"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
John 8:32
UPDATE (6/3/2017): See here at the 4:30 mark....
Since yesterday's mayhem, Democrats have attempted to dispute Matt Rinaldi's assertion that the anti-rule of law protesters were openly bragging about their illegal status. As we mentioned in our post about the incident yesterday, fellow state rep Pat Fallon had uploaded video of the events but there were formatting issues with this website. We've resolved those and present Fallon's videos (the second one is the worst):
Video #1:
Video #2:
[Note: This is the one where they're openly chanting about being in the country illegally.]
Video #3:
Finally, allow us to add a few personal observations from yesterday. We didn't take any pictures or video as we observed these events because we didn't think they'd later be in dispute. But, from memory:
- We were not on the Capitol grounds as most of the craziness occurred; we were at a separate event three blocks away and arrived about 45 minutes later.
- As we were milling through the crowd at their rally (Confession: we wanted to see if there was food), we heard multiple speakers on the South steps of the Capitol bragging about how they were busing in people from "Florida," "New Mexico," and "New York" along with other locations we don't recall.
- Looking North from the back of the Capitol parking garage, we saw buses lined up Trinity st as far as the eye could see.
- It's also worth mentioning that a lot of them were wearing red "Fight for 15" (ie. $15 minimum wage) shirts.
That being said, it's worth pointing out that protests where people openly brag about illegal status happen all the time in Austin. Here's an example from April 2014; here's an example from November 2016. We've previously thought about doing the same thing as Rinaldi, but decided against kicking that particular hornet's nest; in the future, now that the nest's been kicked....
Bottom Line: The videos (especially the second) speak for themselves....
Someone recorded 30 minutes for Texas Observer in the gallery and central court/rotunda. It was available earlier today on FB. Also, I downloaded a copy Monday. Throughout the video, many chanted they were illegal and here to stay.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but I listened and watched the 3 second videos and I don't hear the protesters chanting or bragging that they were here illegally. I even put my headphones on and everything to give the videos my undivided attention.
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