2 White Supremacists Met by 300 Protesters at Rally

More than 300 people yelled and many of them shouted obscenities at a white supremacist and one supporter who demonstrated Saturday outside the Simi Valley courthouse where the Rodney G. King beating trial took place.

Flanked by deputies in riot gear and confined to a fenced courtyard, Richard Barrett and James Jones appeared in support of the verdicts in the King case. Those demonstrating against the two men were forced to stay about 80 yards away by a row of deputies holding protective shields.

Barrett, a Mississippi lawyer who leads the Nationalist Movement, attempted a similar rally June 6, but that event was halted because of violence among some counterprotesters.

Saturday’s rally, which began at noon, ended about 3:30 p.m. when police escorted Barrett from the courthouse, and about 50 remaining protesters dispersed.

“A man threw a party, and nobody showed up,” Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said.

Police said four Simi Valley residents were arrested on assault charges as a result of rock-throwing incidents and skirmishes with officers during the counterdemonstration.

Joseph Woodrow Jordan, 20, and Frederick Damien Thomas, 18, were booked into the Ventura County Jail on suspicion of aggravated assault. The names of the other suspects, both 17-year-old boys, were withheld because of their age.

Police Chief Lindsey P. Miller said no major injuries or property damage was reported during the counterdemonstration.

About 225 police officers and deputies were assigned to protect Barrett, and Stratton said it will cost the city and county between $50,000 and $100,000. “It was a total waste of taxpayers’ money,” the mayor said.

City officials said rigid security measures were imposed to prevent the violence that erupted June 6 when Barrett tried to hold a rally and a parade in the parking lot of Simi Valley City Hall.

Simi Valley police canceled that event and whisked Barrett and six supporters to safety after a few of the 300 counterdemonstrators began throwing soda cans at Barrett and the police.

Barrett sought a city permit to return to Simi Valley for another parade and rally in support of the four Los Angeles police officers accused in the King case. City officials said they opposed Barrett’s message but could not deny him a permit because of his constitutional right to free speech.

After they were unable to line up enough police officers and deputies to protect a parade route, city officials confined him to a rally next to the courthouse.

Both Barrett and his opponents were upset Saturday about the fencing arrangement. Because of the distance between the groups and a noisy sheriff’s helicopter overhead, neither side could hear the other’s words very well.

Although the protesters were kept away, news reporters were permitted to interview Barrett and take pictures as he and Jones, of Los Angeles, unfurled an American flag and a flag bearing the Nationalist Movement’s insignia.

Barrett fended off repeated questions about why other supporters did not show up.

“Let them ask how many people were on the back of Paul Revere’s horse,” he said. “I don’t know. But I know he had a message of freedom.”

Barrett also claimed that his followers “would be here today if they didn’t have these extraordinary security precautions. The American people are not cattle to be herded into a pen.”

At one point, he said his supporters were having trouble joining him in the restricted area. But Simi Valley police Lt. Richard Thomas quickly responded: “There has been no one requesting permission to cross the police lines and be with your crew.”

Many of the counterprotesters were dismayed that they could not confront Barrett directly.

“When I got here early this morning and saw the barbed-wire fence, I though about Dachau, I thought about Birmingham and Selma,” said John R. Hatcher III, referring to a Nazi concentration camp and two cities that were focal points of the U.S. civil rights movement.

Hatcher, an Oxnard resident who is president of the Ventura County chapter of the NAACP, added: “Racism is alive and well in Ventura County. Racism is the reason we are here today.”