Anaheim prides itself as being a city of kindness, but Ku Klux Klan melees, police shootings and now a Trump rally prove it to be a city of madness! The latest episode happened yesterday when councilwoman Kris Murray championed a resolution denouncing the divisive rhetoric of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The Claremont-based We The People Rising responded by hosting a pro-Trump rally.
Despite Murray’s attempt to portray herself as a benevolent defender of the downtrodden, the whole pathetic spectacle blew up in her face. “Donald Trump has repeatedly used his platform as presidential candidate to attack people of many races, religions, and creeds, women, veterans, many of our allied nations, as well as local, state, and national religious leaders,” the resolution read. The Donald’s rhetoric was singled out “as not being reflective of the City of Anaheim’s guiding principles and kindness.”
Murray summoning Anaheim as the city of kindness? That’s the line of Mayor Tom Tait, her sworn enemy on the council! And that should have been the first thick whiff of bullshit surrounding this whole spectacle, but media outlets like the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times took the bait hook, line and sinker (another hint: the first places to report the resolution were piece-of-shit blogs Anaheim Blog and The Liberal OC, the latter being an outlet that never met a Matt “Outed Sex-Abuse Victims” Cunningham post it didn’t immediately want to republish).
When time came around for the actual city council meeting, pro-Trump and anti-Trump speakers trashed the resolution. Only a few people spoke in favor of it. Congressional candidate Lou Correa offered his support in English and Spanish. “Go back to Mexico,” a Trump support yelled from the audience. “I’m an American-born citizen,” Correa responded.
For as testy as things got inside the council meeting, the real action happened before it started. A group of about 50 Trump supporters and counter-protesters squared off near city hall. “Trump, Trump, all the way,” the Donald’s fans chanted. Young Latinos who gathered in protest found it way too easy to riff off of that. “Fuck Trump, all the way!” they wisecracked.
Veteran OC activist Naui Huitzilopochtli filmed the Trump supporters at the rally. Both sides got chest-to-chest when two men blared their bullhorns with pro-Donald stooges yammering right at Naui’s camera. A scuffle ensued afterward with pepper spray coming from the anti-Trump side. It all started when a Trump fan shoved the bullhorn into the face of a counter-protester who, in turn, lunged into the crowd and sprayed. Five folks, including two young girls, got struck by the pepper spray. (Of course, the Register didn’t bother to report the whole matter, with reporter Joseph Pimental, giving his hands a break from his usual all-day job of offering hand jobs to Disneyland, making the clash seem as one-sided as the gassing of Halabja).
Things stayed testy after the brief scuffle.”You think I give a fuck?”a Trump-supporting Latina unloaded on a young Latino. “I will fucking Tase you straight to the neck!” Before berating him, she turned the Taser on, brandishing and zapping it a few times. The kid never flinched and flashed a smirk. Anaheim police had a uniformed presence, but only at the entrance of city hall. They didn’t come down in riot gear to the rally site until after standoff happened. All the Trump supporters headed into the city council next.
When they came out, punk protesters bumping YG and Nipsey Hussle’s “FDT (Fuck Donald Tump)” song rushed up the steps of city hall. Riot cops and other security escorted the haters, including one holding a “Secure Our Border” sign, back to their cars away from the crowd.
Five hours into the council meeting, Tait finally made a motion for no action to be taken on the resolution, noting that he didn’t support Trump himself but cited concerns about the legality of using city staff time to target a presidential candidate. “This really was democracy in action,” Murray said of the night. “I’m not doing this for any political reason.” She then tried to amend the resolution by striking out direct references to Donald Trump and generally denounce divisive rhetoric in the presidential campaign.
The council moved to take no action instead, with councilwoman Lucille Kring being the surprise swing vote. The amended resolution can come back for a vote next meeting but not before Murray already made Anaheim stupid again.
