A group called Gente Unita confronted volunteer border watchers in San Diego yesterday with obscenities, shoving and U.S. flag desecration, causing Friends of the Border to abandon a planned deployment and an apology by the group's leader for not having police protection for senior citizen and other members of the group.Andy Ramirez, chairman of Friends of the Border, said he was concerned about the safety of his volunteers. "Safety comes first, even before our primary mission to help the Border Patrol secure our border with Mexico," he said.
One eyewitness told WND he saw members of Gente Unita assault four members of the border-watch group, including organizer Capt. Drew Johnson, a retired Navy officer. "Gente Unita stole an American flag, ripped from its staff and trampled it, as captured on film by cameraman Larry Morgan," said Roger Canfield, a former Republican congressional candidate.
The confrontation began when border volunteers were checking in at a card table for a training session, Canfield said. Shouting obscenities and slogans, Gente Unita shoved, jostled, and twice pushed their way into the center in 32 minutes of disorderly conduct as also witnessed by center staff and others at the center to take a state notary exam," Canfield said.
One man allegedly shouted, "We''re going to shut you the f--- down," in the face of several volunteers. Others, he said, broke off from the group to attack the check-in table located, under a flag pole. While the larger group was charging the entryway of the Scottish Rite Center, two others grabbed a U.S. flag on a wooden staff, a confidential list of names, knocked over the table, knocked a hat off Johnson and roughed up volunteer Beverly Crawford.
The border watchers called 9-1-1 when the confrontation began, but San Diego police did not respond for about 20 minutes, according to Canfield.
No surprise there. That's why you have the right to be armed. Oh, wait. This is California.
Two members of Gente Unita were taken into custody, but were released shortly thereafter.
Huh? Why weren't they sent to Gitmo?
The Gente Unita activists arrived on the scene dressed in red and black, according to witnesses. "We did not cross over the border, their border crossed over us," they chanted. One of the protesters threatened Ramirez with a future "firefight" along the border.
Ramirez said his training session emphasized no conflict, no arms and no provocation. The border watchers, like their allies in the Minuteman organization, seek to monitor the border and report illegal activity directly to U.S. Border Patrol officials. He apologized to his volunteers yesterday for not notifying law enforcement officials in advance of the training session. "For this, I apologize to each of our volunteers who were personally assaulted, especially the captain, who is a man that everyone in my organization respects immensely, and cares about," Ramirez said. "No veteran of the U.S. armed services should ever have to be confronted by what several cowards did to our fellow citizen and friend. I also apologize to the San Diego Police Department."
He described the Gente Unita group as an "angry mob." "An American flag was immediately desecrated by being torn away from our volunteers, off its pole, and onto the ground where it was stomped on and kicked," he said. "This vile act was committed by an individual who had concealed his face from cameras. We do have video footage, which was released by the volunteer to the media and shown in San Diego on their television newscasts. Individuals on tape were also assaulting and battering a number of senior citizens."
He added: "The protesters stalked our volunteers around the site, screamed in their ears, were cursed at, physically assaulted and battered, trespassed on private property, and participated in crimes of hate and acts of terrorism."