Time

The woman at the center of a disturbance that erupted on Friday at a protest against the gay marriage ban says she plans to press charges.

What was planned as a peaceful candlelight service took a hostile turn when the crowd began pushing and a cross was torn from Burgess’ arms. The cross ended up in pieces on the ground.

The crowd chanted, “Go home!” “Nazi!” and “Shame on you!” as organizers pleaded with the crowd to ignore the woman. About 500 protesters attended the event, the largest in the county since 52 percent of voters approved Proposition 8, an amendment that banned same-sex marriage.

Palm Springs police made no arrests, but said they spent about 40 minutes on Saturday trying to convince Burgess to press charges.

Lt. Dennis Graham said he tried to convince her how important it was to file a police report.

Detectives, Graham said, are reviewing video taken at the rally to try and identify possible suspects.

The charges likely would be assault and vandalism, both misdemeanors, Graham said.

Below is a cell phone video of a Yes on prop 8 gathering.

This footage was recorded 10/23/08 in Oakland, CA, on a public street corner near Lake Merritt.

I was on my way home from the Lakeshore district when I encountered this group of supporters of Prop 8. After turning my vidphone on, I was screamed at, physically intimidated and eventually attacked by one of the more aggressive sign-wavers.

Approx two dozen people were standing under the I-580, chanting “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” and “Mom and Dad, not Dad and Dad”, etc. There were at least three counter-protesters present as well.

The fight over gay marriage is not over in California, or anywhere else in the U.S. Street protests dragged into the weekend in Los Angeles and other Golden State cities, and legal challenges are already asking the California Supreme Court to overturn the Nov. 4 statewide vote on Proposition 8 that made same-sex marriage in California not only illegal but unconstitutional. On Sunday, gay-marriage supporters got an unexpected boost from Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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