Protesters against Former President George W. Bush gathered outside of the Terrace Theater on September 20, 2021, where Bush spoke as part of the Distinguished Speakers Series of Southern California.
The protest was organized by the ANSWER Coalition of Los Angeles. Protesters held signs that demanded for Bush’s arrest, and chanted sayings such as ‘Bush, Bush, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide’.
Pat Alivso, a national coordinator for Military Families Speak Out, spoke to the crowd of protestors.
“When I first heard that George Bush was coming to my town, I was just sickened. Shame on you Long Beach Terrace Theater and all your patrons who think that it’s okay to invite a man like George Bush, who has been responsible for all this death, to be a distinguished speaker in my town,” said Alviso.
Iraq War veteran Mike Prysner and activist Jeb Sprague, who both interrupted Bush’s speeches at Distinguished Speaker events, also made appearances at the protest.
Sprague disrupted Bush’s speech that evening at the Terrace Theater, where he yelled, “Your war destroyed the life of my cousin. You made a nightmare for my family. He’s a shell of his former self. Tens of thousands of Americans and one million Iraqis, one million Iraqis have died from your war. You used white phosphorus in Fallujah, a chemical weapon. You should be in jail.”
In a video posted on Twitter of the interruption, Bush laughed and responded, “It’s okay. Here’s the thing in America, the good news is, in other countries the guy would end up in jail for yelling at a President. Here he’s allowed to express himself.”
Sprague said that afterward, he was briefly arrested by security but was eventually released. Sprague also wishes he would have resisted against security more and yelled for longer.
Sprague paid for a ticket to attend the event, which ranged from $200 to $600 per person.
“I had to pay to go, but it was worth it for me. I wanted to make all the people in there aware of this awful man that they paid money to come and see” said Sprague. “Bush was one of the worst. He took the sympathy that people had around the world for the country after September 11 and he turned it into wars.”
Prysner disrupted Bush during his appearance in Los Angeles on Sept. 19. A video on Twitter shows Prysner yelling at Bush to apologize for the deaths of Iraqis during the war while being removed from the venue by security.
According to a tweet by Prysner, he also intended to read a list of names to Bush, including Iraqis killed and his friends who died of suicide after the Iraq War, but the paper was ripped up by security.
Louis Raprager III of Veterans for Peace was a guest speaker at the protest, where he discussed the high rates of veteran suicide. Raprager is a Navy veteran who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.
Raprager recalled feeling conflicted after the United States withdrew troops from Afghanistan, ending the longest war in American history.
“When Afghanistan closed down, it was 20 years too late. … To see it end is great, but to see that we’re not really helping isn’t good either. I really want to be able to spread the message that the UN needs to step in, give humanitarian aid, give the refugees the help that they need,” said Raprager.
Raprager believes that 20 years later, it is still important to inform others about Bush’s actions in the Middle East.
“Most people, especially young people, don’t understand what really happened. I’m here to say what really happened, and it was a complete war crime. He (Bush) needs to be held accountable,” said Raprager.
Protester Chris Gambia was six years old when Bush took office as President, and developed his opinion on Bush after doing research during high school.
“Bush is a war criminal and he needs to come out and see us,” said Gambia.
Protestor and Long Beach resident Julien Minard said, “I’m 77 years old. There is nothing that can convince me that war is the way to settle things and wars of occupations are the worst…I’ve lived through so much of this. I know they could look for diplomatic situations if they tried,” said Minard.