XPost: alt.politics.radical-left, talk.politics.libertarian, alt 
 politics.green.party 
 From: rosaphilia@webtv.net 
  
 MORE HIGHJINX COURTESY OF THE FRED NEWMAN CULT CURRENTLY TAKING OVER 
 WBAI, PERHAPS? 
 ============>>> 
  steve@stevebrownonboard.org(Steve€Brown) 
  Date: Sat, Jul 31, 2004, 4:27am 
 To: News@lists.stevebrownOnBoard.org 
  
 Subject: [News@SteveBrownOnBoard] 
 Banning Fred Nguyen from WBAI 
  
 TO: Dan Coughlin 
 Executive Director of Pacifica 
 € 
 TO: Don Rojas 
 General Manager of WBAI 
  
 Dear Sirs: 
  
 At€a meeting of the WBAI LSB Finance Committee, held at WBAI on 
 Thursday, July 29, 2004, I was physically attacked in front of 18 
 witnesses by Fred Nguyen, a reporter for WBAI. Nguyen also€screamed 
 that I was€a "f**ing Zionist pig" in front of the same witnesses. 
  
 Nguyen then went on to physically assault R. Paul Martin, another WBAI 
 employee, who had only a few days earlier undergone serious surgery. 
  
 My account of the incident follows. 
 At about 3 hours into the meeting, which had started at approximately 
 6:30 pm. I got up from my seat at the table, moved a distance away from 
 the meeting, and took two still photos of the assembled committee. I 
 always do this at meetings I attend, as a memento and a personal record, 
 and also for my WBAI photo gallery to be placed on my website. Among the 
 pictures I took was one of Fred Nguyen. 
  
 When Nguyen heard the shutter click, he whirled on me, yelled, "You 
 don't take any f**king pictures of me!" and lunged towards my camera, 
 grabbing at the lens mount and attempting to wrench it from my grasp. 
  
 He did not succeed, and I simply walked away from him. He followed me, 
 and as he passed me, he yelled out "f**king Zionist pig." 
  
 This all took place in front of the 18-20 (shocked) people who were 
 attending the meeting. 
  
 It should be noted that during the entire meeting, and from its very 
 beginning, an African American male, whose name I was later told was Ed 
 Marshal (or something similar), had set up his video camera on the 
 meeting table, in plain sight (he was sitting in the chair next to mine, 
 in fact), and€videotaped the entire proceedings. 
  
 No one made the slightest protest or in any way indicated discomfort 
 with being videotaped. 
  
 However, the moment I took my two still photos of the meeting -- Cerene 
 Roberts shouted out that this was improper and not allowed, inciting a 
 group of Justice and Unity people gathered around her to shout similar 
 objections and protests about "invasion of privacy"€and lack of 
 courtesy, etc. 
  
 The meeting€chair, Paul€Surovell, with no justification and even 
 less knowledge of the law, chimed in that this was indeed an invasion of 
 privacy and that I should not do this. He€(unconscionably) 
 demanded€that I cease at once. 
  
 Later€he changed to "requesting" that I cease -- employing, however, a 
 nauseous collection of deliberately guilt-inducing terms in a 
 prejudicial manner totally out of keeping with his role as chair of this 
 meeting. 
  
 Instead of instructing the members of€this meeting about my rights and 
 the federal statutes laws governing pubic meetings (of which he was well 
 aware) 
  
 Surovell sadly and dis-appointingly€pandered to the attempt of€a few 
 disruptive people, with highly political agendas,€to wield€a 
 "heckler's veto" over€my right to record this meeting. 
 Since no objection had been made to the€very obvious videotaping€by 
 Marshall, it was clear that the objection made to my picture-taking was 
 notabout€picture-taking -- but about MY picture-taking.€ 
  
 These objections were, in fact, totally fabricated and cynically 
 orchestrated€by LSB member Cerene Roberts, as part of€her continuing 
 efforts to disrupt the work of the LSB and prevent it from exercising 
 its mandate over the station by crippling its meetings and 
 the€meetings of its many committees -- all of which (where does she 
 get the time?) she diligently€attends with a group of the same people, 
 who repeat their disruptive behavior at meeting after meeting. 
  
 Although Nguyen had sat down, and had somewhat calmed down, after his 
 confrontation with me, he was evidently stimulated to new indignation 
 and aggressiveness by the loudly vocal protests that Cerene was still 
 encouraging among her clique. 
  
 As a result, Nguyen was inspired to began muttering, becoming louder 
 and€more assertive€as he began again to€threaten both me and 
 others -- warning that if anyone€tried to take€pictures, "he would 
 punch them out," or alternatively, "beat the shit out of them."€€ 
  
 After a few minutes of this, R. Paul Martin, a WBAI employee and LSB 
 member,€upset and indignant at this€gross intimidation and threats 
 of physical violence by Nguyen, took his camera out of his bag and, in 
 an assertion of his rights, took a picture of Nguyen. € 
  
 At the click of R. Paul's camera, Nguyen's head instantly shot up and 
 swiveled rapidly€to locate the source of the camera click.€ Quickly 
 identifying€the source as R. Paul's camera, Nguyen suddenly emitted 
 a€howl and€leaped from his chair. 
  
 I remember seeing him almost launch himself into the air,€his pot 
 belly protruding like that of a€pregnant vulture, and propel himself 
 nearly halfway across€the room to€land on top of R. Paul like a 
 150-lb sack of dead meat. 
  
 R. Paul, who had been quietly sitting in his chair, was violently jerked 
 to one side by Nguyen's assault, and was nearly hurled onto the floor. 
 Then, clenching R. Paul's shoulder with one fist, Nguyen drew back his 
 other fist to smash R. Paul (who is about 4 foot-nine and, my guess, 
 about 64 years old) in the face -- when Tony Ryan, the WBAI station "op" 
 on duty that night, managed to grab Nguyen's arm, while he and I and 
 several others wrestled Nguyen off€R. Paul and over to the other side 
 of the room, where he continued to scream obscenities and threats of 
 violence at R. Paul. 
  
 Berthold Reimers, the LSB Chair, who was in attendance, immediately 
 called 911, and later reported the incident in person at the police 
 precinct. R. Paul, who as I mentioned had undergone internal mid-body 
 surgery just a few days before, is now experiencing some pain,€and it 
 is not at the moment known whether this is a result of his surgical 
 wounds being compromised by Nguyen's assault. 
  
 It is my recommendation that Nguyen be banned permanently from the 
 station premises, and that he be immediately€terminated from any 
 position, paid or unpaid, he holds at the station. 
  
 For this was not just an isolated incident. Nguyen has a long and 
 poisonous history as a racist and a bigot. 
  
 His record€of outrageously crude and hurtful racist epithets (hurled 
 over and over at€me, at Carol Spooner, at Leslie Cagan, and indeed at 
 anyone who is White) was collected by me and€distributed widely 
 throughout the Pacifica community over two years ago, and was recently 
 distributed again. 
 € 
 Because Nguyen€has so clearly demonstrated himself to be violent, 
 vituperative, and a clear danger to others in the WBAI community, 
  
 [continued in next message] 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)