After students forced the Minutemen off the stage, they chanted: Racist bastards go away!
READ THIS NOW: MINUTEMAN MOBBED
8:10 PM: -- Opening speaker Marvin Stewart steps up to the podium, and begins by thanking Jesus Christ and Chris Kulawik. "ARE YOU READY to surrender your liberties?" he demands of the crowd.
8:35 PM: Stewart is 30 minutes into a free-associative rant, ranging through scripture and America's Consitutional Republican form of government (NOT Democratic). People in the increasingly restless crowd shout: "You don't know shit about god! Black white supremacist!" "Go home! " to which Stewart counters: "I am home! God bless America! to which the crowd replies: "BOOOOOOOOOOO!"
It's getting more surreal by the minute.
Update 8:41 pm: Someone yells, "In Spanish, please!" The crowd bursts into a thunderous applause, which spirals into a full-out protest, complete with students wearing Mexican wrestling masks. The students are now standing up one by one, with their backs to the man, who has asked, "Are you standing with your backs to me? Why'd you come, no wonder you don't know anything." Repubs cheered, others sneered.
Update 8:45 pm: Some white-shirted students were just escorted out of the auditorium by security.
Finally the Minuteman himself enters. "Now who're you calling racist?" he shouts, putting his arm around Stewart, who is black. "I love the First Amendment. As soon as you graduate, you'll all be investment bankers. I've been where you at. I know you hate yourselves."
Update 9:00 pm: BWOG IS SHOCKED. STUDENTS WITH A BIG YELLOW SIGN JUST CAME ONTO THE STAGE. The sign says, "There are no illegals." Students rise en masse from the audience and rush the stage. The Minuteman and the students engaged in a tug of war with the banner. More people rush the stage, prompting a fist-fight. One female student is kicked in the head. A guy in a pony tail (definitely not a student) rushes the stage and fights with students (several witnesses saw him kick a student) and then banded together with the Minuteman to shout the pledge of allegiance as the rumble spun out of hand, "One nation! Under God! Indivisible!"
There was at least two minutes of chaos between students, other students and the Minutemen. Bwog took cover.
Everyone and their mother has official responses to the brawl, after the jump...
Statement released by "Those who occupied the stage:"
We celebrate free speech: for that reason we allowed the Minutemen to speak, and for that same reason we peacefully occupied the stage and spoke ourselves. Our peaceful protest was violently attacked by members of the College Republicans and their supporters, who are the very same people who invited the Minutemen to our campus in the first place. The Minutemen are not a legitimate voice in the debate on immigration. They are a racist, armed militia who have declared open hunting season on immigrants, causing countless hate crimes and over 3000 deaths on the border. Why should exploitative corporations have free passes between nations, but individual people not? No human being is illegal.
Mini-Riot at Columbia as Minutemen Forced Off Stage:
After the confrontation ended, a mosh pit of triumphal students and community members danced and chanted outside the auditorium, "Asian, Black, Brown and White, we smashed the Minutemen tonight!"
L.A. Times:
Gilchrist said he would continue to take his controversial message anywhere he could. He has talks scheduled in Iowa, Alabama and other locations in coming months.
No one was arrested. . . Gilchrist met with hundreds of protesters outside before speaking. They carried signs with messages such as "Minute-Klan, Get the Khell Out of New York" and "The Minutemen Are Not Our America."
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