Beltway Area Indymedia

(AUDIO:2 min 42 seconds)

On April 22 in Lafayette Park, members of Resistance and Solidarity, SDS, and the ISO answered the call to shout down the MinuteKlan and other anti-immigrant racist rally. With air horns, whistles, and loud chants, the racist message was stepped all over, just like a radio station getting heavy interference!

If you can imagine Don Imus trying to broadcast through a 50,000 watt jammer, that's what the MinuteKlan's racist speeches got.

Cops responded with intimidation tactics and threats of (illegal) mass arrest, forcing some protestors to retreat temporarily to Penn Ave. Others stood their ground, however-and chants from Penn Ave could be heard by those standing firm in Lafayette Park.

Cops pushed back several times, and tried but failed to grab two people. They thought they an an easy sack, but were stopped cold by a powerful defensive line! In the end, they settled for a police line across the center of the park and let the situation stabilize into a massive shouting match, pitting air horns and whistles against the racists' PA system.

As the air horns and whistles blew strong, the rest of the counterprotestors returned to Lafayette Park in solidarity, and the noise level just went up and up. At one point, one of the racists went so far as accuse Central Americans of practicing HUMAN SACRIFICE!

Everyone kept screaming at the racists to get out of town, long the air horns ran out of ammo and fell silent. Even as the racists left, they had to run a gauntlet of screaming counterdemonstrators.