Just 2 Seconds (74 page)

1101.
Date: October 27, 1998
Target: Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro
Location: San Francisco, California
Details: Shapiro had delivered a speech on genetic engineering at the Fairmont Hotel. He left the stage and stopped to engage a heckler, when two protesters struck him in the face with tofu cream pies. Shapiro wiped his glasses and continued to argue with the heckler, until security personnel escorted him out. The protesters were arrested for battery.

1102.
Date: October 31, 1998
Target: World Trade Organization Director Renato Ruggiero
Location: London, England
Details: After finishing his speech at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 20 members of the Bionic Baking Brigade rushed up at shoved cakes onto Ruggiero's head. No police or security guards were present and none were called. Ruggiero remained calm and said, "This is not bad cake."

1103.
Date: November 8, 1998
Target: Mayor Willie Brown
Location: San Francisco, California
Details: As Brown was starting a news conference, several protesters threw pies at him. He grabbed one protester for the police and two others were arrested. The group, the Bionic Baking Brigade, and had carried out four other recent pie attacks. They were protesting the rising number of evictions in the city.

1104.
Date: December 2, 1998
Target: Dutch Politician Frits Bolkestein
Location: Leiden, The Netherlands
Details: Bolkestein had just begun his speech at Leiden University when protesters struck him with three cream pies. He was targeted because of his populist, right-wing views of immigrants.

1105.
Date: January 4, 1999
Target: Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm
Location: Leiden, The Netherlands
Details: Zalm was attending the opening of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange when protesters struck him with two cream pies.

1106.
Date: January 6, 1999
Target: TV Celebrity Noel Edmonds
Location: London, England
Details: Edmonds, the host of the television show "House Party," was filming for his show on the street when two pie throwers attacked him. He laughed off the incident and said, "I can take a joke."

1107.
Date: February 17, 1999
Target: Proctor and Gamble CEO John Pepper
Location: Evanston, Illinois
Details: During Pepper's speech at Northwestern University, two female PETA animal-rights protesters smashed pies in his face. He wiped his face and continued with his speech. The protesters were charged with disorderly conduct.

1108.
Date: March 25, 1999
Target: Governor Jesse Ventura
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Details: As Ventura was leaving the Whittier Community Center gym for a speech to the crowd outside, a protester threw a pie at him. It hit his trooper bodyguard on the head, grazed two other staffers, and a small piece hit Ventura on the left arm. The pie was thrown as Ventura walked past a group of protesters behind a police line. The thrower was not identified.

1109.
Date: March 11, 1999
Target: Chevron CEO Kenneth Derr
Location: San Francisco, California
Details: As Derr arrived at a high school to make a speech, six environmental protesters pelted him with pies and escaped. Derr toweled himself off and then went ahead with the speech.

1110.
Date: May 13, 1999
Target: Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer
Location: Bielefeld, Germany
Details: An antiwar activist hit Fischer in the head with a red paint balloon as he was sitting on the stage for a conference. Fischer suffered a burst eardrum from the assault, which was against his support of NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. He was taken to the hospital for treatment. The balloon contained a mixture of paint and foul-smelling butyric acid.

1111.
Date: January 2000
Target: Scientist Keith Campbell
Location: Sussex, England
Details: Campbell, co-creator of Dolly the cloned sheep, was delivering a talk. Members of the group PIE (People Insurgent Everywhere) hit him in the face with a custard pie.

1112.
Date: February 2, 2000
Target: Agriculture Minister Nick Brown
Location: London, England
Details: Brown was addressing angry farmers at a National Farmers' Union conference. A female protester, wearing a press credential, darted up and smeared a chocolate cake in his face. She then escaped. Brown dismissed it as a "silly stunt."

1113.
Date: May 1, 2000
Target: Governor George Ryan
Location: Carbondale, Illinois
Details: Following a political forum, an SIUC student struck Ryan in the face with a pie while members of the media surrounded him. Trooper bodyguards quickly whisked Ryan away. The student wanted to bring attention to Ryan's corruption. She was arrested.

