Protests ‘Routine’; No Arrests

Taking advantage of massive media coverage and a rare convergence of the country’s Republican hierarchy, a small but spirited group of demonstrators Thursday protested the opening of the Nixon library with charges that the former President ushered in an era of “corrupt Republican leadership.”

About 50 placard-carrying, whistling and chanting protesters marched up and down Yorba Linda Boulevard outside the library but were kept several hundred yards away from the main ceremonies where local, state and national dignitaries gathered to honor the 37th President.

Inside, several people attending the ceremony tried to shout down President Bush as he spoke but were escorted off the library grounds.

The incident momentarily disrupted Bush’s speech as the audience craned to see what was happening. He stopped talking, then regained his composure and turned to his former boss, joking: “I’m not sure, President Reagan, whether it’s you or me that attracted this noise over here.”

No one was arrested and police reported no major incidents.

“It’s been pretty routine,” said Lt. Cliff Trimble of the Brea Police Department, which provides police services for Yorba Linda. “We plan for a lot of contingencies but nothing much has happened.”

Demonstrators gathered to air grievances on a number of issues including abortion rights, AIDS, government funding for the arts and funding for the disabled and homeless.

“In the last couple of years there has been so much written about Orange County being such a conservative place, but we are some people who aren’t,” said a woman who called herself Bhairavi and is a coordinator with a local chapter of the National Organization for Women. “I think it’s a crime that so many people have come together here to celebrate a crook.”

Members from Southern California branches of the activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) held a mock funeral procession, carrying aloft a black coffin to symbolize thousands of deaths from the fatal disease.

“Racist, sexist, anti-gay, Republican fascists go away!” shouted protesters as they marched past crowds of ticket-holders who stood for hours in the heat waiting to enter the library grounds.

At one point, some in the crowd waiting to enter the library grounds tried to drown out the protesters with shouts of “go home.”

Police quickly moved several mounted patrols between the two groups when the protesters started to move off the sidewalk into the street, but there were no incidents and the protesters were allowed to resume their demonstration.

Tempers also flared when a woman darted across the street, ostensibly to join the protesters, but then held up a sign supporting Nixon. Some protesters tried to block her sign with their own placards until police intervened.

“I am the only one that has something positive, so I feel like I have to do something,” explained Suzanne Porrazzo, a student who lives in San Dimas. “Nixon did a few wrong things, but I don’t feel this is an appropriate forum for such negative actions. People came here to celebrate.”

Others, however, had a different view:

“We are drowning in a sea of lies, there is an epidemic of dishonesty in this country,” said Robert Rusin, a San Clemente resident who earned widespread attention a decade ago with a constant barrage of anti-Nixon protests outside of the former president’s home in the seaside city.