More than 200 people gathered outside Clubhouse 5 in Laguna Woods recently to protest the speaker at the local Republican Club’s meeting there. About 50 people from throughout Southern California gathered outside Gate 7 to protest.
Jeffrey Scott Brown, the featured speaker at the club’s closed meeting Friday, March 7, was convicted for assaulting police during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and was later pardoned by President Donald Trump.
Protesters outside the clubhouse packed the front sidewalks and lined the walkway leading to the building’s main entrance. They carried signs that read “Hate has no home here,” “Shame on you” and “We back the blue.” At times, the crowd broke into singing “God Bless America.”
Greg Ridge was among the protesters.
“I don’t think we should whitewash what happened on Jan. 6,” he said. “I don’t believe we should honor violent insurrectionists as patriotic.”
Fellow protester Mike Murphy said he enjoys going to events at the clubhouse and was upset about the speaker being there.
“Clubhouse 5 is being defiled by the presence of this person,” Murphy said. “My main concern is the evolution of the Republican Party into an authoritarian party and honoring someone who attacked police with pepper spray. This guy’s on a victory tour.”
Brown was convicted in December 2022 for assaulting police during the attack on the Capitol, where he was caught on video pepper spraying officers, and was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison in April 2023. In January, Trump issued blanket pardons and commutations for those indicted or sentenced in connection with the riot, including Brown.
Pat Micone, president of the Republican Club, has defended the speaker. In a recent article submitted to the Laguna Woods Globe by the club, she said, “Jeffrey Brown went to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with thousands of other patriots with the intent to protest the results of the 2020 election and, while he never entered the Capitol building, like many hundreds of patriotic Americans, he was unfortunately caught up in the chaos of the day.”
Micone said in an email Sunday, March 9, that the meeting was attended by 170 members and guests “eager to hear our speaker Jeffrey Scott Brown’s story and personal account of that day.”
She added, “The negative we experienced was not Democrat villagers exercising their First Amendment right in a peaceful manner, but an inconsiderate and disruptive interference with a paid legitimate and properly conducted event.
“They lined up and often blocked the walkway entry to our venue, parading their signs mockingly posting assumptions and outright lies which they know full well have been proven false, ” she said.
“We do not do this to them. Their deceitful, juvenile behavior spoke loudly to people who respect every American’s constitutional right to free speech, not just speech that fits their narrative.”
According to court records, security camera footage and a YouTube video captured Brown using pepper spray at Capitol and Metropolitan police officers. In the video, Brown is seen at the Lower West Terrace entrance, using his body to push the crowd forward and spraying an officer whose gas mask had been torn off his face.
Republican Club member Alan Clark said he arrived at Clubhouse 5 early that day to help set up for the meeting. Most of the protesters had not yet arrived.
Clark said he thought the meeting went well.
“Jeff was very informative about what happened to him and so many others who were shamelessly treated by the Biden administration,” Clark said in an email. “So many terrible things happening to so many other people falsely accused of wrongdoing. Jeff was a wonder! He spoke brilliantly!
“He was not angry, not hostile,” Clark added. “Very much to the point.”
Brown, through Micone, declined to comment.
Sue Dearing, a former longtime president of the Democratic Club, said the club organized the protest because of the calls and emails it received from residents regarding the meeting.
“Many people were outraged by the Republican Club paying an unrepentant felon to speak to them and portraying him as a ‘victim,’ so they contacted the club,” Dearing said in an email. “We wanted to give them a chance to express their outrage and to stand up for what they believe in and to show that Democrats support the police and believe in law and order. I think we accomplished that.”
Dearing vehemently denied that the protesters were inconsiderate and disruptive.
“Absolutely not,” she said. “I walked up and down there, over and over again. And I told people not to engage with anybody. I asked people not to block others. People stood way off to the sides of the walkway.”
Mary Ribando, the new president of the Democratic Club, agreed.
“I thought that everybody was respectful. They were very courteous about not blocking the way. And nobody said anything to any of the Republicans walking in,” she said. “The point of the protest was just to be there and to show from our signs that we were displeased.”
About half an hour into the protest, a shouting match broke out between some of the protesters and Joe Camera, a self-described Republican and 11-year Village resident.
Camera held a sign that read, “Learn the truth J6 = false flag” and moved through the crowd, saying, “Educate yourselves. Every American needs to know.”
He said he was exercising his right to free speech and argued that Brown should be allowed to do the same.
“He was charged, served his time and has a story to tell. Maybe he’s going to say, ‘I made a terrible mistake, I shouldn’t have done it,’” he said at the protest. “At least hear the guy. Don’t try to shut him down.”
Camera, a Navy officer for over 30 years who said he did not attend the meeting because he had other commitments, said he made his sign that morning and attended the protest to “encourage discussion about what really happened on J6.”
“I feel all people should be open-minded about all things and allow alternate perspectives to be heard,” he said in an email. “I went there peacefully and was speaking to people assembled outside the building.”
He said that as he was speaking with a newspaper reporter, a woman came up and waved her sign close to his face and “rudely held it there.”
Throughout the morning, Laguna Woods Security officers walked around the protest area to make sure the situation was under control. Vehicles from the OC Sheriff’s Department kept watch at Gates 7 and 9 on El Toro Road.
“There’s freedom of speech on both sides,” said a Security officer who did not want to give his name. “That’s why we’re here, to keep everybody safe.”
Word of the Republican Club’s meeting and the protest spread on social media and in several news outlets.
Antony Bakke of San Clemente joined the reported 50 or so protesters outside Gate 7 as passing cars honked their horns.
“The Republican Club is honoring an insurrectionist,” he said. “We’re here to make a statement about what is happening to this country and against honoring a criminal.”
Corey Clippinger with the political action group 50501 – 50 states, 50 protests, 1 movement – helped organize the protest at the gate, he said.
“We don’t believe someone like that should be a paid speaker,” he said.
Meanwhile, Micone of the Republican Club said a video recording of the meeting is scheduled to be broadcast on Laguna Woods Village TV on Thursdays in April, as well as on YouTube, “so everyone can judge for themselves.”
Orange County Register writer Hannah Kang contributed to this report.