1114.
Date: May 2000
Target: Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman
Location: Washington, D.C.
Details: Glickman was making a speech when a PETA protester approached the podium and struck him in the head with a pie. Bodyguards rushed in, grabbed up the woman, and took her off-stage where she was handcuffed and arrested.

1115.
Date: August 2000
Target: Prime Minister Jean Chretien
Location: Montreal, Canada
Details: Chretien was greeting people at a local festival along with eight bodyguards. A man protesting "crimes against Canadians," evaded Chretien's security guards and approached him. As Chretien was about to shake his hand, the man pulled a cream pie from under his jacket and smashed it in Chretien's face. Mounties arrested the man for assault.

1116.
Date: November 2000
Target: U.S. Chief U.N. Negotiator Frank Loy
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands
Details: Loy was delivering a daily briefing at a U.N. conference on climate change, when a protester jumped up from the front row of seats, pulled a cream pie out of her bag, and hit him in the face with it.

1117.
Date: November 30, 2000
Target: Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl
Location: Berlin, Germany
Details: Kohl was signing copies of his memoirs at a book signing. A man joined a line of people waiting for an autograph. When it was his turn, he lunged forward and struck Kohl in the face with a cream cake. A press photographer began taking pictures and Kohl ordered him to stop, as he calmly wiped his face clean. Bodyguards from the federal BKA police and six security officers were in the immediate area surrounding Kohl.

1118.
Date: December 10, 2000
Target: President Emil Constantinescu
Location: Bucharest, Romania
Details: Constantinescu had just finished voting in the election when a man approached him to talk about his troubles. As they walked along, the man threw a small bottle of blue dye in the president's face, before police took him away. Bodyguards helped Constantinescu wipe his face clean.

1119.
Date: January 9, 2001
Target: Prime Minister Tony Blair
Location: Bristol, England
Details: A tomato struck Blair in the back as he entered the City of Bristol College to open a new campus. An aide wiped his jacket, leaving a large red stain. Protesters lobbed more tomatoes and other fruit, but missed. They were protesting Britain's policy toward Iraq. Two women and a man were arrested.

1120.
Date: April 1, 2001
Target: State Senator Carol Flynn
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Details: Flynn was knocked down outside the Senate Chamber of the Capitol Building when a man struck her in the face with a cream pie. He was protesting a highway re-routing project. She was assigned a temporary security detail of state troopers.

1121.
Date: May 1, 2001
Target: Foreign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland
Location: Oslo, Norway
Details: Jagland had just finished his May Day speech when protesters threw a cream pie in his face, for his "drift to the right." He laughed off the attack and called cream pie throwing "an epidemic." The week before, a teenage girl had thrown a cream cake in the face of local government minister Silvia Brustad to protest housing shortages for young people.

1122.
Date: May 16, 2001
Target: Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott
Location: Rhyl, North Wales
Details: Prescott got off a bus at a campaign stop and followed police along a crowd of 30 protesters. A man threw an egg, striking Prescott in the head, and Prescott retaliated by punching the man in the face. The two began to brawl and the man pushed Prescott back against a wall before police dragged him off. Prescott then made his way into the building. The man was arrested for assault.

1123.
Date: May 17, 2001
Target: Former President Bill Clinton
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Details: Clinton was jeered by anti-globalization protesters and hit by an egg while visiting Poland on a speaking tour. The egg struck his sleeve, and police arrested the man.

1124.
Date: June 8, 2001
Target: Victorian Premier Steven Philip Bracks
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Details: Bracks was walking along holding the hand of an Aboriginal boy at the Magistrate's Court Building, when a protester struck Bracks with a cream pie. The boy fell and suffered bruising. The protester was arrested on several charges of assault and reckless conduct.

1125.
Date: June 12, 2001
Target: Fashion Designers Calvin Klein and Karl Lagerfield
Location: New York, New York
Details: Klein and Lagerfield were walking up the red carpet at the 20th annual American Fashion Awards at Lincoln Center. Two animal rights activists stormed up yelling, "Fur pimp," and "Fur kills," and threw two tofu pies. Their aim was at Lagerfield, but they struck Klein. Two other protesters threw two more pies from behind a barricaded area. Six members of PETA were arrested for disorderly conduct.

