HT: Michelle Malkin:From Freedom Folks:
I didn't know things had turned violent until I was almost bowled over into the street in front of oncoming traffic. I looked down to see Rick Biesada, head of The Chicago Minuteman Project, lying at my feet, blood trickling down his forehead.
I quickly helped him up and made sure he was alright, then we both turned around to see a small crowd push another Minuteman to the ground and start pummeling him. He forced his way up as a few people intervened, and got away from the crowd.
The problem was that there were two factions present at Bank Calumet in Munster, Indiana. IFIRE, along with CMP, their friends in the anti-ILLEGAL-immigration battle, regularly protests this bank for offering mortgages to ILLEGAL aliens.
Today we had counter-protesters, and the cops at first did nothing to keep us apart. When Jake and I showed up, we had to push our way through screaming socialists (more on that in a moment) to join our protest. Anywhere else we've ever protested with people holding an opposing point of view, the cops have instructed each group to take a certain spot to avoid this sort of thing.
The IFIRE/CMP folks stood together on the sidewalk, and the counter-protesters formed a line, surrounding us, and walked in a circle, jeering, chanting, and shouting slurs like "racist" and "Nazi" in our faces as they jostled by us.
Then the altercation went down. The cops were around the corner, and took a couple of minutes to get through the crowd...
They tried to calm everyone down, and figure out what had happened.
Rick and Joe explained that someone had grabbed Rick's sign and tore it up, then he was hit. Joe jumped in to try and help him, and he was then attacked by the group.
The police called an ambulance for Rick, who took a solid hit to the head. Joe had a good size lump on his head, as well. Fortunately, neither of them needed to be taken to the hospital for medical care
I bet these folks who assaulted the Minutemen are 'peaceniks', too. So much for being able to protest freely in this country. People who supposedly advocate protesting will attempt to crush you. Sounds like the pro-illegal crows learned tolerating different views from Bull Connor.
