Center protest gets tense

Lauren Vane

What was advertised as a protest against illegal immigration and city

funding of the Laguna Beach Job Center took a different turn when a

group described as white supremacists began waving Nazi flags

Saturday along Laguna Canyon Road.

Police monitored the event, confiscating mace and an illegal knife

from one protester, Capt. Danell Adams said. Police were prepared to

call for backup from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department when the

protest subsided, Adams said.

“They seem to be more interested in fighting and creating havoc

than they are addressing the issue,” Adams said of the flag-waving

protesters.

Police received information prior to Saturday’s event from the

Anti-Defamation League that white supremacists were planning to

attend, Adams said.

Information about Saturday’s protest was posted on the website of

Save Our State, an activist group against illegal immigration that

was responsible for organizing the protest held more than a week ago

at the same location.

Adams estimated that 150 people were demonstrating at the height

of activity Saturday.

Laguna Beach resident Eileen Garcia, an organizer of a previous

demonstration, said those waving Nazi flags were not affiliated with

the organizers of the initial protest.

“It gained a lot of attention, and all of these other groups have

now jumped on the bandwagon,” Garcia said. “Not one single one of our

people were at this protest.”

Protesters preaching messages of racial intolerance derail focus

from the original issue -- protesting community assistance funds

going toward the job center, Garcia said.

David Peck, chairman of the Cross-Cultural Council, a volunteer

group that oversees the day laborer center, said he has mixed

feelings about the protests.

It’s healthy for the community to debate the issue of immigration

but not when racial intolerance becomes a factor, Peck said.

“This is a kind of flashpoint issue that mobilizes people on both

sides,” Peck said.

One group, though, has taken it too far, Peck said. Someone has

been calling the job center’s cellphone and harassing anyone who

answers with demeaning racial comments, he said.

The calls began several weeks ago, and at one point, the site was

receiving up to 35 calls a day, Peck said.