Sacramento: Union goons swarm - attack. 1 Tea Partier injured, 1 Teamster arrested
Is anybody really surprised that a group of Teamsters swarmed across a Sacramento street to physically attack our people during a Move On sponsored anti-Taxpayer rally Saturday (February 26, 2011) at the California State Capitol?
This was the second such protest within days at the same location. Earlier in the week (Tuesday) the Service Employees International Union (which in California represents largely illegal aliens and is a chief advocate for amnesty) held a similar event.
I had caused a stir around that one by suggesting that normal people show up dressed as union workers and say outrageously greedy things to the media. The punch line to my suggestion was that I used as my template an SEIU sponsored campaign called “Crash the Tea Party”[1] and created to harass Tea Party Express rallies across the country. As it turns out (and as I knew would be the case) my suggested slogans were pale, limp-wristed tries at outrageous compared to the actual screeching from the event’s podium – and even more radical bile from the fringe element that focused on being verbally aggressive to our much smaller (and more civil) vigil across the street.
Rodney Stanhope, my wife (Holly is also my radio producer) and I made no effort to hide our identity as we strode through the SEIU crowd to the podium area. Along the way we met several very nice people who simply disagree with our politics. By the time we arrived at the podium (with camera and audio recorder) to politely listen our presence had created a buzz amongst the event leadership and we had acquired several union shadows. Led by a former Congressional Candidate, Ben Emery, out of Nevada City, California the several tough-guys wannabes just smirked at us and ignored our wisecracks. They stayed with us the entire time, silent. Didn’t even crack a smile when as we were leaving I pulled out my car keys and asked Emery to valet me.
Emery would later boast to a hill town newspaper. We also learned from one of the several other people we had incognito in the crowd that a “beat down” of us was under discussion and being organized.
The most interesting thing we noticed was a significant Muslim Brotherhood presence and the prominent role given to Northern California’s Council on American-Islamic Relations director Basim Elkarra. Both were clearly in positions of authority at the tightly organized event and were seen giving orders to other participants and apparently supervising the media sign in table. Elkarra has an interesting background and list of extremist affiliations, even liberal US Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) considers him a borderline terrorist and some time ago quickly yanked an award her office had mistakenly gave to him.[2] When I started taking photographs of him, the Muslim Brotherhood members and a contingent of Islamic women, Elkarra left the organizers’ area, spoke to someone and within moments there was not an obvious Muslim in sight.
Yesterday (Saturday) a larger group of us (including a delegation out of Southern California led by Laura Boatright) numbering around 150 faced down a crowd of 1,000 mostly peaceful protesters organized by Move On.Org.
The hippie crowd is a lot of things but among those things is well organized and very conscious of how their events will look on camera, so they take extra pains to control their people and avoid direct physical contact with counter protesters.
The group of a dozen or so Teamsters who showed up from Stockton and who had been at the Tuesday event, not so much. Their history is to intimdate and physically attack.[3] They clearly identify themselves as Teamsters to give the main protest plausible deniability as well as add to their cherished reputation as "tough guys."
When they made a point of immediately initiating a physical altercation by coming up behind us and attempting to push their way through our ranks. Capitol CHP quickly put a stop to that.
Later they made an attempt to set up a second demonstration, again behind us, in an unpermitted area and again the CHP shut them down.
Not long after that their frustration is clearly visible in the video. The fat guy with the megaphone had exchanged angry words with me earlier (I smiled nicely and suggested that having to lug the heavy equipment they tried to set up behind us was perhaps the first work he had done in sometime and perhaps the reason for his girth.) He is obviously angry, as are the Teamster muscle around him prepping themselves like ultimate fighters for a confrontation.
As you can see from the video they waiting for the opportune moment and swarmed amass across the street where they were met by Rodney Stanhope. In the brief altercation that ensued one of the Teamster goons physically attacks Rodney, twice before mounted CHP move in and beat back the Teamsters.
The result was a misdemeanor assault arrest of the goon who attacked Rodney (he was released with an appearance ticket – we will be at the hearing) and Rodney suffered a broken hand and bruise on his throat (in the second hit you can see the shorter, fire-plug of a goon take a shot directly at Rodney’s larynx.)
Rodney is fine, furious but fine. He stood his ground, he protected his fellow Tea Partiers, he did not respond in kind with physical violence and he displayed a courage that we should all be proud of and strive to replicate if we are to win this battle for America.
In a postscript, the Union Goon has been identified by Sacramento's News10 TV (story below) as 28 year old Teamster Richard Andazola of Stockton CA.
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