Truck scatters antiwar protest
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Driver puts rig on sidewalk near demonstrators

By William A. Weathers
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A truck driver from South Fairmount was arrested Monday after he drove toward a group of anti-war protesters with his tractor-trailer rig in the West End.

"It (the semi cab) stopped about 10 feet from the nearest protester," Larry Schartman, one of the about 40 people who were participating in a "Peace in Iraq" rally, said Monday night. "Thank God nobody got hurt."

Police charged James Watters, 49, with aggravated menacing, inducing panic and reckless operation in the incident that occurred about 6 p.m. on the Ezzard Charles Drive bridge over Interstate 75.

According to the police report, an officer observed Watters drive his truck onto the sidewalk of the pedestrian walkway toward a large group of protestors causing them "to run in fear of being hit."

"It was an antiwar demonstration. We were holding up signs so the people on the interstate could see them," said Mary Ann Reese, 46, of East Walnut Hills. "There were 30 or 40 of us standing there holding our signs and I turned around and he was on the sidewalk coming towards us leaning on his horn.

"The general prevailing sentiment was that some of us were going to get hit. One person was in a wheelchair, so he really had to scatter. It was frightening. It (the semi) did stop before he hit anyone."

Protesters said the driver also appeared to be making an obscene gesture.

Schartman, a 50-year-old U.S. Navy veteran who served in Vietnam, said the demonstration had been a peaceful event until the truck appeared.

"I heard the horn blowing," he said. "He was up on the sidewalk. It stopped about 10 feet from the nearest protestor. It was really peaceful until that moment."

Police officers who were nearby responded to the scene quickly and arrested the truck driver.

"I'm a Vietnam veteran," the Mariemont resident said. "I think I've earned the right to stand out there with other citizens and oppose the war."

Watters was taken to the Justice Center.

Yep, that action really helped the coalition cause. :(

Pretty damned dumb to be certain. I live near Cinti, so got even more details. The truck driver was also a veteran and his son is presently fighting in Iraq.
It appears that the stress got to him, but that is still no excuse. Several of the man's sisters were inverviewed and pretty much laid out the treatment he had received as a young man returning from Vietnam, by like minded protestors. Now that his son was over there risking life and limb as well, I suppose he had, had enough. He was charged with enough crimes, to be put behind bars for some time to come.
For those "insurrectionists", calling themselves protestors" in NYC, by trying to disrupt the lives of other average citizens, merely trying to make a living, perhaps they should take notice. If they are desiring to be martyrs for their "cause", there is solid proof of people out there willing to help them.

Stupidity reigns on both sides of the argument in these instances.

Man, people are losing their minds.. They better lock this guy up.

Heya Elric! Long time no see [img]smile.gif[/img] How are things?

This, I think, raises one important point. He's exactly right that you get total morons on both sides, and you hear alot about them. However, you only hear about them because it doesn't sell newspapers or get viewers to report "Peace protest occurs peacefully. Peace reigned and points were made peacefully."

As IW and the other forums demostrate, for every nerk that does/says something stupid in defense of/opposition to the war, there are thousands of civilised, sane people who show their viewpoints rationally. I know all we hear about are the fruitloops, but I always try to remember that they *are* in the minority, despite what some media sources would have us believe [img]smile.gif[/img]

If I believed people like Mr Dangerous Driver were representative of demonstraters generally, I think what little faith I have in the human race would vanish faster than my wallet when my brother asks to borrow money ;)

But I'd be willing to bet my house that the violent thugs who are anti-war far outnumber the violent thugs on the pro-war side.

Well how the hell ya doing Elric?

[ 03-27-2003, 04:12 PM: Message edited by: khazadman ]

I think that perception changes depending on which side of the fence you're on, khazadman. ;)

I'll take that bet, how do you propose to prove this strange statement?

LOL - this conclusion seems to transcend all logic and the rules incumbent of it - please explain the hows and wherefore's of this recognizance of yours. [img]smile.gif[/img]

How many people have been arrested at rallies supporting the war? Do they try to throw acid into the faces of cops? Assault them with baseball bats? When do you even see the pro war people break the law? Hell, that's par for the course for the PEACE protesters.To cause as much disruption as possible is their goal.

Funny how you can see the actions of a few and associate them with the many.

The thousands of pro-peace people in Boston I joined this morning threw no acid in anyones face or broke any laws. These were young and old, families and students, of all skin colors, religions and ethnicities.

