Operation: Throw Lefty a curve

This will be the first part about Sunday, November 19th. A lot happened, so it will be split into a few parts as time allows.

For a few weeks we (myself and General Pat) have been organising a counter-protest/troop support rally in Sierra Vista, AZ against the School of The Americas watch. We had been keeping it secret because for YEARS they have gone with very little counter demonstration. That was all to change this year.

3 weeks ago, I obtained a permit from the City of Sierra Vista to hold an assemblage on the 4 corners of Fry Blvd and Buffalo Soldier Tr (Hwy 90) My permit entitled us to 75 feet on each corner east of the entrance to the base and 25 feet in front of the base. It turns out....it was useless to get that permit (more on that later)

Leading up to the event, we met with The Arizona Department of Public Safety to go over who we are, what we were doing and what our ground rules were. The detectives were very nice and accomodating and had met Pat before at different Republican and Troop rallies (this man is the head of the counter-terrorism unit, therefore, he knew us by sight) EVERYONE...including the DPS was working under the assumption that we were permitted and had legal access to the sidewalks and those were "ours"

On the Friday before the rally, we let the cat out of the bag so to speak and began talking about it openly, prior to this we had connected with the Southern Arizona Minutemen, Cochise County Republicans, Patriot Guard Riders and Freedom Riders. Irv, from the Cochise County Republicans, did a STUPENDOUS job in making calls and getting the support on Board, I cant thank him enough for his efforts.

On the morning of the rally, our group assembled here in Tucson at 11 am for the trip down there, we consolidated vehicles and began the trip down. Arring at 12:30 we quickly setup our flags and decorations, as our people were doing this, myself and General Pat made our way over to the Sgt of the Sierra Vista Police to introduce ourselves, provide a copy of our guidelines for the day and go over any last minute instructions they had for us.

We were shocked and dismayed at what we were told.

Even THOUGH we had a permit, and the sidewalks were covered by that permit, the police said they were not going to honor it. Their reasoning, its a public easement and as such is free passage. To say we were outwardly PISSED at this development was the understatement of the CENTURY. This set the tone for the day. He we are in a military town, and the cops were on the side of the liberals. Ah well...its happened before...

After decorating all 4 corners with flags, I headed over to where some MP's had gathered to introduce myself and thank them for their service. The Captain told me that they were talking to J.A.G. attornies to ask if they could keep everyone from being on the side of the base (Rumor has it that the base was on threat condition Bravo, which I believe..and I may be wrong about this..is the 2nd highest level of base readiness, I cant remember if Alpha is the highest or Delta is the highest) The Captain explained that they are considering asking us to remove our flags, the reasoning, if they allow our signs and flags, they have to allow the liberals..but if they deny us, they can deny them. I could tell the Captain was torn by this, he appreciated us, you could see it in his eyes, but he had to maintain some sense of irony...and that is that it has become politically incorrect to fly an American flag in front of an Army base.

Explaining to him that we are willing and ready to co-operate 100% fully with any requests that he makes, he got word from one of his guys that the J.A.G. decided it was ok to ask us to remove them, then bar EVERYONE from that side of the street. He turned to us and I told him, not a problem, the flags are coming down. He thanked us as he turned red in the face and I reassured him that it made perfect sense (which it did)

Gathering everything up and heading back across the street I noticed that the moonbats had begun to arrive. Spiff, from FreeRepublic, had also arrived with camera equipment in hand. He quickly made a bee-line for a truck that had pulled in and the man and woman were changing into orange jumpsuits. Also, on the other side of the street, some moonbats were complaining to the police about our presence there. Apparently, they were insulted because the corners had been "theirs" for years. They were given the same answer that we were, its a public easement and they werent going to stop anyone from protesting there. This opened the door to them mingling with us, and raising tensions on both sides. Good job Sierra Vista PD...your inexperience with counter-protest set the stage for what happened later in the day.

More to come this afternoon after I get home from work, Get ready for angry moonbats, street theatre, sign theft, them mingling with us, but us not being allowed to mingle with them, frustrations boiling over and angry newspaper photographers.