The Morning Report
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The San Diego Minutemen are planning a large protest at a day laborer’s site in Rancho Penasquitos this Saturday.
The press release I just got from Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen, is a little confused as to the protest’s aims, but this seems to be the gist of it:
The San Diego Minutemen, San Diego County’s largest American Civil Rights and Neighborhood Watch Group will protest the city of San Diego’s handling of violent day labor sites and illegal squatter camps at the infamous Penasquitos Blvd. day labor site
The event is planned to coincide with the one-year anniversary of an altercation between Los Angeles-based anti-immigration activist John Monti and a group of migrant workers. Monti claimed he had been attacked by the migrant workers and went on national television with a “Wanted” poster featuring photos of the men.
The San Diego City Attorney’s Office then brought charges against Monti, claiming that it was he who had battered the migrants, not vice-versa. Monti was acquitted of the charges last month. Now a local ACLU-affiliated attorney is bringing a civil case against Monti for damages resulting from the same incident.
The Minutemen aren’t happy, hence the protest, which will doubtless also be attended by ACLU activists and anti-Minutemen protestors. I expect there will be a lot of dueling video cameras and a lot of heated words.