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Report for the Sons of Liberty LA out negating their checkpoints: Dec 29th 2012.

Long Beach, PCH and 2nd. Another successful night of battling the checkpoints! We worked the sidewalks with our signs, warning off  citizens from this checkpoint. Chief Instigator Bruce was out sick tonight. The checkpoint was scheduled to run from 7pm to 2am, but  they got off to a late start. We arrived around 8pm and they were still setting things up. So after reconnoitering the area, I alerted the LBPD that they hadn't posted the proper signage, per the court  requirements. To their credit, they then made at least an attempt to put up more. We hung our banners and took up positions with our signs.

        Early on, Lisa was contacted by a woman (and I use the term loosely) who was wearing a badge and a Long Beach Police patch. First off, she just yells at her: "Take your sign and leave!". Lisa knows her rights, and doesn't intimidate easily. She keeps on and doesn't say a word to the screaming harpy. But she did however call me on the phone (I was across the street and 1/2 block down) and made me aware of what happened. Twenty minutes or so later, Lisa comes over and takes my post where I have the banner hung, and says the screaming harpy is still hanging in the area where she was working with her sign. So I figure I'll go have a look. And this time I took along my sign, which is the BIG banner. I guess if she didn't like Lisa's 2'x3' sign, she's really going to hate George's 4'x8' banner! I strolled by with my banner shouldered, and saw an unpleasant looking gal standing next to a car with a vanity plate which read LILDONA. As I walk by, she asks: 
LILDONA: So you got a problem with checkpoints or what?
George: Yep, I sure do.
LILDONA: What problem?
George: Well let me put it this way. You're a sworn officer, aren't you?
LILDONA: Yes.
George: And when you became a cop, you took a Constitutional oath, right?
LILDONA: Yes...
George: Well don't you think this qualifies as a violation of the 4th Amendment? 

To this, LILDONA just looks at me like I was speaking Swahili to her....

George: And since we're on the subject, what of the 1st Amendment?? You think a woman should be free to walk down the sidewalk carrying a sign, speaking her mind, without some cop trying to chill her free speech?
LILDONA: Yeah...
GEORGE: GOOD! That makes me happy! 'Cause I like doing it too! (motioning with my ridiculously large sign) My sign is awesome! Ain't nobody going to get me to put it down either!

LILDONA sneers as I walk away and I was hoping that at least some small nugget of what I said had sunk into her even smaller nugget of a brain. The next time I walked by she was gone. Good. 

        We had a few more interactions (more than usual, actually) with some of the cops from the checkpoint. They'd come down every now and then, chat and then bid a cordial goodbye. Three cadets came over once, and politely asked if I'd take down my banner, to which I politely refused. Good kids. Hope they grow into good cops. 

            Lots of thumbs up, kudos and thanks yelled from cars and pedestrian traffic. Maybe 1 or 2 angry naysayers for about every 50 YAYsayers, LOL. It's amazing the amount of positive response we receive doing these actions. On an average day you can walk down the sidewalk and chances are that most people will scowl or give you stinkeye. Last night we must've had about 10 complete strangers literally tell us they loved us. 

                         We decided to pack it in around 1:30am. With temps in the 40's, we were all getting a bit chilly and the checkpoint folks looked like they were demobilizing their stuff already anyhow. Lisa and I were tired and Shawn had retreated to the truck to rest his cracked ankle. He wasn't very active last night, but it was good to have him on scene nonetheless. As I began to tear down our stuff, Lisa went over to retrieve our other vehicle from where she had been working earlier. And guess who was hanging around (stalking?) over there again? Yep you guessed it. Our old buddy LILDONA. Lisa calls me on the phone to tell me that LILDONA is there, and that when she saw Lisa arrive, she started her car's engine. Then once Lisa got into the car, LILDONA goes into reverse, and waits for Lisa to start moving. I told Lisa to stay put and that I would be right there. 

                            I arrive and stand behind LILDONA's car until Lisa has gone out of sight. I then go to the window and ask LILDONA what her problem is, and why she is stalking my Lisa? She denies it and gives me the No Habla Ingles look again. I'm starting to suspect (from her behavior) that LILDONA isn't really a cop. She refuses to give her name or badge number. 
I tell her that she is IMPERSONATING AN OFFICER!!

When I get to the corner I see a marked car zooming the other way with his lights going, toward LILDONA. So I walked back to where they both were and told the (real) officer what had taken place, including the earlier harassment. He tried to sidetrack me into a debate about the legality of the checkpoints a couple times. When I politely steered him back to the issue of LILDONA and her harassment, and who she really, he finally told me that she was actually a volunteer. I reminded him that she had tried to pass herself as a sworn cop, and that I hope to God they never WOULD give her a real badge. He assured me they wouldn't , but still ignored the felony she had committed. Guess I'll have to make some kind of report elsewhere. 

          All in all, it was a good night. Lots of people kept their vehicles, money, and most importantly their freedom thanks to our help. And they also traveled unmolested by these 30's style Gestapoesque checkpoints.

Major Instigator, George S.

Bruce Boyer, Agoura Hills, Chief Instigator,  SonsofLibertyLA