Wheeling Tax Day Tea Party: Sunshine, Passion and The Mob

Any infiltrators were disguised as passionate Big Government protesters. This was The Mob with a Smile.

They came from around Wheeling, from Ohio, from communities around the city: officials estimated 2,500-3,000 turned out–including Ben Franklin. Music, speeches and fun with the Mob in the hills of West Virginia–and DBKP was there and came away with pix galore.

[ABOVE: Ben strikes his best founding father pose.]

Click images to enlarge

They threw a Tea Party in Wheeling, WV and Ben Franklin and his bunch had a good time cracking “The Mob” jokes while promising to take back their government from high-rolling spenders, out of control bureaucrats and an unresponsive BIG Federal Government.

Held in Wheeling Park, this year’s “Mob” was composed of grandmothers, veterans, blue collar workers, retired professionals, candidates, activists and the press.

Wheeling’s population was estimated at 28913 in 2008–and approximately 10% of the population turned out for the Tea Party Tax Day event.

Among those setting up was the the Free Wheelchair Mission.

A little over an hour to go and still a lot of getting ready remained.

One of the first to arrive was Rob from Weirton, WV. Rob started the American Patriot Council and readers can tell from his sandwich board what the agenda is.

Readers can find Rob’s Facebook page under Robert E. Denham. The APC is having a Flag Rally in Weirton on Saturday, April 17.

About 45 minutes to go and people are just arriving–many of them after getting home from work.

This sign by the Freedom Works tent let passers-by know that they are not happy with the current state of affairs.

Even the park staff got into the swing of things: even the flowers were decked out with American flags.

The Kellas boys from Wheeling were there promoting their late father’s (local sportscaster and talk radio host, George) soon to be published book: America Seize This Book!

Written before his death, Kellas predicted a Tea Party-like movement two years ago.

“There will be a peaceful revolution in this country; it’s success will either make or break America.”

Kellas’ sons are also obviously big Internet fans.

15 minutes until showtime.

The Mob continues to stream in.

…and they kept on coming.

This is This Mob.

Celeste drove in from Cameron and her sign echoed sentiments heard from many attendees. The event started at 6:30 with performance by the band The Tea Party Express and others. She and her husband Dave are retired school teachers who said they enjoyed the evening.

The two Wheeling police officers on duty, Officer Henry and Officer Robbins apparently enjoyed the day also.

Off. Robbins: “A well-behaved crowd, it’s fair to say.”
Off. Henry: “This is a a good group. This is no mob.”

After listening to Ben Franklin (Aaron Wilkerson from Wheeling), Jeff Sanders (The Liberty Committee) and several other rousing speeches, the crowd quietly collected lawn chairs, flags, blankets and sundries and headed back home.

If there were any infiltrators in the crowd, they were disguised as people concerned over the explosive growth of government and the bankrupting of their country.

Who liked to have a good time.

UPDATE #3: Here’s a video from a post this week: Tax Day Tea Parties: The Left is Now The Man

And a picture from today’s Wheeling event of at least one gentleman who appears to agree with the video’s sentiment.

NOTE: Check back for updates. More pictures to be posted at DBKP FLASH Headline News later this evening.

UPDATE #1: A local TV station estimated the crowd in the “hundreds.” That’s fair. One estimate we got said 1500-2000; another said 2500-3000, if the onlookers on the hills and around the parking lot and perimeter were counted.

Since the Searchlight NV event was estimated in the “dozens”–when there was clearly thousands that showed up–we picked the high number.

UPDATE #2: MORE pix at DBKP FLASH Headline News: Wheeling Tax Day Tea Party Pix.

More pictures, captions and updates will be added to both posts sometime in the morning.

by Mondo Frazier
images: DBKP file