25 Detained As Protesters Descend On Rancho Mirage Billionaire’s Meeting
Twenty-five activists were quietly handcuffed and led from a busy intersection on Sunday in front of the Rancho Las Palmas Resort where a secret group of wealthy conservative business people met to discuss political strategy.
Citations were issued to about 25 of the 1,000 or so liberal political action and open access group supporters who had rallied to complain that corporations were being given unfettered control of the nation.
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Their meetings weren’t new. The group has met in the Palm Springs area for years.
What was new this year, however, was the massive number of protesters who turned out to oppose the discussion inside the resort.
The activists were protesting the conservative political agenda being furthered by Charles Koch and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who own an oil conglomerate that is the largest privately-held corporation in the U.S, just featured in the New Yorker Magazine. The brothers and their company, Koch Industries, are hosting an invitation-only strategy session in Rancho Mirage this weekend.
About 350 activists met at a hotel ballroom directly across from the resort, where they heard speakers decry the conservative strategy session unfolding inside the Rancho Las Palmas resort. The crowd on Bob Hope Drive grew to an estimated 1,200, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
Signs read “Medicare for All,” “Troops Home Now” and “Tea Party Founded and Funded By The Kochs.”
Police wearing riot helmets and visors formed a blockade at the resort’s gates, so the protesters moved to the other side of Bob Hope Drive, and the street was blocked to traffic for 50 minutes until the conclusion.
KOCH POLITICS
The Koch brothers funded the effort behind Citizens United, the challenge to federal campaign laws that prompted a 5-4 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that corporations or other groups can secretly spend as much money on political efforts as they desire. The New York Times reported last month that two Supreme Court members who helped decide the 5-4 decision have attended the Koch’s secret political strategy sessions in the Coachella Valley in years past.
Common Cause has asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate if there was a conflict of interest that should have prompted justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas to recuse themselves from the Citizens United case.
Last weekend, Justice Thomas amended his financial disclosure forms to, for the first time, include his wife’s multi-year earnings from conservative groups linked to the Kochs, the Los Angeles Times has reported.
“Citizens United was one of the worst losses for democracy in American history,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Irvine law school and author of the most-widely-used textbook on Constitutional Law in the U.S. “Corporations can take funds right out of their treasuries in unlimited amounts for candidates elected, or candidates defeated.
“Koch Industries spent $2.5 million in the last election cycle, and $2 million more was spent by individual with ties with Koch Industries,” Chemerinski said. “The effect of Koch Industries distorting our political system will be enormous, and don’t think it’s the last thing that the five conservatives are going to do on the Supreme Court to empower corporations.”
Skirting the issue of the justices, a spokeswoman for Koch Industries released a statement to KESQ on Sunday regarding the protests and what was being discussed by the Koch brothers.
“This meeting brings together some of America’s greatest philanthropists and job creators, who share a common belief that the current level of government spending in our nation is simply unsustainable,” said Nancy Pfotenhauer. “In 2011, we will see yet another increase in the federal deficit and by 2021 debt held by the public will double.
“The discussion over the next couple of days will focus on solutions to this, and other pressing issues in our nation and on strategies to promote policies that will help grow our economy, foster free enterprise and create American jobs,” she said.
At Sunday’s rally, DeAnn McEwen, a Long Beach nurse and co-president of the California Nurses Association said “I want to zero in on Medicare and Social Security, as these are programs that the Koch brothers want to destroy.
“A key threat in the secret political history of the Kochs has been their opposition to the Social Security and Medicare programs. We speak out because our patients rely on these programs,” she said.
“The Koch Brothers’ agenda is most definitely a death panel agenda,” she said.
Out on Bob Hope Drive, protester Lauralee Davis said she drove in from Yucaipa, which is about 50 miles west of Rancho Mirage.
“I want the Kochs to be stopped from buying politicians, tea parties and think tanks,” she said
A heavy police presence watched the demonstrators, but no laws were apparently broken, and there were no disputes.
Sheriff deputies say the organizers had made previous arrangements with them for the 25 “passive arrests” before the protest began. Those people were cited for trespassing onto the resort grounds. They were taken to a holding facility in the area, and released in the on their promise to appear in court.
