Rally doesn’t turn violent, protestor does
Left-wing blogger and activist Renee Crawford took a moment to stop by the Tea Party Protest at the lakefront on Saturday, and her report has caused a bit of a blog stir. She reports that she saw a man in an altercation with several people, that “Joe the Plumber” was in the crowd of people, and the man who was being pursued by the crowd was eventually arrested and taken away. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the man suffered some minor injuries in the fracas.
The headline at Renee’s blog: “Anti-Govt Rally Masked as Anti-Healthcare Rally in Milwaukee Turns Violent.” She asked, “At what point do the speakers at this rally have some responsibility for inciting violence?” From her blog post:
We were on the north entrance and as I was typing her words, I hear a commotion. I looked up and saw an angry mob of angry white men chasing an older white man with a backpack. He was yelling “I have a right to free speech too.” The crowd was yelling, “You should die. You’re not an American., etc…” They started grabbing at him as he kept trying to leave the event. The crowd was growing (eventually to about 30 people) and the man clearly scared and angry and being grabbed, pushed and surrounded to impede his attempts to escape, I believed was in imminent danger. He was shouting back at them and attempting to defend himself from the crowd and the sheriffs about 300 yards away couldn’t see what was going on because of the vendor booths in their way. I made a decision and ran to get the sheriffs.
The man traveled about 300 yards attempting to escape the growing crowd. The crowd was riled up and screaming en masse, continuing to chase the man down, stop his movement, push and pull on his and in general attack the guy.
Then Joe the Plumber joined the tussle. I kid you not. I have no idea his role in it, just that he was IN THE MIDDLE of the crowd. The sheriffs get there, I turn to look at Joe the Plumber and the next thing I know the guy being assaulted by the crowd is bloody on the ground under the knee of two sheriffs and being cuffed. His face was bloody, there was something about a broken camera and I became scared of the crowd who were cheering and congratulating the sheriffs for “doing a great job”. There was a girl who said something about someone in that crowd punching her.
By Renee’s own account, she was rather late to the incident, and only can describe the part that she saw. Several of the comments at her blog told a different story, including this one (Warning, rough language):
This crazy loon (the so called beaten by the cops guy) started near the front of the stage. He was an antagonizing asshole. I saw him slap a drink out of a 17 y/o girl’s hand. He broke another’s camera by slamming it to the ground and also pushed and bullied many others cameras.
He kept yammering on about I HAVE FREE SPEECH, while the same argument was pointed back at him. THIS GUY WAS A BULLY and most likely did this for this purpose, for Dems to hate on an otherwise festive time.
Joe the Plumber joined in and he WAS BREAKING UP THE SQUABBLE! He had a booth set up and when he saw what was happening he got between the squabbling. So don’t slur him. He said to me, “we don’t need this.” I agree. But he didn’t even know what happened but I did.
The sheriff’s told the guy to leave. He called the cops Pigs and Fuckers and then started to go back. The cops tackled him and his face got fucked up from the ground because of his delusional flailing.
As you can see, the context of the story changes completely. Instead of a helpless victim, it appears that the person in question provoked the confrontation, acted in a violent manner, attempted to disrupt a peaceful event, and, given the circumstances, the crowd showed some restraint. The girl complaining of being struck was allegedly struck by the arrested man, and he was also allegedly responsible for the broken camera.
My question to Renee Crawford would be, at what point do those counter demonstrating at the Tea Parties bear some responsibility for the two acts of violence of which I am aware? The last one was a barbaric act of cannibalism, and now this person.
The truth is that the police and innocent bystanders have more to fear from the counter-demonstrators than they do from the Tea Party attendees. I have been to more than a few political events, and I have personally witnessed more than a few leftists arrested because they did not know how to behave. The classic example was years ago when Oliver North came on a campaign visit for a US Senate candidate, and the leftists just could not help themselves. A bunch of us were also there demonstrating on the other side. Our side sat and joked with the Waukesha sheriffs. Their side got carted away in handcuffs one at a time for not behaving. And it’s funny how they don’t like to cooperate when they get arrested.
