The Save Our State organization organized a rally yesterday at the monument in Baldwin Park CA discussed here.

A report is here, although I don't know whether it's exaggerated or not:

Everything that we argued the monument stood for was reinforced by the hundreds of activists who opposed our presence in Baldwin Park. Numerous times we were told that this land is Mexico and that they were taking it back. Numerous times racists epithets were hurled away. One person even hurled a full water bottle at our side and sent one of our activists to the hospital with bleeding in the brain. Unfortunately, she is now in the intensive care unit and we are all praying and hoping for the best.

What started as a rather peaceful and uneventful protest on our side ended in sheer hostility. The counter demonstrators were supposed to rally at the other end of the metrolink station, but proceeded to outflank the Baldwin Park Police Department and traveled through a local neighborhood so that they could formally confront us at the intersection allocated to us for our protest.

In waves they came. Soon outnumbered 500-50 in a community that is 85% Hispanic, crowd control soon became an issue. Rants, chants and Mexican flags filled the air. Their spit and a dragged and kicked American flag covered the ground. It is imperative to note that that was the only American flag displayed by our opponents...

Several links about this event, including pictures and video, are currently on the front page here.

The AP report ("Baldwin Park public artwork angers group opposed to illegal immigration") incorrectly states that no one was injured, and it's probably not a complete picture of the event. I confirmed with the Baldwin Park P.D. that there was the one injury described above and that the victim is in the ICU. The Baldwin Park police are investigating this matter.

However, I'm not holding out much hope of local or national political leaders condemning this attack.

UPDATE: There are more pictures here. Pictures from someone on the other side are here.

So far, I've seen banners from the Los Angeles branch of A.N.S.W.E.R., the San Gabriel Valley Neighbors for Peace and Justice, and the International Socialist Organization. Other, even less reputable outfits may have been involved.

Note that not all of those on the wrong side were Hispanic, and that reportedly 1/3 of those on the right side were Hispanic.

UPDATE 2: The AP report above appears to have been derived from the extraordinarily biased Los Angeles Times report "Protest Over Art Forces Police to Draw the Line" from David Pierson and Patricia Ward Biederman. The LAT report makes it sound like it was just one big party for peace and justice:

...Opponents of Save Our State consisted mainly of young adults who said they sent e-mails to Latino and immigrant worker advocacy groups. Many were politically active teenagers and college students who skateboarded to the scene...

They even describe A.N.S.W.E.R. L.A. as an "antiwar and anti-racism group" without any quotes or hedging. Apparently the L.A. Times didn't get the memo from committed lefties David Corn and Marc Cooper, neither of whom had good words for the parent organization.

There's more on the L.A. Times' report and on the groups involved here.

You can see a copy of the email that A.N.S.W.E.R. L.A. sent out at these google caches: that of polizeros.com and that of answerla.org .

Please contact readers.rep *at* latimes.com and feedback *at* ap.org with your thoughts on their coverage.

5/16/05 UPDATE: The LAT published a blurb from "a Times Staff Writer" stating that the victim had been observed overnight in an ICU. It also says that police are investigating the attack as an assault with a deadly weapon.

Also, the second paragraph of the main LAT article says that the protest was announced on the John and Ken Show (KFI 640AM Los Angeles). On their show, John and Ken say that that's false. The protest and the monument were discussed on two other KFI shows, but not theirs. They contacted one of the reporters and were told that a correction would be printed. Apparently the reporter was told that by one of the SOS protesters and didn't confirm it.