1126.
Date: July 2, 2001
Target: President Alexander Lukashenko
Location: Minsk, Belarus
Details: An unemployed man lobbed a tomato at Lukashenko during a celebration for Independence Day. The man was jailed for seven days for hooliganism.

1127.
Date: September 5, 2001
Target: King Carl XVI Gustaf
Location: Varberg, Sweden
Details: While the king and queen visited a park with about 500 onlookers, a protester rushed forward, squeezed past bodyguards, and threw a cream cake into the king's face. The youth was immediately arrested.

1128.
Date: August 14, 2001
Target: President George W. Bush
Location: Estes Park, Colorado
Details: A man was arrested for allegedly urging people to throw rolls of toilet paper decorated with Bush's face at the presidential motorcade as it drove past. The man was charged with disturbing the peace.

1129.
Date: October 13, 2001
Target: Opposition Leader Morgan Tsvangirai
Location: Kadoma, Zimbabwe
Details: A mob of about 70 people hurled stones at Tsvangirai's car, smashing the windows as he traveled to a party meeting. His car was also attacked July 27 by stone-throwing youths, smashing the windows. No one was injured and none of the attackers were arrested.

1130.
Date: April 13, 2002
Target: Presidential Candidate Francois Bayrou
Location: Rennes, France
Details: As Bayrou campaigned at an open market, two youths hit him in the face with cream pies. They were protesting the fact that Bayrou had slapped a boy who tried to pick his pocket earlier in the week.

1131.
Date: April 17, 2002
Target: Prime Minister Lionel Jospin (Presidential Candidate)
Location: Rennes, France
Details: As Jospin was walking through a crowd at a political rally, two protesting teenagers squirted him in the face with ketchup. He stopped to wipe it off, then left the hall to admonish his attackers. He later returned to the rally, wearing a clean shirt.

1132.
Date: July 9, 2002
Target: Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber
Location: Hamburg, Bavaria
Details: While addressing an unruly crowd, people lobbed eggs and tomatoes at Stoiber. Security guards blocked the thrown objects with umbrellas.

1133.
Date: November 22, 2002
Target: Secretary General Lord Robertson
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Details: Roberson was delivering the closing press conference at a NATO summit. Two young Russian protesters shouted, "NATO is worse than the Gestapo," and threw two tomatoes at Robertson, missing him. Security guards escorted the men away. Despite heavy protection, the men had entered the summit posing as reporters.

1134.
Date: March 18, 2003
Target: Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Details: Rasmussen was on his way to a news conference in the Parliament when a peace activist poured red paint from two plastic containers onto Rasmussen. Paint also struck Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller. Security guards wrestled the activist away and he was arrested. He was protesting Rasmussen's pro-U.S. stand against Iraq.

1135.
Date: May 4, 2003
Target: Italian Activist Luca Casarini
Location: New York, New York
Details: Casarini had just entered a feminist bookstore where he was scheduled to speak on anti-authoritarianism and academia. A male protester stood in front of Casarini to block his view and blew a whistle to capture everyone's attention. Then a feminist protester brought a cream pie out from under her coat and hit Casarini in the face with it. She then fled out the door, as her male companion handed out a communique.

1136.
Date: June 1, 2003
Target: Reverend Fred Phelps
Location: Des Moines, Iowa
Details: An anti-gay protest group stood behind barricades at the Lincoln High School graduation, because the school was giving a scholarship to a gay student. The group was from Phelps' congregation in Topeka, Kansas. Shortly before the graduation began, four people dressed in black and carrying messenger bags, approached Phelps' group and threw cream pies at them. Police charged the four with disorderly conduct.

1137.
Date: July 6, 2003
Target: House Speaker Dennis Hastert
Location: Dixon, Illinois
Details: A man was arrested for felony aggravated battery after tossing a water balloon at Hastert during a parade. The balloon broke on an antique fire truck driven by Hastert, who got wet.