It's amazing how a picture can tell a story about the viewpoint of the anti-immigrant community in Danbury.

Since the moment I posted this disgusting picture of this idiotic hate-filled xenophobe expressing his true feelings about immigrants and the City Clerk who obviuosly had no problem proudly standing next to him, the image has been picked up by several of the top blogs in Connecticut and has sparked an outrage from readers in Danbury, Connecticut, and across the countty.

CTBob:

It's rare that I'm struck speechless by an image. But I'm afraid if I comment upon this, I'll use naughty words that will offend everybody who reads this blog. And my regular readers know I'm not adverse to using a bit o' salty language on occasion.

Lots of occasions, in fact.

But I'll just let the hateful people in this picture speak for themselves:

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There was a march to support 11 undocumented aliens who were picked up and arrested recently when they were trying to make an honest living!

Meanwhile, we have a US Representative who had to resign because he wanted to perform illegal acts on a child, but he's still walking around free.

Good thing this country has a firm sense of proportion.

There is hope for the situation, I think. A good number of people showed up to support the immigrants in their struggle for an chance at the American Dream. Our nation was founded by the promise of opportunity.

Spazeboy:

I'm sad that there is so much hatred in the world, and that some of it is here in Connecticut. I'm from Iowa, and in Sioux City we have a large population of immigrants from Mexico.

Still, I've never seen anything like this:

[...]

That's not to say that the midwest is free of such hatred-I've just never seen it on display, and in this picture it is almost literally on parade.

We've got a long way to go, members of the human race-even in Blue CT.

I'm sure this particular image will continue to pick steam across teh blogosphere as this story is gaining more interest by the minute (and I haven't even posted the video or filed my full report yet).

Trust me, you haven't heard the last of this yet. Here are a sample of the numerous responses to this picture and brief report.

I hate to tell you... (4.00 / 1)
that sign seems to reflect the general feeling of 99% of WT in Danbury. And when you remind them that it was Reagan who gave amnesty legalization of status to illegals who met certain criteria back in the 80s..

Jodi Rell is useless. And Nancy Johnson, who attended a meeting of the US Citizens for Immigration Law Enforcement in April just fed into the ugly tone.

It makes me fear for my new homestate. :(

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Speak English (4.00 / 1)
That's one of the stupidest arguments I've ever heard.

Hey jackass... does this look like England to you, chap? No? Well, screw English then. You want to live here? Learn to speak American.

Besides, if we're going to start deporting people, I say, let's start with the Irish and Italians.

I wonder what Native Americans think when they see white people bitching about immigrants. YES! That's what we've been saying all along! Deport all of you! Speak Iroqouis or die!


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expose - send to EVERY CT newspaper (4.00 / 1)
That's neo nazi BS. Put some sunlight on this and link the republicans in Danbury to it. Any person who doesn't speak out strongly on it, denounce them too.

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WOW! (4.00 / 1)
Even though I should be used to this Racist crap in CT, I keep getting surprised.
When first moved to Meriden, I had the "pleasure" of witnessing a KKK Rally setting up at Meriden Square Mall (I went there to get tires at Sears... saw the Confederate Flag Raising, and booked the hell out there)

Then in Wallingford, a few years back, some Arian group (I think KKK as well) had a rally going on.

You'd think in this day, or year (2006) we'd be beyond that... and in Connecticut for crying out loud!

I can almost understand the various arguements in regards to immigration (not that I agree with them)... but when "Speak English or Die" (oh yeah, I did like S.O.D. back in the 90s which had a song with the same title, but it was tongue in cheek funny )is plastered and supported by city or state officials, we got a serious problem here... and the problem isn't Puerto Ricans or Hispanics or Mexicans or Vietnamize or Koreans or Jews or Italians or Poles or Pourtagese (please forgive my spelling)... it's the punk ass racists that are just plain miserable with their own lives, that they need to place blame on someone else... and the sorry ass politicians that give them credos.

That picture posted here just sickens me! But I hope more people see it, and see it for what it is.

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What a piss-poor sign (4.00 / 1)
I guess they gave all their disposable income to Joe, Jodi, and Nancy, unless they spent it all at the dry cleaners for their white sheets.

