Tea Party breaks out in Palo Alto; UPDATE: police called in

Obama may have beaten McCain by by 41% in Palo Alto, California, but that didn't stop a Tea Party from breaking out there today. The occasion was the Stanford -Berkeley game, a major local event attracting tens of thousands of alumni and football fans to the Stanford University stadium here in Palo Alto. Outside the stadium, they were greeted by a tea party:

Some of the liberals took offense, claiming for example that death panels were "lies," but things generally remained civil. The one exception was when a mild-mannered but hungry protester went to a nearby restaurant for sustenance. He was refused service asked to leave because he had with him an anti-Obamacare sign.

This event was organized by the Silicon Valley 9-12 Project.

MORE: Our protester explains that a security guard had noticed him while he was walking through the shopping center in search of food. When he sat down, it was too much and the guard had to call for backup:

"I put my sign down on an outside table and ordered my meal. The female guard looked at my sign and got on her radio to call for security-guard backup."

It was after he left the restaurant and sat on a low retaining wall outside to enjoy his repast that two security guards confronted him, demanding that he leave. As he was comfortable where he was and also aware of his rights, he declined. Because a single individual with an anti-Obamacare sign was too much for these two security guards, they called the police. One officer came to the scene and then another. The second officer told our intrepid protester that he would have to leave. Still aware that, under California law, a shopping arcade is "quasi-public property" and that he had a right to sit there with sign and taco, he bravely refused. The two officers then conferred and, with the help of an iPhone, examined the precedents under California case law (Yes, Palo Alto is a university town). They determined that the controlling legal authority was the US Supreme Court's Pruneyard Decision which gave our hero the right to finish his lunch where he was, with his sign, and in peace. He enjoyed the taco.

There are some things every Tea Party protester should know and one of them is the Pruneyard Decision.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of local protests and tea parties:
To protest Obamacare, San Francisco holds a sick-in (Nov. 15)
A Tea Party greets Obama in San Francisco (Oct. 15)
Videos of the October 15 San Francisco Tea Party
San Franciscans speak to Nancy Pelosi (Aug. 14)
The San Francisco Tax Day Tea Party Protest in Pictures (Apr. 15)
Rep. Eshoo's health care town hall (Sep. 2)
Rep. Speier's town hall meeting (Aug. 23)
Million man Tea party