Beltway Area Indymedia

You know things got more than more than a little WTFish at this Saturday's Anti-Immigration Rally when a certain Nazi nimrod we know announces a $250 reward for DLJ's address (hint: somewhere outside Philly)! Yes, it was one of those rallies, the kind where you go for the empty right wing rhetoric and stay for the ensuing jokes at their expense. Let's get some things out the way first. We don't think anyone is going to lose any sleep over people chanting during the anti-immigrant side's salute to the flag, Nazis getting slapped around a bit or the pain Robb Pearson & Co. feel over being called racist all the time. All in all it was a good day in Morristown, such a good day that we're actually still here! We are going to be departing in the next few hours, but we can expect a lot more stories about this rally over the next few days. Moreover, there is going to be another rally on Sept. 1 in Harrisburg, PA, and with John Clark of American Immigration Control performing emcee duties and Pokerface performing, the hatemonger quotient is expected to go that much higher. We would like to send out props to those who came out in opposition to the assorted xenophobes and racists and we also would like to send a few words of advice to a gentleman named Daniel Smeriglio of Voice of the People: Whenever you make loud and angry proclamations about not being racist, and you get busted for working with certain ones, running away from the person making the charge helps them, not you. Oh, and you also don’t make proclamations that you are only against Illegal immigration, then bellyache about things like things written in Spanish, which if we recall is legal. It really is a damned shame just how easy it is to make these idiots look bad!
By One People's Project

MORRISTOWN, NJ - An anti-immigration rally organized by a out-of-town blogger and featuring the mayor was met with hundreds of counter-demonstrators, many of whom questioning the role of an elected official in a rally that saw the anticipated participation of local hatemongers and those who work with them. Although the rally remained peaceful with only a few incidents and arrests, there was at least one skirmish with two persons identified as neo-Nazis.

At least 300 anti-immigration protesters stood outside Town Hall to participate in a rally sponsored by Mt. Olive, NJ blogger Robb Pearson of the ProAmerica Society. They were there to show their support for Morristown Mayor Don Cresitello and his plan to have local police officers deputized to enforce federal immigration laws per the Department of Homeland Security's 287G program. His supporters were represented by members of the Pennsylvania Minutemen, Glenn Spencer's American Border Patrol, Ron Bass and his United Patriots of America, the John Birch Society and supporters of Presidential candidate Ron Paul, among others. Also participating in the rally were several posters to the WP website Stormfront, who came to the rally after poster "Erick_K_W" promoted the rally there. According to one of them, Richard Lindstrom, formerly of National Vanguard, he and his fellow Stormfronters downplayed their affiliation out of respect to the organizers, but they are all in agreement with each other.

"Erick_K_W" and his wife Annette.

The Stormfront posters were easily picked out by the counter-demonstrators who noticed their placards advertising Stormfront, but also recognized many of them from past rallies. After the rally there was a skirmish where Erick_K_W and his wife Annette were involved. Three people were arrested and later released, and Annette was taken to Morristown Memorial Hospital for stitches, but very little, even in traditional media outlets, have been said about the incident, with the exception of some rumors and discussions appearing on numerous white power sites.

The speakers meanwhile, from Pearson to Mayor Cresitello repeatedly and angrily voiced their displeasure at being called racist, and this rejection of the charge ended up being the main staple of the rally. Ironicaly, some of the more apparent examples of the racism seen in the anti-immigrant circles were the speakers themselves. Andrew Woodring and Daniel Smeriglio from the Pennsylvania-based group called Voice of the People were among those asked to speak, and Woodring even took a swipe at counter-demonstrators, saying the racist charge is what is said when a real argument is not being made. On Sept. 1, Voice of the People is planning a similar rally in Harrisburg, PA and among those scheduled to speak Paul Topete, who's band Pokerface was prevented from performing at This is Andrew Woodring, left, and Daniel Smeriglio from the group Voice of the People, the latest anti-immigration group that thinks no one is going to notice if you kiss WP ass. It didn't help matters much when during his speech Smeriglio refered to Ron Bass as "my personal hero"!

Rutgers University after students voiced concern over Topete's anti-semitic activism, and John Clark of the racist group Americans for Immigration Control, a group that is led by Council of Conservative Citizens member John Vinson. After the rally, when asked why would Clark be involved in the Harrisburg rally as an emcee and when it made him look hypocritical when complaining about being called a racist, Smeriglio said, "Everyone has an opinion." before quickly departing. Carmen Morales of the UPA and Miguel Cruz both represented You Don't Speak For Me, the group created by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) to pose as a grassroots anti-immigration group led by Hispanics. FAIR meanwhile has in the past received money from racist foundations such as the Pioneer Fund, which was established to promote eugenics.

Meanwhile reportedly 200 more stood across the street condemning the rally. They represented a number of pro-immigration groups, labor unions and activist organizations, and at times had been able to drown out the sound system of the pro-immigrant rally. Besides the confrontation after the rally, some had directly confronted other individuals that were identified as neo-Nazis, including one who said he was simply a "trad skin" - a skinhead who stays true to the Jamacian Rude Boy inspiration of the culture and not the neo-Nazi image it became - and another who was more obvious with his wearing of a Skrewdriver shirt as he entered the grocery store the counter-demonstrators stood in front of. Some were arrested for attempting to disrupt the anti-immigration rally while others representing the New Jersey Chapter of the National Organization for Women were asked to leave the town hall lawn when they attempted to stage a protest there. The anti-immigration protesters and speakers traded barbs with the pro-immigration side throughout the two-hour rally, using as a sticking point the fact that they chanted while the anti-immigration side saluted the flag at the beginning. A number of speakers were critical of this from the podium while the Stormfront posters chose to respond with hastily-written signs. It was a departure from the week before in Derwood, Maryland, where a protesters of a day laborer site which included members of the Minutemen and the National Alliance were ridiculed by a mostly anarchist group of counter-demonstrators as one of the flags they posted alongside the curb was allowed to touch the ground.

There was also a prayer vigil at a church two miles away where it was reported that 200 people had attended. This was organized by the pro-immigrant group Wind of the Spirit for those who for whatever reasons did not want to participate in the counter-demonstration. Some participants did however manage to come to town hall as the vigil ended.

Robb Pearson called the rally an enormous success on his blog, and also addressed the incident with Erick_K_W and his wife in the typical fashion of the day. "…No matter how I feel about their ideology, I totally abhor the violence that was perpetrated against Eric and his wife," he wrote. "They both have my sincerest and most heartfelt hopes for a speedy recovery." Meanwhile Mayor Cresitello is scheduled to appear at the Voice of the People's rally in Harrisburg, PA where he is expected to declare that none of his fellow anti-immigrant protesters are racist as that event is emceed by a racist activist.

Last Updated ( Sunday, 29 July 2007 )
http://onepeoplesproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1...