It always made me chuckle when people say that all foreigners should go home. First off, there are several countries that have a large unwelcome American population that is armed to the teeth and secondly, it really looked/sounded silly when the person mouthing off about foreigners had a name like O'Malley, Fellini, or Cormier. There was guy who I used to work with that was French-Canadian that was chirping about all the Asians and Hispanics that moved into the area. I responded by saying "and they ought to take all the damn Canucks with them, huh?" He got the point, but I wonder how deep it penetrated.

You should send this to the local organizations that support the local immigrant community; I'm sure they would have something to say about that.

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thanks for reporting this (4.00 / 1)
Underneath all the rational reasons why people object to immigrants, scratch the surface and you find out that the rational reasons came later, and the basis is they object to immigrants.

that's putting it kindly.

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Death threat? (4.00 / 1)
An overt death threat, especially with racial overtones, is illegal. Where are the State Police? The Danbury police? I agree with a post above, send this picture and commentary to the press -- How about the Newtown Bee? I would also send to Public Safety website, legislators, etc.

I spend time on Candlewood Lake and have had the pleasure of watching hard working and artisan immigrants beautifying the area by repairing stone walls, landscaping, painting, etc. They are on time, take precious little time for lunch, work steadily and always do meticulous work. What does the clown with the sign do for a living? And, I'd like to hear him speak a paragraph without gross errors.

I can't believe Danbury citizens of conscience are not standing up to this crap.

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This is disgusting! (4.00 / 1)
What the hell are these people thinking?! That is the Town Clerk?!

Classless. Vile.

I agree that the Governor and police should get involved here. This is a physical threat against a social group. It's probably illegal. This is exactly the kind of situation where our political leaders need to stand up and have the courage to denounce bigotry.

And in Connecticut of all places! My whole life I mistakenly assumed that our state was clean of this kind of filth.
(correction: The person in the image is the City Clerk).

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that dude dressed in black looks like a neo nazi or something...scary...

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I look at those faces and I see scary hatred. It’s not about speaking English, - it’s about threatening people with violence and looking for a justification for it, using a fake moral high ground.

The language a person speaks is not sufficient reason to condone violence, EVER.

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Somebody in Danbury should write to tne News Times and demand that Jean Natale resign immediately!

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Some people are just ignorant. This is an outrage!

Trust me, this is only a sample of the responses I've seen on the various blogs across the state as word of this hate-speech continues to circulate across the country, expect the outrage to continue.

It makes you wonder why anyone would take many of these anti-immigrant xenophobes seriously in the first place. Imagine what would happen if someone on the pro-immigrant side held a sigh that said "white people, speak Spanish or DIE." You got it, front page of the News-Times and every Republican politician expressign outrage. Yet, this jerk hold up a sign and NO ONE says a word to him. No one.

That speaks volumes about the mentality of those who groups who are against illegal immigration and why you can't take the groups leaders at their word that they're only against illegal immigrants.

If only the News-Times would have posted this picture on their website or put this image in their newspaper. There is no way the photographer could ave missed that sign or that skinhead creep as everyone was horrified with the message. Instead, we get a so-called "fair and balanced" number of images as well as a "balanced" article which doesn't really go into detail about how out-of-control the anti-immigrants xenophobes were when they came down and attempted to provoke the pro-immigrant crowd at the beginning of the rally.

Of, if I only had that portion of the event on my camera. In all my time doing videoblogging, I'll always regret not capturing that moment as it would have truly exposed how under-reported the madness behind a good portion of the anti-immigrant crowd.

One of the reasons I started this blog was because I felt that the media simply wasn't doing their job in reporting on what happening in my city. The issue of immigration is just one of several disturbing issues that is going under-reported and it takes blogs like this one to shed light on what's really going on. Don't get me wrong, the newspaper is very slowly beginning to show signs of life but the jury is still out on whether ir not it will really try to improve itself and get the real story out there.

Again, look at the pictures on the News-Times site and compare it to the images I took at the same event. Now, tell me which photographs tells the true story? If it wasn't for this blog, you would think the event was 50-50 when it was more like 90-10 in favor of the day laborer supporters.

Mainstream media or People-powered Media (PPM), you now have a choice. I'll bring you video and a full round-up of everything later. I know, I know, it was on Saturday but I dealing with a great amount of feedback and there is alot of stuff happeneing in the area this week which is connected to this story.

Trust me, I'm far from done with this image or this story. Enough is enough. This type of hate speech has to stop and the people who support this garbage should be exposed to the public.

...still developing.