Shenandoah, PA Pro-American Rally a Big Success Today
August 30th, 2008
Dan and I drove 2 hours to Shenandoah, PA to speak at a Voice of the People USA Rally being held there to counter the hate speech which has descended upon the town ever since the July 12th incident where several teens have been accused of attacking a 25 year old illegal alien Mexican, Luis Ramirez, which then resulted in his death days later in the hospital.
The accused teens are out on bail and there has been a preliminary hearing so far. The trial date and venue have not been set. Some of the relatives of the accused teens were at the rally and we spoke with them. We hope to share some additional information that has not come out in the media, that we learned from them as well.
The turnout from this small town of 5600 people was phenomenal! The police presence was also incredible and the weather held out perfectly even though thunderstorms had been predicted. The police estimated around 600 people attending and the crowd was quite enthusiastic and vocal in their reception of the speakers. There were some skinhead types among the crowd but it’s a free country and Voice of the People USA were not excluding anyone, even the opposition, who made a brief appearance while displaying a Mexican flag. The crowd reacted but then resisted the attempts by the girls to get a reaction and there were no incidents.
We have lots of photos and video to process from the 8 hour day today which we hope to have up by the end of the weekend. There were many reporters and camera people there so it should be interesting to see how the event is portrayed in the various media.
The atmosphere at this rally was quite energizing and the entire time a helicopter hovered around overhead - we aren’t sure if it was a news helicopter or a police helicopter. I would have to say there were about 20 police there - it seemed from two different departments - perhaps some State troopers and some local police. It was comforting having all the police there since this incident has divided this town and created a great amount of hostility between many of the residents.