The confrontation!

Last night's protest against the abusive teen confinement facility will be forever remembered for the argument started by an angry man. He and his wife defended the program for minutes on end.

I don't want to post my own video or audio, but I've used it to put together an account of the incident in which the man made a complete fool of himself. Incidentally, I wasn't in that particular abusive program, but all 12 of the protests I've been invited to have had at least one participant who was. I participate in these demonstrations because I know what "the industry" does.

The confrontation went like so...

Hostile man (angrily): "Which one of you was in the program?"

Protester #1 (politely): "Do you have a kid in the program, sir?"

Hostile man: "Which one of you was in the program? That was my question."

Protester #1: "My question is, uh, do you have a kid in the program?"

(Unintelligible speech.)

Protester #1: "I'll have a peaceful, civil dialogue."

(More speech.)

The hostile man's wife denied that this was even the same program that was around several years ago (even though this talking point was debunked long ago).

(More speech.)

Hostile man: "Are you drug-free?"

Protester #1 replied in the affirmative.

Hostile man: "So are you still in denial?"

(More speech.)

I shut the camera off but picked up a few minutes later. The second clip starts out with totally unintelligible speech before things pick up...

Protester #1 (still politely): "I don't know really what we're talking about here is getting anything accomplished, so if you don't mind, I'd just prefer to, uh, hold the signs and, you know, go about -"

Hostile man: "It's because people that can't stand [unintelligible] have to do this."

(Speech drowned out by traffic.)

Protester #1 (pointing at the phone number on the sign I was holding): "If you want further information, call this number."

Hostile man (to me): "Are you afraid of them? Is he afraid to say you weren't [unintelligible]?""

Another protester called me aside. More speech and a loud sigh are heard. The man then argued with yet another protester, before popping off at me again.

Hostile man: "It's all lies!"

Me: "I'm not lying! I was not - I wasn't in this program, but I never said that I was!"

Hostile man: "[Unintelligible] asking the question!"

Hostile woman: "Do you have friends who support -"

Me (to hostile man): "You're accusing me - calling me a liar right to my face! I don't appreciate that!"

The angry man turned ghostly with humiliation, as more muffled speech is heard.

Protester #1 (remaining calm while addressing hostile couple): "We obviously disagree. I think it just would be better if we just went about our own protests peaceably."

Hostile woman (flustered by shouting match started by hostile man): "That was quite interesting."

Protester #1: "Legally we're allowed to stay out here and we will continually stand out here and -"

Hostile woman: "We do not agree -"

(More noise.)

Protester #2: "Dialogue should be cut off when it's not productive. That's true of all negotiations."

Shortly thereafter the antagonists left.

In summary, a hapless fellow thought he could bully us. And we fought back when he least expected it - leaving him a humiliated shell of himself. It just goes to show the program's supporters don't think or behave logically.

(More info: http://www.isaccorp.org/kidshelpingkids.asp)