Activist Drops Manure at DNC Hotel
By Anthony Breznican
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, Aug. 12, 2000; 8:26 p.m. EDT
LOS ANGELES –– An activist dressed in a pink pig costume dumped
four tons of animal manure from a truck Saturday in front of a hotel
housing guests attending the Democratic National Convention.
Police arrested the animal rights activist and impounded the truck.
Elsewhere, anti-abortion activists and immigrant rights advocates
organized small protests, the first in a week of demonstrations expected to
draw thousands during the convention that starts Monday.
At the Wilshire Grand Hotel, about 10 people from People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals stood on the sidewalk as the activist dumped the
manure in the hotel driveway. Some wore the same full-body pig
costumes and carried placards that read, "Meat is murder."
City workers and hotel employees cleaned up the 5-foot by 10-foot spill
with shovels and trashcans.
In February, the group performed a similar stunt outside a restaurant
where Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush had just eaten
breakfast.
In other protests Saturday:
– Nearly 30 anti-abortion demonstrators marched around the site of the
convention carrying poster-sized pictures of aborted fetuses.
– Activists protesting U.S. immigration policies set up 553 white crosses
in a church parking lot to commemorate people who have lost their lives
crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since the 1994 inception of Operation
Gatekeeper, a crackdown that pushed illegal traffic to more remote and
treacherous areas.
About 50 people, nearly a dozen of them dressed in ceremonial Mexican
outfits, danced and marched in a protest outside Vice President Al Gore's
downtown office.
The National Chicano Moratorium Committee sponsored the rally about
three blocks from Staples Center, where the convention will take place, to
call for undocumented-worker amnesty and a stronger Hispanic voice in
government.
Rudy Pisani, 61, of Los Angeles, held a banner that read, "Democrats and
Republicans – Executioners of Latin Americans."
Other protesters prepared for demonstrations outside Staples Center by
making banners, picket signs and large, satiric puppets at their
headquarters near MacArthur Park.
A day earlier, a federal judge ruled that police could only enter that
building if they had a search warrant or during an emergency. The decision
came in response to the American Civil Liberties Union's complaint that
the headquarters, named the Convergence Center, had been a target of
police harassment.
The department earlier was ordered to shrink a security zone around the
Staples Center to allow demonstrators to be nearer to delegates.
Police Chief Bernard Parks joined activists Saturday to pay tribute to
children slain by violence and to call for greater restrictions on guns. Parks
and his wife, Bobbi, added a pair of ballet shoes belonging to their
20-year-old granddaughter Lori Gonzalez, who was gunned down outside
a fast-food restaurant, to more than 200 pairs of shoes from young victims
of gun violence.
"When people say guns don't kill people, they're not being truthful," Parks
said. "Guns do kill and they kill at a very high rate."
© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
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By Anthony Breznican
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, Aug. 12, 2000; 8:26 p.m. EDT
LOS ANGELES –– An activist dressed in a pink pig costume dumped
four tons of animal manure from a truck Saturday in front of a hotel
housing guests attending the Democratic National Convention.
Police arrested the animal rights activist and impounded the truck.
Elsewhere, anti-abortion activists and immigrant rights advocates
organized small protests, the first in a week of demonstrations expected to
draw thousands during the convention that starts Monday.
At the Wilshire Grand Hotel, about 10 people from People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals stood on the sidewalk as the activist dumped the
manure in the hotel driveway. Some wore the same full-body pig
costumes and carried placards that read, "Meat is murder."
City workers and hotel employees cleaned up the 5-foot by 10-foot spill
with shovels and trashcans.
In February, the group performed a similar stunt outside a restaurant
where Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush had just eaten
breakfast.
In other protests Saturday:
– Nearly 30 anti-abortion demonstrators marched around the site of the
convention carrying poster-sized pictures of aborted fetuses.
– Activists protesting U.S. immigration policies set up 553 white crosses
in a church parking lot to commemorate people who have lost their lives
crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since the 1994 inception of Operation
Gatekeeper, a crackdown that pushed illegal traffic to more remote and
treacherous areas.
About 50 people, nearly a dozen of them dressed in ceremonial Mexican
outfits, danced and marched in a protest outside Vice President Al Gore's
downtown office.
The National Chicano Moratorium Committee sponsored the rally about
three blocks from Staples Center, where the convention will take place, to
call for undocumented-worker amnesty and a stronger Hispanic voice in
government.
Rudy Pisani, 61, of Los Angeles, held a banner that read, "Democrats and
Republicans – Executioners of Latin Americans."
Other protesters prepared for demonstrations outside Staples Center by
making banners, picket signs and large, satiric puppets at their
headquarters near MacArthur Park.
A day earlier, a federal judge ruled that police could only enter that
building if they had a search warrant or during an emergency. The decision
came in response to the American Civil Liberties Union's complaint that
the headquarters, named the Convergence Center, had been a target of
police harassment.
The department earlier was ordered to shrink a security zone around the
Staples Center to allow demonstrators to be nearer to delegates.
Police Chief Bernard Parks joined activists Saturday to pay tribute to
children slain by violence and to call for greater restrictions on guns. Parks
and his wife, Bobbi, added a pair of ballet shoes belonging to their
20-year-old granddaughter Lori Gonzalez, who was gunned down outside
a fast-food restaurant, to more than 200 pairs of shoes from young victims
of gun violence.
"When people say guns don't kill people, they're not being truthful," Parks
said. "Guns do kill and they kill at a very high rate."
© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
Back to the top
And the mindless Sheeple have been eating it up! 
Unless of course they were Democrats