Save Our State

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Save Our State logo

“Save Our State” redirects here. For other uses, see Save Our State (disambiguation).

Save Our State (SOS) is an activist organization opposed to illegal immigration in Southern California. The group also has a chapter in Northern California. It was granted 501(c)(3) non-profit status in late 2005.

1 Origin
2 Activities and tactics
3 Baldwin Park I
4 Response
5 Opposition
6 Alleged ties to extremist groups
7 Controversy and internal strife
8 References
9 External links
10 News

[edit] Origin

The group takes its name from California's 1994 Proposition 187, known as the "Save Our State" initiative. The proposition, which would have denied health care and education to illegal immigrant residents of California, was approved by a majority of voters in 1994 but was immediately challenged in court and was eventually struck down by a US district court four years later.

The group was incorporated in July 2004 by Ventura resident Joseph Turner, who was unsatisfied with the existing immigration-reform groups whose letter-writing campaigns he deemed ineffectual. In an interview, Turner stated, "Our belief is that if that worked or had any sort of positive influence, we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in." In contrast, SOS's tactics are statedly "aggressive", and "in-your-face". Their language reflects this, intentionally eschewing what they perceive to be the political correctness that characterized the language of the 1990s. In the opinion of Turner and many of his supporters, political correctness and multiculturalism are both factors that contribute to the continued entry of illegal aliens into the United States.

[edit] Activities and tactics

SOS and counterdemonstrators outside of a Home Depot in Glendale, California, December 10, 2005.

SOS's first campaign was in December 2004, when, after launching a website with a forum, they announced a boycott of Home Depot for funding day labor centers on or near their store locations. Later, in the spring of 2005, SOS protested billboards advertising KRCA-TV's Spanish-language newscast that displayed the Mexico City landmark Angel of Independence in the center of the Los Angeles skyline. Accompanying text read "Los Angeles, CA Mexico. Tu Ciudad. Tu Equipo." ("Your city. Your newsteam.")[1] Reports vary as to whether or not the protests had any effect on their removal. SOS has continued protesting against Home Depot, day-laborer hiring sites, and even works of art they view as reflecting a mentality that encourages illegal immigration.

The underlying philosophy of the protests is referred to by Turner as "the transference of pain", a tactic for which he credits his wife. In Turner's words,

"It’s a very simple concept, and it just means that if you do not make it painful enough for an organization or entity to continue doing what they’re doing, then they’re simply going to keep doing it. That pain can take any number of shapes or forms. If you’re a politician, the pain could be at the ballot box or in the polls. If it’s a corporation, it’s inflicting the bottom line or their PR and image and things like that."

[edit] Baldwin Park I

The group's next action provoked a great deal of controversy. SOS protested the monumental artwork Danzas Indigenas at the Metrolink station in Baldwin Park, California. The work, commissioned by the city and designed by UCLA professor, Chicana artist, and SPARC founder Judy Baca with community input, featured several inscriptions on Mission-style arches, two of which drew the ire of anti-illegal immigration activists. A quote from the Chicana writer Gloria Anzaldua reads, "This land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is, and will be again." The other read "It was better before they came." About the first quote, Turner stated, "It's seditious. It essentially talks about returning this land to Mexico." About the second quote, which Baca states was actually uttered by a white Baldwin Park resident lamenting the influx of Mexican Americans after World War II, Baca has stated that it is deliberately ambiguous to allow the viewer's interpretation of "they" to reveal something about the viewer. SOS claims the referent of "they" is "white people".

On May 14, 2005, approximately 40 members of Save Our State held signs in front of the monument. About 600 counterprotesters, including college students, community members, and immigrants' rights activists, arrived, urging the group to abandon its protest, shouting such slogans as "Racists go home". Defenders of the monument prominently displayed the flag of Mexico when squaring off against the American flags carried by Save Our State. They were joined by a man an independent journalist later identified as Frank “Mohammed” Martinez, a "known agent provocateur".[2] Police in riot gear were called in from several neighboring departments to maintain a wall of separation between the groups. In the day's only incident of physical violence, an SOS protester, a sixty-six year old Minuteman Project volunteer named Laura D. "Dottie" Dalton, was hit in the head by a water bottle lobbed from area of the counterprotesting crowd. She was held overnight for observation but was released the next day.

[edit] Response

The event was covered in local newspapers, as well as by writers for the Los Angeles Independent Media Center, and in broadcast media by KPFK's Uprising and What's Right With America (WRWA), a conservative public access talk show in Santa Barbara, California. National conservative websites such as World Net Daily picked up the story after viewing footage posted on WRWA's website.[3] The most shocking footage was of Martinez, who, wearing a turban, made such statements as "Viva Zarqawi, the gringo killer!".

The SOS website also experienced heavy traffic, with supporters and detractors alike registering thousands of opinions.

The police presence required to separate the two sides was precisely the type of "pain" Turner and his group sought to "transfer" to the city government of Baldwin Park. In an interview, Turner stated,

"The city of Baldwin Park have a monument up there, and the local paper that covers that area just published an article recently said that our very first event cost the city of Baldwin Park $20,000 in overtime for their officers. That only covered the actual Baldwin Park contingent. There were over 200 officers there for our first rally, but the city of Baldwin Park has fewer than 100 full-time police officers, based on the most current numbers available on the Internet. That tells me that probably another $20,000 was spent by the other municipalities that were reinforcing them. Then you have the mayor crying about how the city is under siege and people are saying that they can’t afford the financial burden. Let’s face it: $20,000 in the grand scheme of things in a city the size of Baldwin Park isn’t a huge amount of money, but when you consider that local governments pretty much allocate every single of their budget, it obviously adds up."

