Geov Parrish (Working for Change): Immigrants and hate

[Jack Rabbit]

From Working for Change
Dated Wednesday May 3

Immigrants and hate
On Monday's immigration rallies
By Geov Parrish

Monday, while my column on immigrants and May Day ran as the lead at WorkingforChange.com, I was busy for most of the day helping provide security for the massive immigrants rights march here in Seattle. As it happens, during my years living in D.C. during the '80s I spent a lot of time helping to organize very large marches, rallies and direct actions, and local organizers very much wanted to bring in experienced hands. They were concerned about a steady stream of virulent, anonymous death threats directed both at organizers and march attendees, and they didn't have nearly enough security to protect people adequately against such threats.

Their fears were well justified. At one point in the march, a car plowed into the crowd (a passenger later called the drivers decision to drive into a street jammed with people a mental lapse.) And, as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported, in the 21st paragraph of their story, Seattle police reported that a total of seven people were arrested during the march, and those included five people on possible weapons violations. The SPD said all five may have permits for the weapons, however, and have been released.

This was fairly typical local media coverage. What the SPD apparently did not say, but any organizer could have (and perhaps did) told any local reporter who cared to ask, was that the five were not marchers, as the P-I intimated. They were self-identified Neo- Nazis, and in the context of the large number of death threats organizers had received, there is only one possible explanation for their having come to the march armed. It was march security that brought their presence to the attention of SPD.

SPD also chose not to reveal, and no local media reported, a fact announced from the rally stage: that the car incident had resulted in several injuries.

Read more.

[Demeter]

1. Sickening!

It's like being in the Matrix, except people are going to die on both sides.