But hey, Renee’s comments are par for the course of criticism of these events. Michael Horne, writing at MilwaukeeWorld.com, offered this observation:
GATHERING GROUNDS NEAR HEART OF MUSLIM RESTAURANT DISTRICT
Should be a Convenience for Hungry Faithful as Fast Ends
It could not be immediately determined why the Tea Ceremony was scheduled for the lakefront, when the crescent moon will first be observed in the west, but the site has been a ritualistic gathering spot for centuries. Fortunately, Milwaukee’s veteran’s park is steps away from numerous Muslim establishments. Participants and their guests will certainly be awed by the abundance of Halal treats available on the Cream City’s “Fig Coast.” Whether it’s Schwarma at Casablanca, Felafel from Abu’s, Lamb Chops from Mona’s Turkish Restaurant, or a refreshing Mango Lassi from Aladdin, the thousands at the lakefront will have every opportunity to have a joyous and memorable Laylatul Qadr.
Prophet Mohammad, when asked what one should invoke of Allah during this night, said: “Ask for your safety here and in the hereafter.”
I think Horne was trying to be funny, but clearly the last line would imply that the Muslim restaurants should have reason to fear a large gathering of people protesting against government spending.
Given the history of violence from leftwing demonstrators, I would point out to Horne that the Muslim establishments had far less to fear from the Tea Party than the nearby McDonalds, Starbucks and military recruiting offices had to fear from the counter-demonstrators leaving the lakefront. Those establishments are surely grateful Horne did not post their addresses, lest his regular readership give in to their more violent tendencies.
Protestors are already gathering in Pittsburgh for the G20 summit. Given the past violence of these demonstrations, the Renee Crawfords, Michael Hornes and Nancy Pelosis of the world would do far more good to worry about the violent protests on the left than the peaceful protests on the right.
Crawford &/or a supporter/reader dropped a little referral spam on my site so I followed it and read her account. Not hearing the story before I was reading and looking for anything obviously out of whack. I was suspicious of her claims of Joe the Plumber being involved in roughing up an innocent man. Her frequent use of “tea-bagger” throughout the article and on the rest of her site left me pretty much disregarding her story.
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Here’s a short version of a comment I posted on Renee’s site:
I was there, near the back of the crowd. We saw the man with the backpack gesturing very angrily, hands up in the air, shouting in people’s faces, as he moved from the front of the crowd to the back, in our line of vision to the left.
He was shouting at people and lunging toward them, getting in their faces, but I didn’t see any physical contact on either side… UNTIL I saw him hit a woman’s arm so as to knock her camera to the ground. I saw that and would swear to it on a witness stand.
After that, he moved behind some other people, and I couldn’t see him anymore. Just then the sheriff pulled up and I heard some people cheer. [Note: after posting that comment on her site, I saw a video online; now I'm thinking the cops had already been there and the cheer was because they arrested the guy.]
It was a peaceful, orderly crowd, with the exception of one trouble-maker.
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Crawford showed just how seriously she should be taken when she claimed only 300 to 500 people were there.
Leftist shows up to create a problem and then they absolve that person of all responsiblity.
No shock.
When will the lies of the left cease? Never.
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I saw her post on BlogNetNews and thought wow, no news outlets were reporting any police actions or violence at that hour. Her post is so full of crap her eyes must be brown. This was her opportunity to mis-characterize this event for any suckers that might come along looking for information. One of her commenters was so clueless as to call for police brutality because they were trying to subdue a combative person without sustaining any injury to themselves.
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I listened to James T. Harris after the Packer Post Mortem was complete and he did not even mention the incident. At least while I was listening.
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Go to my blog and start looking at the videos linked in the comments. My story has not yet been debunked.
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James Wigderson Reply:
September 20th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
I didn’t see anything in the videos that conflicts with what I wrote.
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Yes it has.
It’s pretty telling about your comment, though. It is up to you to prove you were right. It is not up to us to debunk you.
