Roy Beck's Bodyguard Assaults Female Mimes, Pops Their Balloons

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-03-22 13:39:00 UTC
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Roy Beck, director of the immigration restrictionist group NumbersUSA, which has ties to hate groups and white supremacists, decided to drop by yesterday's March FOR America immigration rally to report on the gathering of over 200,000 supporters. Some immigrant rights advocates were concerned that Beck and his thugs -- I mean bodyguards (because you know how threatening families with small children in strollers can be) were there less to report and more to pick fights with protesters. Mimes to the rescue!

A handful of female mimes decided to follow Beck and his crew around to act as silent witnesses to his actions. They report that one of Beck bodyguards retaliated by popping the mimes' colorful balloons with a pocketknife, breaking the hearts of children at the rally, then got more physical. He's now facing assault charges; one of the mimes relates: "One of the bodyguards had white makeup all over his elbow and he was all upset that the mimes had gotten makeup on him...but our makeup was on our faces and I wasn't face-bunting anyone so I felt like that was more incriminating evidence than anything else."

NumbersUSA is trying to allege that it was the women mimes who were at fault, with their "constant efforts at crushing physical intimidation" and "hateful whistles" -- soccer ball shaped plastic whistles the otherwise silent mimes tooted along with. Beck has filed assault charges against all the mimes and their "SEIU handlers," although his allegations don't square with witness reports of the mimes' "whimsical" actions.

Now, I know mimes can be annoying -- and these mimes were no exception, what with their "Don't Debate Hate" balloons constantly getting into the camera shot -- but that hardly qualifies as assault. Don't be bitter just because your own online "S.T.O.P Amnesty in four days" action has only managed to drum up 30,000 signatures, far less than almost quarter million comprehensive immigration reform supporters who actually physically went to D.C. and spent hours on the National Mall and marching down the Capital's streets.

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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