3d Anniversary Freep at Walter Reed

A little over three years ago, the Code Pink freaks began a death vigil outside of Walter Reed Army Medical Center every Friday night to greet the weekly bus bringing in casualties from the war against terror. After their first Friday night a group of local people who frequent the Free Republic forums decided that Code Pink shouldn’t go unchallenged. They organized a weekly counter-demonstration.

Code Pink had their group on the southwest corner of the main entrance into WRAMC, the Freepers got permits for the other three corners and it became a weekly stand-off. Code Pink coerced the unions into swelling their ranks for awhile and Freepers enjoyed sporadic reinforcement when Gathering of Eagles and Eagles Up folks came to town. Memorial Day weekend saw participation from Rolling Thunder folks. I don’t know how many times I’ve read other blog and read about bloggers who happened to be in town would just show up and join in. I remember last March, Michele Malkin wrote about the great time she had out there with the folks before the first Gathering of Eagles.

Well, tonight marked the 3rd anniversary of the Walter Reed Freep – every Friday night, in rain, snow, sleet, blistering heat for three years, Code Pink has had to face counter-protesters. I was told tonight that Code Pink lost their permit for the front gate recently when Concrete Bob, a frequent visitor here and blogger at DC Protest Warrior kept a close eye on Code Pink’s permit and the day that it expired, he went down and secured their corner. Now Code Pink is exiled down at the end of the block and the Freepers own all four corners.

Here’s a picture I took of the Code Pink protesters three years ago;

This is what Code Pink’s corner looks like tonight;

Concrete Bob and Tom the Redhunter (also a frequent visitor here) invited me down tonight, so I stopped for awhile and took these pictures.

The Freepers’ cars have signs that warn of the Code Pink folks ahead.

The Freepers love telling the story of the night after the bus of wounded troops passed through the gate, it stopped and the door opened and one lone soldier, barely able to walk, limped back to the counter protesters and thanked them all for welcoming him home.

The reaction from people passing the intersection surprised me, so I video’d it so you can experience, too (Editor’s note: OK, the videos are fixed now – thanks for being patient. There’s two of each video – I’m trying out Google video in case I run into problems with YouTube like I did last night);

Those stalwart folks from Free Republic and Protest Warrior deserve our thanks for braving the elements for us.

Welcome Free Republic readers – feel free to stay and look around. Especially the Protests/Counterprotests category – you’ll see some friends there.

UPDATED 4-2-08; Tom the Redhunter put up an excellent post about the history of the FReep at Free Republic and at his blog The Redhunter.

Category: Bloggers, Protests/Rallies, Society, Support the troops, Walter Reed