Scuffle Breaks Out As Socialists, Anarchists Protest Reform Meeting

"The national debate on illegal immigration has erupted into fisticuffs and legal trouble in an unlikely seat of political activism: a suburban street corner in Fremont. For three months, a group of seniors, war veterans, blue-collar workers and students has taken to the corner of Fremont Boulevard and Mowry Avenue every other Friday night to decry illegal immigration. But the rallies of the East Bay Coalition for Border Security, as the 30 or so people are called, have drawn ire from members of the International Socialist Organization and Green Party -- mostly idealistic 20-somethings who drive from San Francisco, Berkeley and Santa Cruz to counterprotest," the Contra Costa Times reports. "On a recent Friday, a fight broke out between the two groups. Four men on the border security side ended up with black eyes, chipped teeth and other injuries. A police officer's ear was split and started bleeding. Six people were arrested […] 'We are out there, a small group of middle-class Americans, carrying signs that say, 'Wake Up America,' and 'No Amnesty,' and this international group of socialists just comes and attacks us,' said Mary Washington, 60, of Union City and spokeswoman for the border security group, which formed in May."

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