Are the numbers being hyped? A reader reports from Chicago

I turned on Nightline to see its coverage of the illegal alien rallies, but unfortunately the reporter was that odious little prince of PC, Terry Moran, who acted not like a newsman but a promoter, going on breathlessly about the “immigrants” (a word he used repeatedly) and the “power,” the “success,” and the “overwhelming numbers” of the demonstrators. Yet the footage was unimpressive, nothing like the amazing and appalling shots of the Los Angeles march a few weeks ago, where what seemed like one of the largest crowds in U.S. history filled much of downtown L.A. Without the slightest pretense of journalistic integrity, let alone loyalty to this country, Moran is shameless, and I turned off the show in disgust after a few minutes. Having a mass illegal alien manifestation in America is bad enough; having it reported by a traitor is unbearable.

However, Ryan M., who visited Grant Park in Chicago and carefully observed the demo there, backs up my superficial impression that the media are hyping the numbers and success of the rallies.

Dear Mr. Auster,

I’ve been ghosting around your website off and on for a few years now and I enjoy it very much. I thought you might like a brief field report from the Chicago rally today. I live a few miles north of downtown Chicago and took a bike trip downtown to check out the protesters. First thing I have to say is that media estimates of the crowd size are way too high. The Sun Times and local radio are reporting 400,000 protesters. Of course they were “expecting” at least 300,000 and anticipating as many as 500,000. NO WAY were there 400,000 people there. There were not 300,000 people there. I would bet my right arm that there were not 200,000 people there. Were there 100,000? Probably not. I watched them stream into Grant Park for about 20 minutes then circled around the park checking it out from different vantage points. I stayed there for about two hours. I had the sense that there was a “small sea” of people there. I counted ten heads and then tried to approximate what a hundred looked like. Then a thousand, and so forth. There were clearly thousands of people there. Probably tens of thousands. I’d say there were between 7 and 50 thousand people there. Yes, it’s surprisingly difficult to estimate the size of a crowd. I’d say there were enough people there to pretty much fill an average size sports stadium.

Aside from crowd size these people were not what I expected at all. They were really docile. Almost quiet. They were dutifully waving their American flags which looked remarkably similar. Of course there were more than a few Mexican flags. One thing I noticed was the height of the average Mexican. These people are TINY. They feel insignificant. You can easily look over and through them. They don’t have enough energy or presence to disrupt your thoughts. Most of Grant Park was fenced in for the event and you had the sense that these folks were… cattle. Draught animals. Low to the ground for pushing and pulling things. Tired from labor. Then I felt I understood why Mexico has such a miserable and corrupt government. These people could never conceive or implement anything better. There will never be bloody revolution in Mexico. Mexicans don’t have the brains or the coconuts to do it.

The only real rhetoric I heard was from the podium. Rep. Gutierrez was there running his mouth as was Janice (Janet?) Shakowsky. All the usual nonsense about everyone being an immigrant or descended from immigrants. “Today we march tomorrow we vote!” Repeat after me.. “Today we march tomorrow we vote!”. Absolutely Pathetic. I left there almost feeling sorry for these people. The real enemy are whoever is organizing them, the pandering sellout politicians working them for votes and the greedy employers looking for cheap labor. Not that I forgive them. I think they should all be immediately deported. They should be made to pay the bus or plane fare too. But their handlers deserve a more severe reprimand.

Anyway, I really enjoy your website and keep up the great work.

Thanks very much to Ryan M. for this.

Howard Sutherland comments:

Their height is part of our problem. Towering over them, we do not perceive the threat. Wilshire Boulevard looked like LOTS of illegals to me, but Los Angeles is invasion central. Don’t be too quick to undercount—don’t minimize the threat.

I have noticed how places like New York are becoming two-tier societies. Whites and blacks are up on one level of height while the mestizos and most of the orientals are about a head below. I hadn’t thought about it in psychological terms until your Chicago correspondent mentioned it. On reflection, I think it is a real problem. Most white Americans (who are conditioned to resist thinking any negative thoughts about non-whites anyway) simply look over the top of all the short people running around. When they do notice them, what they see are little, mostly beardless, guys. They look like little kids, totally unthreatening. They do project a certain docility—which is very misleading; look at the crime statistics. That is another problem, especially when white Americans’ mental comparison of them is to black Americans.

… on MSNBC, there was a lot of footage of the Los Angeles demonstrations. There, at least, the crowd must have numbered well into the hundreds of thousands.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 02, 2006 01:04 AM | Send