGain, thanks and adding this thread to the Rally4America.org Rally Account page.

[Neets]

BTT To the left-coast action!!!! Way to go!!!!!!!