Jeff you know you are in the wrong. LEAVE CHRISTIE ALONE!
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-feud-among-san-diego-minutemen-erupts-2007feb08-story.html
NORTH COUNTY - The San Diego Minutemen, one of the region’s mostconspicuous anti-illegal immigration groups, has lost at least oneof its top members after a recent bitter internal feud.
The group’s founder, Jeff Schwilk, ousted Christie Czajkowski, aformer spokeswoman and one of the group’s most active members,after an angry dispute Sunday in his Oceanside home. He also fileda temporary restraining order against her earlier this week.
The argument, which was caught on video and broadcast over theInternet, apparently stemmed from a disagreement over who ownedvideos the group posts on its Web sites, according to Czajkowski.She claims she owns most of the videos and asked that they beremoved.
The San Diego Minutemen are a loose-knit group of activistsagainst illegal immigration. The group frequently organizes ralliesto protest against hiring day laborers in North County.
Czajkowski often films the group’s rallies. Schwilk said thevideos belong to the group.
“He was mad when I simply asked him if you don’t like thevideos, don’t use them for your self-promotion,” she said. “It’sthat simple.”
In documents filed in court, Schwilk alleges Czajkowski showedup uninvited at his home during a Super Bowl party. He said heasked her to leave after she went into his office and turned on hiscomputer without his permission.
“I found her, we argued and I told her to leave my houserepeatedly,” he wrote in a statement about the incident. “Sherefused. She began filming me and harassing. I physically removedher.”
The two said they dated for a while but ended their relationshipweeks ago. Czajkowski said she was invited to the party and wasabout to retrieve her keys when he grabbed her and pushed her downthe hall.
Czajkowski said the video she took of the incident, one that sheposted on the Internet but was later removed, frazzled some of thegroup’s members and others.
“I have received numerous letters from everywhere today frompeople that are enraged with his action,” she wrote in an e-mail tothe North County Times. “Jeff has been more concerned with his ownagenda and has pushed a lot of people away.”
The video shows an angry argument laced with profanities.Schwilk is shown screaming at Czajkowski to get out of his housewhile her two young children plead with her to “go home.”
Schwilk founded the San Diego Minutemen in late 2005. He hassaid the group has about 350 members, but some individuals identifythemselves as “independent” Minutemen.
Czajkowski said the group exists only as an “email list.”
Penny Magnotto, who has attended the group’s rallies butconsiders herself an independent Minuteman activist, describedSchwilk’s leadership style as “pushy,” but added that the movementis strong and unlikely to fall apart.
“For the most part, I feel people willput the goals of ourmovement aboveall the foolishness,” she said.
Schwilk said Wednesday that Czajkowski’s ouster from the grouphad nothing to do with Sunday’s incident or with the group. But hesaid in an e-mail to his group earlier this week that she wasoperating outside of the group’s guidelines and that she insistedon removing the videos from the group’s Web site.
“She also has her own strong opinions about confronting ouropposition as well as law enforcement,” he wrote. “She is now anindependent Minuteman and free to do her own thing as long as shedoes not harm the overall Minuteman movement.”
The rules, posted on the group’s Web site,www.sandiegominutemen.com, include “never engage in conversation"with counterprotesters, “never speak or gesture to any suspectedillegal aliens” and “follow all instructions by lawenforcement.”
Migrant rights advocate Claudia Smith, an opponent of theMinutemen, said she has seen little difference in what members ofthe group, such as Czajkowski and Schwilk, do during their protestsat day-labor sites.
“It’s interesting that he would accuse her” of breaking therules, Smith said. “He’s the first to violate all of them.”
A court hearing for the restraining order is scheduled February22 in Vista.
- Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 oresifuentes@nctimes.com.
