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July 4 rally turns into bloody riot

By Daily Bruin Staff

July 7, 1996 9:00 p.m.

Sunday, July 7, 1996

Groups protest over immigration rights at Federal BuildingBy
Michael Angell

Summer Bruin Contributor

A July 4 demonstration in front of the Federal Building turned
violent Thursday as political conservatives and leftist
demonstrators clashed over immigrant rights.

At about 9:30 a.m., Federal Building guards called the West Los
Angeles police station asking for assistance after reporting an
assault in front of the building.

The fighting occurred between members of the Progressive Labor
Party, a leftist labor organization, and Voice of Citizens
Together, a group in support of Proposition 187.

Officers found people fighting at the intersection of Wilshire
Boulevard and Veteran Avenue, said Lt. Anthony Alba of the Los
Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Metropolitan Transit Authority
(MTA) police also responded after they received a call from a bus
driver who had reported a man being assaulted.

LAPD initially responded to the scene with 72 officers in riot
gear. Officers from University of California Police Department,
California Highway Patrol, MTA and Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputies
were also on the scene, totaling about 150 officers.

Protesters were beating each other, throwing cans of soda and
hitting each other with placards until police separated the two
groups with pepper spray. One man was taken to the UCLA Medical
Center for a head injury. No arrests were made.

Voice of Citizens Together organized the initial demonstration,
while the Progressive Labor Party as well as other immigrant
advocacy groups came out to counter demonstrate. Both sides blame
one another for beginning the trouble.

Conservative protesters said that a man on their side of the
street had his flag taken by members of the Progressive Labor
Party. With dried blood on his forehead, Voice of Citizens Together
demonstrator Bob Schwarz claimed to be protesting peacefully when
he was attacked.

"I was holding the flag when those people came across the street
and started hitting me. One grabbed the flag I was holding and
started hitting me over the head with it," he said.

Labor Party protesters claimed it was they who had their flag
taken by members of Voice of Citizens Together. Mark Quigley, a
pro-immigrant protester said that members of Voice of Citizens
Together tried to take a flag away from the counter
demonstrators.

"That’s what precipitated the fight," Quigley said.

One member of Voice of Citizens Together took refuge in a bus
stopped along Wilshire. An MTA bus driver saw Voice of Citizens
Together protester Ken Cleghorn being attacked and called the MTA
police.

"They started hitting me on the head with those sticks and all I
was trying to do was talk to them," Cleghorn said. "Every one has
rights including ourselves. Thank God for that bus driver, though.
He really saved my life."

However, the majority of protesters on both sides were peaceful.
Steve Zimmer, who helped organize the counter demonstration, said
that the immigrant advocacy movement is an "avowedly nonviolent
movement."

Once the protesters were separated, they only traded chants
across Wilshire. Voice of Citizens Together was kept on the south
side of the street, while immigrant advocacy groups were kept
alongside the Veteran’s Cemetery. The protests continued until
about 1 p.m., when the police asked them to disperse.

Voice of Citizens Together helped organize the initial protest
along with United We Stand and California Coalition for Immigration
Reform.

Conservative protesters claimed their group is angry over what
they believe is the lack of enforcement of immigration laws, said
Voice of Citizens Together member Henry Haywood.

"We’re out here trying to wake up politicians about the issue of
immigration," Haywood said. "No one’s above the law and it’s their
responsibility to enforce that law."

In particular, Haywood complained about the lack of enforcement
on immigration law. "Whatever it takes to secure the border, we
have to do it.We have a quota system we need to enforce."

But counter demonstrators claim that people who take a hard line
against immigrants are attacking the wrong targets.

"They’re blaming a lot of the country’s problems on immigrants,"
said demonstrator Alyssa Kang, a sixth-year Asian American studies
student. "The real culprits are the multinational corporations.
They’re the ones taking away jobs. The only jobs immigrants take
are the ones most people don’t want, like picking fruit in
Delano."

She also accused the conservatives of making racist attacks on
the counter demonstrators.

"I was born here, and they assume since I’m a person of color
that I was not born here. They’re sending out a message of hate and
intolerance," Kang said.

But Haywood denied that any of the groups which protested
against illegal immigration were racist.

"It has nothing to do with the color of their skin, it’s about
illegal immigration," he said. "We have nothing against Mexicans.
They just happened to be right next door and they come over to this
country. It could just as well be the Chinese. It’s solely a matter
of geography."

Haywood’s group had the initial idea to march on Independence
Day. When immigrant advocacy groups heard about the protest, they
sponsored their own counter demonstration. Zimmer claimed that the
day was particularly appropriate for the Labor Party demonstrators
because it’s a holiday "that teaches liberty and justice for
all."

"I feel that we were able to raise some voices of justice
today," Zimmer said. "It’s an inalienable right to have education
and health care for all children."

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