McALLEN, Texas — The roaring of more than 200 motorcycles drowned out the screams coming from a group gathered in favor of the Black Lives Matter movement in this border city.
A little more than 200 BLM protesters gathered at a local park holding various poster board signs with messages in favor of the movement and in favor of pro-immigration groups — while others demanded justice.
“We are honoring the lives of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling,” said event organizer Ohuizele Eromosele. “We are coming here in solidarity for any of the unjust killings by the police and police brutality.”
The chants of “Black Lives Matter” were short lived when more than 200 bikers rode into the park using their engines to drown out the chants. After circling the park, the bikers parked and walked towards the protesters chanting “All Lives Matter”. The bikers were part of a counter-protest group supporting law enforcement amid the wave of negative attacks by BLM.
Despite the protest and counter-protest being peaceful, the local TV station KGBT (Valleycentral) had been defending the BLM and during the protest took to criticizing the bikers. The TV station has a history of reporting from a left-of-center angle while claiming to be neutral, Breitbart Texas has previously reported. Reporter Patrick Chalvire tried to bolster the size of the protest by claiming that the event had been shared in Facebook to more than 3,000 users instead of reporting on the number there.
“To stand in solidarity with those who have been affected by police violence,” Chalvire said referring to the BLM group.
In the report, Chalvire painted the pro-law enforcement bikers efforts to counter-protest in a negative light. The reporter spoke with a woman who claimed to have been spit on during the protest.
Chalvire claimed that the organizers of the pro-law enforcement protest denied comment on numerous occasions, however Monty Awbrey, one of the organizers said no one approached him or any of his co-organizers.
“Down in the Rio Grande Valley we do not see color,” said Monty Awbrey, one of the organizers of the biker counter-protest. “Everybody here is equal, we don’t need this movement here.”
“People try to break you down into little groups, African-American, Hispanic-American,” said Roberto Zamora Jr., one of the bikers. “We are all American … You gotta be a proud American, end of story.
The BLM group began their planned march towards McAllen City Hall where the protesters kneeled and put their hands up as a sign of protest. Soon after, the bikers pulled in behind the protesters and once again used their motorcycles to drown out the chants of “Black Lives Matter.”
After the protest at city hall, the biker rode back to the local park where they continued to chant in favor of law enforcement, while the BLM group held their protest at the City Hall building.
Once the bikers rode off, the BLM group continued their event and made their way to the park where they held a vigil and played music. The protests ended peacefully.
The group protesting in favor of the Black Lives Matter movement was made up primarily of Hispanics, including members of various pro-open borders groups and even some of the Chicano-pride group called the Brown Berets.
While Eromosele and his sister led the march, David Anshen, a local literature professor from UT-Rio Grande Valley stood in the background talking and appearing to provide direction to some of the organizers. Anshen is currently listed in the UT-RGV website as a literary professor. In his university profile, he listed Marxism and literary theory as some of his areas of specialization.
Brown Beret protester and UT-RGV professor Daven Anshen
Anshen’s leading presence at the event helped fuel the ongoing debate among some of the bikers about the event being coached by individuals from the far left in what they described as “professional victims”.
A series of Facebook posts from the individuals in attendance at the BLM event claimed that the bikers had tried to run them over, spit on them and intimidated them. Photographs, video or police reports documenting those claims were not available.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
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