Bush Watchers Come to Cheer, Jeer Leader
Protesters, Supporters Mingle in Santa Clara

By: Tom Anderson

Barbara Jensen took her seven home-schooled students to a strip mall on Coleman Avenue early Friday morning and waited to catch a glimpse of President Bush's motorcade.

"We are on a field trip. We've been studying American history, and I wanted to show them that in this country, it's OK for people who have different opinions to go out and express them", she said.

The young children were waving little American flags and carrying homemade signs that read: "We love Bush!"

Meanwhile, hundreds of anti-war protesters and dozens of Bush supporters were making a similar trip to the same mall.

Both groups wanted to greet President Bush during a brief stop at defense contractor United Defense in Santa Clara. They saw convoys of black-and-white vans, but no Bush.

Michael Lee, a Fremont musician, held a sign that read: "Donors needed: Cheney needs a heart and Bush needs a brain." He had a message for the President. "I want to tell Bush that I'm sick and tired of this endless war", Lee said. "I think it's perfect that he's speaking at a company that has lined its pockets with defense contracts."

Squads in riot gear and horse-mounted police - numbering about 150 - corralled protesters like Lee, and Bush supporters like Jensen, into a small stretch of Coleman Avenue two blocks from the United Defense headquarters. Roads were closed to prevent those gathered from stopping traffic.

Santa Clara police arrested a man and woman during the three-hour protest.

Police accused the Berkeley man of hitting a police horse with his sign. The San Francisco woman, curled in the fetal position in the middle of Coleman Avenue, refused to budge despite police requests to move. Three officers in riot gear handcuffed the woman and took her away. Both were charged with misdemeanors, police said.

Some of the crowd worried that verbal clashes between anti-war protesters and Bush supporters might turn violent. Jensen said one of her students started to cry because she was scared of the shouting throngs.

Dennis Kyne, a former Army drill sergeant, was screaming insults through a megaphone at a small group of Bush supporters. San Jose resident Michael Pelletier pushed Kyne and his megaphone away from his face. "Is that a pre-emptive strike?" Kyne taunted.

An officer in riot gear watched the incident, but did nothing.

"It's so obnoxious. He was in my face. I felt I had to do something", said Pelletier, who planned to work late on Friday to make up for the hours he lost waiting for Bush.

Others complained that using police horses for the protest was unnecessary.

"The horses are a little over the top, but everything here seems normal", said Tim Kingston, one of the protest organizers with Global Exchange.

Protester Brian McCall, a student at Foothill College, said a horse-mounted police officer ripped his sign with a baton. Others said a horse knocked over a woman, but she wasn't hurt.

Kingston said despite some minor run-ins with the police, the protest was peaceful.

Crowds carried a giant inflatable missile and a few protesters did yoga while waiting for Bush to exit United Defense.

Molleen Duree of Oakland went to the protest with fellow students from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley.

"I think it's sick that we're paying U.S. companies money to rebuild the infrastructure in Iraq the U.S. destroyed in the first place. This is not a just war", Duree said.

Groups organizing the protest included the International ANSWER, the South Bay Mobilization to Stop War and Global Exchange.

Bill Hackwell, an ANSWER spokesman, estimated about 1,000 people took part in the protest. Police said the crowd was about 700 strong at the protest's peak.