More Power to the Protest Warriors!!! Conservative group plans to protest protests
By SARA KUGLER
Associated Press Writer
newsday.com
July 18, 2004, 10:12 AM EDT
NEW YORK -- Protesters battling the GOP convention this summer should be on the lookout for a new foe sneaking in under the radar, and approaching from the right.
Young conservatives, armed with their own picket signs, T-shirts and video cameras to capture their mission _ Operation Liberty Rising _ have formed a group called Protest Warriors. The goal?
"To show that there is a group of people out there, there are Republicans that will protest them right back," said Tom Paladino, who leads the New York chapter of the nationwide organization.
"We are the right-wing freedom fighters _ we are out there and are just as animated as the protesters can be," said member Jason Sager, of Brooklyn.
The group formed last year after founders Kfir Alfia and Alan Lipton crashed some anti-war demonstrations in San Francisco, carrying signs with slogans like: "Except for Ending Slavery, Fascism, Nazism and Communism, War Has Never Solved Anything."
Activists hurled signs at them and hissed "Fascists!" as they marched along, Alfia and Lipton said. They said they were surprised to encounter animosity at a peace rally, and decided to publicize their experience.
They posted videos of their counterprotests on the Internet, and began coordinating more actions. The movement caught the attention of young conservatives from all over the country, and right-wing lions like Rush Limbaugh, who has hailed them.
This spring, the group protested anti-war rallies in several cities, including New York, where they say activists kicked, tripped and spat at them, ripped signs from their hands and called them Nazis and racists.
Dustin Langley, a spokesman for one of the anti-war groups that organized the March 20 rally, disputed those allegations.
"We're an anti-war group, we're not a group that supports violence," he said. "Violence and hatred and suppression of free speech is what they're about."
Langley said the Protest Warriors will "make absolutely no impact" on GOP convention protests.
Protest Warriors, who claim about 3,000 members nationwide, say they expect about 200 in New York City for the four-day convention, which begins Aug. 30. The event is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of anti-Bush protesters, certainly outnumbering the conservative group.
Leaders say they know they won't have equal representation, but hope the contrast helps them stand out.
"It's going to be the protest Olympics _ they're all going to be trying to outdo each other," said Alfia, who lives in Austin, Texas.
For now, their plans are nebulous because they depend on the anti-Bush groups, some of which are awaiting police permits. Protest Warriors don't seek their own permits, piggybacking on the leftist organizations to do the paperwork.
Protest Warriors go to protests with mocking signs and T-shirts bearing slogans like "fighting the left ... doing it right." They quietly merge into a rally and wait for reactions. Sometimes they approach demonstrators and start a debate. Everything is caught on videotape and later posted on their Web site.
Members say they have covertly attended protest meetings to learn plans for previous actions, and will likely do that this summer. They won't protest at the Democratic convention this month because they want to focus their energy on the GOP gathering.
Many anti-Bush groups have been planning convention protests since last year. A clearinghouse of organizations now meets regularly to discuss logistical issues such as helping activists find housing and understand their legal rights if they're arrested.
Protest Warriors have barely begun considering these issues, but they concede they're protest neophytes.
"Conservatives by nature are not protesters _ they curse at the evening news but that voice is never heard," Sager said. "We are rookies in the protest world, so yes, we are uneducated in how protests work."
Most of the Protest Warriors say they don't expect to be arrested, but some acknowledge that could happen if they get caught up in swarms of demonstrators.
At a planning meeting last week in New York, leaders considered the terrifying consequences:
"Nobody wants to spend the night in jail with a bunch of crazy leftists," Paladino said.
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On the Net:
www.protestwarrior.com.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press |
