Apparently, protesters stopped a speech at Columbia by the founder of the Minutman Project. The irony involved in a vigilante group that takes it into its own hands to keep outsiders from the United States being driven from the stage by a vigilante group has aparently been lost on all involved. For their part, the protesters have alleged that they expected, if anything, to be led peacefully from the stage, but that Minutemen began attacking them. But, given that this is the Minutemen, shouldn’t everyone have been expecting some self-help from the get-go?
October 7, 2006 at 5:14 pm
For me, the involvement of the “International Socialist Organization” is the red flag.
Plus, you have to love the comment that “The Minutemen are not a legitimate part of the debate on immigration.” Clearly… because the only true option is an open border, and the legitimate debate is just over whether it should be de facto or de jure.
October 9, 2006 at 2:45 pm
This is a pretty unfortunate event, but the Minutemen Project sort of lost the moral high ground when they said, “This violent outburst is yet another indication that those who support illegal immigration are happy to use communist tactics in their intolerant determination to prevent the Minutemen from exercising their First Amendment rights.” Talk about pandering to your base while saying absolutely nothing.
They also describe what happened as a “reconquista riot.” Um, what? No need to invoke irrational fears of a Mexican-American invasion, especially in Manhattan. What happened at Columbia was a simple case of pissed-off people losing control of their collective temper and doing something stupid.
October 10, 2006 at 3:10 am
Not to make apologies for the overblown rhetoric, but I don’t think it was a case of people losing their temper… I got the impression that they planned the stage-rushing (“We were aware that there was going to be a sign and we were going to occupy the stage”).