March 25, 2006

Masses

I didn't make it down to Civic Center Park, but judging from the traffic and large number of pedestrians in the area there was a very large turnout for the immigration rally here in Denver.

Initial news reports indicate the same.

Update: The AP reports:

More than 50,000 people gathered downtown Saturday as part of a national protest against a crackdown in immigration laws, including federal legislation aimed at criminalizing illegal immigrants and building more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Protesters also came out to urge the state Senate to reject a resolution supporting a ballot issue that would deny many government services to illegal immigrants in Colorado.

The large crowd surprised police officers, who were expecting only a few thousand people at Civic Center Park next to the Capitol and Denver city and county buildings, said Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson.

But the crowd, mostly made up of families and older people, was respectful and the four-hour rally ended without incident, he said.

Families with children in tow were what I saw.

Posted by Walter at March 25, 2006 04:21 PM
Comments

I'm not sure if it was the NBC or ABC affiliate's local news I had on briefly after the network news, before I shut it off, half an hour ago, but one of them actually got a quote of someone passing by the rally saying -- and I quote word for word -- "why don't you Mexicans go back where you came from?"

Ah, the classics.

The evil NY Times had a story the other week on the large number of illegal immigrants that are here from Ireland, by the way. And how many politicians showed up for their rally, but not the swarthy folks' rally.

Posted by: Gary Farber at March 25, 2006 05:34 PM

Did you know that the Irish group mentioned above is funded by the Irish government?

If you didn't know that, and you care about minor matters like foreign governments meddling in our laws, let me suggest a wee bit o' research before talking about this subject, boyo.

Posted by: TLB at March 25, 2006 10:12 PM

TLB, are you saying it's OK for our politicians to show up at rallies sponsored by foriegn governments, but not ones lacking sponsorship?

Posted by: Walter at March 25, 2006 10:16 PM