Not only are you making sweeping generalizations about pro-peace activists, those generalizations are also wrong.

Obviously if you support the status quo you won't want to rock the boat would you? Please give a link to the acid throwing incident, I would be interested to read about that.

Maybe like these gentle pro-war folks that carried signs saying anti-war people deserve a bullet to the head and that we should nuke Canada for their obstinance in questioning the war machine:

Local protesters shout about war

A group protesting for peace in Iraq faced unexpected confrontation Saturday afternoon when a hastily-organized crowd met them with threats of violence and profanity.
During their march from the Baton Rouge Beach to LSU's Greek Amphitheater, about 70 peace demonstrators said they support American armed forces, but they oppose the government that sent them into war.

About the same number of people, incited by a local radio station, shouted them down with obscenities, patriotic chants and cries of "Traitor!"

Along with plenty of American flags, several of the signs they carried demeaned the marchers: "Protesting this war while our troops are being killed is equal to treason," read one. "You should all be shot."

Police at the beach to escort the marchers stepped in to separate the sides when shoving started.

"Radio disc jockeys called to inform me they had asked their listeners to come and use profanity, to insult us," said Caitlin Grabarek, a student organizer who said she got harassing phone messages after KOOJ mentioned the peace rally on the air.

For the sake of demonstrators' children present, she asked the police to make sure no fighting broke out.

Many of the people carrying bullhorns and singing 'Give Peace a Chance' were students, along with other activists and a handful who drove in from New Orleans.

They had just begun to gather at the beach on Stanford Avenue around noon when a shouting match erupted between the anti-war camp and the crowd that showed up to oppose them.

"You swore to serve your country, but you are not serving it now," one man yelled at veteran Brian Roos, who opposes the war. Like most of the disrupters, Roos' antagonist was careful to point fingers without coming to blows.

"You remember the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, don't you?" one peace demonstrator responded angrily. "They're why you have a right to speak your mind."

"So do it at home," one man shouted back. "Quietly!"

"They don't know what they're talking about," said Roos. "You can't argue with people like that."

Richard Condon, a morning show host for rock station KOOJ, said he wanted the hecklers to "put these goofballs in their place."

"This has been going on since World War I, and it's the reason they have the right to feel the way they do," Condon said, pointing at the peace protesters marching down Stanford toward LSU.

Despite that right, he concluded, "I think these son-of-a-buggers deserve a bullet in the head."

This followed his proclamation to the crowd at the beach about American military aims that ended with: "And it's about time we nuked Canada's ass!"

Condon's station is one of six in Baton Rouge owned by Las Vegas-based Citadel Communications, one of the largest radio conglomerates in the United States.

Citadel's largest competitor, Clear Channel Communications of San Antonio, Texas, has drawn attention recently for organizing support-the-troops demonstrations through local stations.

Business managers for Clear Channel, which owns four Baton Rouge stations, and for Citadel were not available for comment.

Police kept the counter-demonstrators a few yards from the top of the Amphitheater, leaving them to yell down at the peace crowd.

"I see the 'Sieg Heil' people are here!" laughed Al D'Souza, warming up his synthesizer on-stage at the Amphitheatre before marchers finished their two-mile route.

He walked to the top and repeated himself several times, greeting the jeering disrupters with the raised-arm salute popular in Hitler's Germany. They didn't get the joke.

After the marchers arrived, a young woman walking by talking on her cell phone stopped and stared at the people near the stage.

"There's some kind of damn socialists down in the theater, talking about how we need to end the war," she said just when one of the peace protesters, talking through a loudspeaker, denounced the "fascism" of President Bush and his government.

There was little confrontation at the theater, mostly each side yelling to its own, until Condon worked out a plan to drown out the anti-war speakers. Some of his group rode motorcycles, and they dropped the machines into neutral and blasted their engines at deafening volume.

The noise went on for several minutes, but the theater's acoustics amplified the anti-war speakers enough to be heard. As raindrops started to fall and the temperature dropped, the peace demonstrators handed out bananas and oranges, and their opponents lost interest and left.

"They incited the masses to feel their American fervor, drink some beers and yell at us," sighed Alcena Rogan, an LSU English teacher. "I guess this is democracy."