Baldwin Park Mayor Manuel Lozano has publicly defended the language of the monument as a work of art, therefore free expression, and has demonstrated his support for counterprotesting organizations with "handshake walk" among their ranks. He has publicly described Save Our State as a 'hate group'. Mayor Lozano led the Baldwin Park City Council to formally proclaim that the monument would remain intact on June 25, 2005.

[edit] Opposition

Opposition to SOS has originated in many quarters and organization of counterdemonstrations has largely been ad hoc. Galvanized by the protest of the monument, a coalition calling themselves "Committee to Defend Danzas Indigenas" was formed, and they helped the city of Baldwin Park to plan the response to the second protest of the monument known as Balwin Park II (BPII). An Inland Empire-based group called the Southern California Human Rights Network began to protest Save Our State within a few months of the beginning of its activities. They group worked with another newly-founded coalition, La Tierra Es De Todos, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The San Diego-based Gente Unida ("People United") extended their anti-Minuteman activities to include anti-SOS actions. Leftist antiwar organizations such as San Gabriel Neighbors for Peace and Justice and the Los Angeles branch of ANSWER also organized in opposition, as did the socialist groups ISO and the Socialist Workers Party. Day laborer organizations such as the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and their supporters the Catholic Charities have both spoken out against SOS and their tactics. Hispanic groups such as Mexica Movement, MEChA, La voz de Aztlan, SPARC, Danza Azteca groups, and local musicians and visual artists have all denounced the group.

[edit] Alleged ties to extremist groups

Save Our State protests a day labor center in Laguna Beach, September 25, 2005

Save Our State has been identified as a race-based hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center^[1]. SOS has attracted attention from White nationalist and Neo-nazi groups such as the National Alliance, who have made several appearances at their protests. After SOS announced their intention to return to Baldwin Park, notice was placed on the Stormfront website, an "online white nationalist community" headed by former klansman Don Black.

Neo-nazis made their first appearance at SOS' June 25 return to Baldwin Park. They had previously attended a Home Depot protest in Victorville, a sanctioned SOS event coordinated by high desert member Sandy Brogan. (During the rally in Victorville, the members of SOS separated themselves from and shunned the white supremacist group.)

While the Baldwin Park City Council's cultural celebration in response to the second protest was underway, members of the National Vanguard arrived in a van and protested alongside SOS.[4] They also attended protests in Laguna Beach, where they unfurled Nazi and confederate flags and saluted Hitler. Photos of these actions were widely published on the internet, leading to an image problem in the eyes of some parts of the public.

In regards to neo-nazis and White nationalists, Turner has stated, "One of the interesting side effects of us being active, because I’m an aggressive person, I’m a young guy, and I’m tired of all this bullshit—the Stormfronter-type population have started doing their own rallies now, and they’ve even tagged along to our events and caused a lot of friction and problems. I can’t keep ANSWER LA from counter-demonstrating and I can’t keep these guys from following us."

In an attempt to unravel the often vague connections between Save Our State and racists/racist groups, Orange County-based Green Party activist and independent journalist Duane Roberts posted a detailed investigation to the Bay Area Indymedia website (LA IMC was down at the time.)[5]

[edit] Controversy and internal strife

On October 11, 2006, SOS's web presence and reputation suffered a substantial blow when hundreds of its member-directed videos were pulled from the video sharing web site YouTube for violation of the site's Terms Of Use policy prohibiting threats, harassment and racially offensive content.[6][7]

On January 17, 2007, in response to the conviction and jailing of two U.S. Border Patrol agents for the shooting of an unarmed Mexican migrant, SOS members announced a January 27 protest of a day laborer site and requested SOS members to bring pepper spray, mace and tasers to use on political opponents. [8] [9] [10] On the same day, SOS members disseminated a photograph, home address and phone number of an immigrants' rights activist and suggested other members to call her at "2 in the morning." Violence against the activist was implied by the announcement. Administrators removed the phone number and address four days later, warning that "bad things can come of it." [11]

As of February, 2007, AmericanPatriot77, aka Dennis, SOS', started his own site to upload videos; many featured members cursing at Latinos, as well as filming icense plates, and on at least one occasion, calling a Latino-American "brown trash" after accosting him in a Home Depot parking lot. [12] Following this incident, dozens of activists, including Sandy Brogan, an influential member of both SOS and the Minuteman Project, cut ties with SOS, due to their conclusion that Dennis is a liability to the movement. Most agreed that Dennis is a "plant" installed by ideological opponents to weaken the immigration reform movement.

Sandy Brogan revealed that she quit SOS because she questioned some of the behavior being displayed by a few of the newer members of SOS. "I saw certain people behaving poorly and saying things that were unacceptable. I decided SOS was going in a direction I was not prepared go. As I feared, they have morphed into a group that I choose not to be associated with".

AP77 said he is the SOS member whose 400+ videos were flagged and removed by activists on YouTube for violating its prohibition against racist content and hate speech.[13]