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James the videos clearly show him being followed by a gathering angry group of men who accost him, surround him and antagonize him as he continually tries to leave the event. Look at the behavior of the guy in the striped shirt who for no clear reason gets his face into the guy’s face while he’s being screamed at by another person. The best video I saw shows some of the crowd I saw. I count 25 individuals chasing a guy who’s walking away, continuing to confront him and surrounding him impeding his movement. No one defending the mob has thought of what it might have been like to hear that speech, make a comment against it and then have an angry mob start following him.
Put in the context of the violent speech given by McKenna as this incident was unfolding, it was scary for everyone involved…
If you don’t want the rap of being a violent angry mob, then why do they end the rally with a call to political assassination, terrorism, bigotry, nazism, revolution and forming a people’s mob? These are NOT my words, they are hers and you can see them on the video also linked in my comments. At what point James do the people in the crowd have a right or moral obligation to get upset at a call to political assassination and domestic terrorism thinly veiled as one of my commentators said as “satirical wit”? At what point did that man have a right to be upset that he was being chased by an angry mob and turn around and tell them to back off? At what point in that speech does a real American say STOP when political assassination is such a tragic force in our nation’s history?
Nothing about McKenna’s speech was decent. It should be condemned by everyone AT that rally! Read my comments ALL of them. Watch the video.
I’m not surprised by the fact that ANYONE at that rally was upset at that point on either side of that incident! The speech by McKenna was designed to get a specific reaction and on both sides, it was VERY effective…
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James Wigderson Reply:
September 20th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Renee, Randy Melchert has ALL of the videos posted at his blog, and even more details. As for your account of McKenna’s speech, you listened but did not hear.
http://randallmelchert.com/2009/09/19/milwaukee-tea-party-91909-with-arrest-video/
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Wow, Renee is really an off the wall person./ Even though the guy who was chased (supposedly), acted in a very boorish behavior, assualted people physically, she does nothing to condem him or his behavior. Apparently, there were other protestors, why weren’t the supposedly attacked? Why weren’t they chased? Why weren’t they arrested?
It’s really pathetic that Renee would feel pity for this man, even though anything that happened to him was self inflicted.
But clearly, she has an agenda and this is her 30 seconds in the limelight by trying to be a hero, but really offers very little execpt her hatered and her racism.
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James Wigderson Reply:
September 21st, 2009 at 8:00 am
Dan, I’ll agree that Renee walked into the situation with a set of prejudices, but I don’t see the evidence of racism. I would strongly discourage commenters from tossing the term around as loosely as the left does. If someone is going to toss around that charge, they better back it up with evidence. In other words, consider this a warning.
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James, the fact that she started off her piece saying that it was white men chasing a white man. Why would a person state that? Most normal people do not do that, they arer race neutral, unless the person has an issue with race or wants to use race as an issue. that to me is a form of racism. Racism isn’t just against minorities.
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James Wigderson Reply:
September 21st, 2009 at 9:27 am
Dan, she was merely being descriptive, just as we would hope that a newspaper or a blog would be equally descriptive of the individuals involved regardless of race. Only had she ascribed a behavior to whites in general could you say what she wrote was racist.
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mark Reply:
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:37 pm
so, if it would have been a black man and a black angry mob chasing another black man everyone would be ok with that? thought so……..
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James Wigderson Reply:
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Not sure of your point. Also, I think “chasing” really overstates the pursuit, as “angry mob” has connotations that don’t exactly fit the pursuers.
My favorite part was when the she has the crowd saying, “You should die!”
I was rolling after that one!
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http://www.thehispanicconservative.com/mcf-besmirches-walker.html
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Totally unrelated to this thread…
Not sure I like the new format and layout…. feelin’ nostalgic for the old Library & Pub.
Oh well.. I suppose I’ll get used it..
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James Wigderson Reply:
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:48 pm
It’s going to take some getting used to. Prices at the bar have definitely gone up.
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This format is substantially better than the other. Substantially!!!! You’ve done good, James.
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