Maybe like these gentle pro-war folks that carried signs saying anti-war people deserve a bullet to the head and that we should nuke Canada for their obstinance in questioning the war machine:

Local protesters shout about war

A group protesting for peace in Iraq faced unexpected confrontation Saturday afternoon when a hastily-organized crowd met them with threats of violence and profanity.
During their march from the Baton Rouge Beach to LSU's Greek Amphitheater, about 70 peace demonstrators said they support American armed forces, but they oppose the government that sent them into war.

About the same number of people, incited by a local radio station, shouted them down with obscenities, patriotic chants and cries of "Traitor!"

Along with plenty of American flags, several of the signs they carried demeaned the marchers: "Protesting this war while our troops are being killed is equal to treason," read one. "You should all be shot."

Police at the beach to escort the marchers stepped in to separate the sides when shoving started.

"Radio disc jockeys called to inform me they had asked their listeners to come and use profanity, to insult us," said Caitlin Grabarek, a student organizer who said she got harassing phone messages after KOOJ mentioned the peace rally on the air.

For the sake of demonstrators' children present, she asked the police to make sure no fighting broke out.

Many of the people carrying bullhorns and singing 'Give Peace a Chance' were students, along with other activists and a handful who drove in from New Orleans.

They had just begun to gather at the beach on Stanford Avenue around noon when a shouting match erupted between the anti-war camp and the crowd that showed up to oppose them.

"You swore to serve your country, but you are not serving it now," one man yelled at veteran Brian Roos, who opposes the war. Like most of the disrupters, Roos' antagonist was careful to point fingers without coming to blows.

"You remember the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, don't you?" one peace demonstrator responded angrily. "They're why you have a right to speak your mind."

"So do it at home," one man shouted back. "Quietly!"

"They don't know what they're talking about," said Roos. "You can't argue with people like that."

Richard Condon, a morning show host for rock station KOOJ, said he wanted the hecklers to "put these goofballs in their place."

"This has been going on since World War I, and it's the reason they have the right to feel the way they do," Condon said, pointing at the peace protesters marching down Stanford toward LSU.

Despite that right, he concluded, "I think these son-of-a-buggers deserve a bullet in the head."

This followed his proclamation to the crowd at the beach about American military aims that ended with: "And it's about time we nuked Canada's ass!"

Condon's station is one of six in Baton Rouge owned by Las Vegas-based Citadel Communications, one of the largest radio conglomerates in the United States.

Citadel's largest competitor, Clear Channel Communications of San Antonio, Texas, has drawn attention recently for organizing support-the-troops demonstrations through local stations.

Business managers for Clear Channel, which owns four Baton Rouge stations, and for Citadel were not available for comment.

Police kept the counter-demonstrators a few yards from the top of the Amphitheater, leaving them to yell down at the peace crowd.

"I see the 'Sieg Heil' people are here!" laughed Al D'Souza, warming up his synthesizer on-stage at the Amphitheatre before marchers finished their two-mile route.

He walked to the top and repeated himself several times, greeting the jeering disrupters with the raised-arm salute popular in Hitler's Germany. They didn't get the joke.

After the marchers arrived, a young woman walking by talking on her cell phone stopped and stared at the people near the stage.

"There's some kind of damn socialists down in the theater, talking about how we need to end the war," she said just when one of the peace protesters, talking through a loudspeaker, denounced the "fascism" of President Bush and his government.

There was little confrontation at the theater, mostly each side yelling to its own, until Condon worked out a plan to drown out the anti-war speakers. Some of his group rode motorcycles, and they dropped the machines into neutral and blasted their engines at deafening volume.

The noise went on for several minutes, but the theater's acoustics amplified the anti-war speakers enough to be heard. As raindrops started to fall and the temperature dropped, the peace demonstrators handed out bananas and oranges, and their opponents lost interest and left.

"They incited the masses to feel their American fervor, drink some beers and yell at us," sighed Alcena Rogan, an LSU English teacher. "I guess this is democracy."</font>[/QUOTE]What a bunch of ignorant jingoistic bigots. They are not what America is about at all, but people do have a tendency behave in uncivilized manners during times of distress.

The "support the troops" and "pro-war" Groups I have seen gathering have been far more polite than that, even here in Boston where people are famous for being *$$#@!&$. They even took good humor on saturday when pro-peace people started chanting "Bring them home" after their chants of "Support the troops"! Of course they changed their chant to "USA USA USA" pretty quickly. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 03-31-2003, 09:35 PM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]