Bus trip 'peaceful'
CENTER TWP — State police had to be called after political passions overheated in the freezing cold just after midnight Wednesday at the Clearview Mall parking lot.
Words were exchanged and expletives hurled back and forth, but no one was arrested, charged or injured.
The passing disturbance was touched off when two tour buses returned to the shopping mall in Center Township after traveling to Washington, D.C., to attend the protest Wednesday in support of President Donald Trump that turned violent at the U.S. Capitol.
The rallygoers had left their cars in the lot near the Altitude Trampoline Park to board the buses. Between, 5 and 11 a.m., police said, an unknown suspect or suspects slashed the tires of 20 of the 40 vehicles in the lot.
Police said they are investigating the vandalism, but did not immediately have any suspects.
The U.S. Capitol rally attracted tens of thousands of the president's backers from across the country who took to the streets from the Ellipse to the Washington Monument, and to White House, the Supreme Court and Capitol.Their presence was a show of support for Trump and to protest the Nov. 3 election that they claim was rigged in favor of President-elect Joe Biden.“I had a good time, and it was all peaceful,” said Riley Rodgers of Butler. “We were taking pictures of each other and stuff, and we were not part of any of the violence going on, nor did we want to be.”At some point during the rally, protesters broke into the Capitol.“While the Capitol was being breached,” Rodgers said, “we were at the Washington Monument just standing there for the rest of our group to go back.”She was too far back to see any of the trouble.Roland Brothers of Youngstown, Ohio, another of the group that departed from the Clearview Mall, did not witness any clashes either.“All of the people we were with and everyone around us were well-behaved,” he said. “No problems.”A 91-year-old Marine and Korean War veteran, Brothers attended the rally with his son, Scott. He went, he said, to show his love of country.“I've been so (angry) about this fixed election,” he said. “This is the only way I could show it. You know, you moan and cry and complain, but nobody does anything. I said this is one way I can show people at least I give a (darn) about the country.”Barb Smith of Karns City went to protest what she is certain was election fraud.“I went to support President Trump,” she said. “He is being robbed of his presidency.”She was not up close and personal to any of the violence of the day, but she — as well as Rodgers and Brothers — were convinced that antifa activists were to blame. “I think they were responsible for the trouble because it makes us look bad,” Smith said, “but we're innocent people.”And as it turned out, Smith's vehicle was one of those that was vandalized. She did not know it until she returned and found one tire was slashed.
“To tell you the truth, I don't think it was any of our people,” Brothers said, referring to those responsible for the mischief at the rally. “I think George Soros or someone brought in a bunch people, like antifa.”That's kind of what Rodgers thought too.“They were dressed as Trump supporters,” she said. “This was planned out.”Brothers also expressed criticism of how the Trump supporters were treated in the nation's capital.“They made us park quite a ways away and the whole town was shut down on purpose,” he said. “We had to walk quite a way because they had all the streets blocked, so sometimes you had to walk five or six blocks to get where you were going.“Restaurants and bars, everyone of them, were boarded up with plywood in the fronts of them. There was no place to go to the bathroom. No nothing.”Still, all who went seemed like they were glad they did, knowing they were witness to history.“It was a great experience,” Smith said, “President Trump had a great message. There were (so many) people. It was just a great experience.”While apparently not everything that she hoped it would be, Rodgers had no regrets.“It was an experience,” she said. “Not quite the experience I wanted, but an experience.”
As for the vandalism, most of the victims had already gotten word through texts and phone calls about what had happened while at the protest or on their way home.When the buses pulled into the area where the vehicles were parked, an unidentified woman got out of a minivan and held a homemade sign that read “You Are Traitors.”The greeting was not well received from those getting off the buses and their friends and family members who were there to welcome them and help change their flattened tires.The crowd of Trump supporters yelled obscenities at the woman.“You got a lot of nerve being here,” said a Trump supporter at the woman.“Get the hell out of here,” said one.“Get out of here,” said another.The woman with the sign shouted back before eventually retreating to her van.Several others on the Trump side emerged with their own competing signs: one read “Socialism Sucks” and another read “Capitalism Cures.”A short time later, a sport utility vehicle drove by with two anti-Trump occupants in it. More heated words were traded between the differing sides.Before long, the first police car showed up with a pair of troopers.“Everyone step back now,” one of the troopers ordered several Trump supporters before approaching the van and talking to the woman.
Three more police cars and additional troopers soon appeared. Police also spoke to some of the pro-Trump contingent before the woman in the van left. Police left a short time later.“All I was told this morning was that there were some anti-Trumpers that showed up there at the mall, and we were called on it,” patrol Sgt. Joseph Zandarski said Thursday.He received the information in a briefing by the shift supervisors.“We went out there and we peacefully dispersed everybody,” Zandarski said. “There was nothing to it other than that.”Logan Parker of the Connoquenessing area calmly watched the scenario play out. He was there in the darkness and cold to help any tire slashing victim who needed it.He shook his head in disgust, and hearkened back to a more innocent time — despite Parker, himself, being just 20 years old.“I believe in the old America,” he said, “the classic one, like what my parents grew up in — when everything wasn't so political.”Parker's friend, Jesse Kretzer of Butler, was there on behalf of a friend who had attended the rally and was coming back on the bus.“I came here to make sure my friend was safe,” he said. He also wanted to help anyone with tire trouble.Kretzer admitted he did not appreciate the woman with the “Traitors” sign, given all the circumstances that played out Wednesday.“I don't know how you can sit in your living room and make a sign all day long,” he said, “and then come out here at 12:30 at night to put up a sign to a bunch of young kids and senior citizens getting off a D.C. trip bus.”Kretzer's friend Rodgers appeared subdued. She admitted that she was tired from the trip to and from Washington.A Trump supporter, she said she went with friends because she thought it would be fun.
