Occasionally it’s worth waiting for a story to develop before blogging it. Watch a pattern develop, first, then provide a more comprehensive resource to assemble the big picture out of the many pieces.
This town hall mob story is a prime example — definitely one for the Crazy Files. There’s so many angles to it that it’s easy to get lost in the forest for all the trees. As a panacea, we’ve compiled a series of excerpts, broken into six posts, that help to illustrate the web of events and their underlying linkage (to be updated as this madness unfolds):
The Town Hall Mobs:
Police Break Up Screaming Crowd Outside Tampa Town Hall On Health Care Reform (Huffington Post)
Angry protesters screamed, yelled and banged on windows as officers hurried to guard the entrances to the facility, where U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor was trying to discuss the various health care reform proposals being debated in Congress. One photojournalist said that a fistfight broke out inside the building, reports WTSP.
Many of the hundreds of protesters said that they had been inspired by a conservative activist group promoted by Fox News host Glenn Beck and some received emails from the county Republican party…
Ann Kirkpatrick Town Hall Overrun By Protesters (Huffington Post)
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) was forced to cancel a town hall after it was overrun by protesters, Politico reported. Kirkpatrick, a freshman, was unable to get the event started and canceled it.
Six people, including P-D reporter, arrested at Carnahan meeting (STLtoday.com)
St. Louis County police arrested six people, including a Post-Dispatch reporter, during a demonstration Thursday evening outside a forum on aging called by U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis.
Two of the people were arrested on suspicion of assault, one of resisting arrest and three on suspicion of committing peace disturbances, police say….
Post-Dispatch reporter Jake Wagman, who was covering the event and shooting video for stltoday.com, was arrested for interference….
One of those arrested was Brian Matthews, 34, of St. Louis city…. Matthews said he had been inside the forum because he is in favor of a public option for health care. He had attended with a friend, a 51-year-old woman. After it was over, they were walking outside and had a run-in with a man who was trying to videotape them. Matthews said that man from from the GOP. They reported the man to a police officer, who seemed uninterested, Matthews said.
As the pair walked to their car, they saw a man on the street who looks like he had been assaulted. Police surrounded him.
“My friend took pictures,” Matthews said, “and an officer told her not to. She contested that.”
Matthews said he and his friend walked away, arm in arm. The officer followed them, and Matthews friend exchanged words with the officer, Matthews said.
“I can’t tell you how many police officers charged us from behind,” Matthews said. “I was pushed to the ground by one. I was pushed into the back of somebody who was walking away.”
Matthews said he was told he was arrested for interference. His friend was maced “after she was subdued by the police,” Matthews said. She vomited on the side of the road, then later vomited more in the police car, he said.
Kenneth Gladney, 38, a conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with “Don’t tread on me” printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was awaiting treatment for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack.
More details emerged later:
Dueling protesters disrupt Carnahan forum on aging (STLtoday.com)
St. Louis County police did not release the names of the people arrested outside Bernard Middle School on Thursday night but provided the following details:
– Two men were arrested for misdemeanor assault for allegedly punching, pushing and holding a man who was handing out American flags and fliers outside the school.
– One woman was arrested for misdemeanor assault and destruction of property for allegedly pushing another woman who was recording the events on her cell phone, then grabbing the phone and breaking it.
– One woman was arrested for interference and resisting arrest. One officer used pepper spray on the woman, police said, when she did not comply with officers’ demands. That woman “just would not leave,” when asked by officers to back away from the scuffles, said spokesman Rick Eckhard said. She also passively resisted when an officer tried to handcuff her, he said.
– One man was arrested for peace disturbance when he entered a circle of people who had gathered near the pepper-sprayed woman and refused to comply with officers’ demands to leave.
– Post-Dispatch reporter Jake Wagman also was arrested for allegedly interfering.
Raw Story did its own homework and sheds light on the St. Louis violence:
The Service Employees Industrial Union (SEIU) appears to be the latest bogeyman for the anti-health care protesters. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, for example, claimed on Friday that “SEIU thugs rolled up their sleeves and attacked a black conservative protester in St. Louis.”
As described by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, however, the facts of the incident cited by Malkin were far less clearcut. Out of the half a dozen people arrested following a town hall held by a Democratic Congressman, at least three do not appear to have been involved in violence of any kind. One supporter of a public option for health care told the paper that he and his companion had been arrested for interference after his companion tried to take pictures of a man who seemed to have been assaulted. A Post-Dispatch reporter was arrested on the same charge.
A poster at Daily Kos elaborated on this incident, writing angrily, “St. Louis cops arrested Democrats… people supporting reform and reporters… and not the GOP thugs mobbing the healthcare townhall. A video clearly shows a SEIU man down on the ground, injured, after he had been attacked. Another SEIU man comes to his aid and gives him a hand up. A woman who had been on the sidelines photographing this attack on the injured SEIU man appears to be the 51-year old woman who was arrested for ‘interference’ with police. She was peppersprayed after she was subdued.”
On the other hand, the Post-Dispatch also spoke with Kenneth Gladney, a 38 year old conservative activist, who claimed that some of those arrested had attacked him as he handed out “Don’t tread on me” flags, forcing him to seek treatment in a hospital emergency room. According to the paper, “Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack.”
The Gladney incident is clearly the source of Malkin’s story about “SEIU thugs” attacking a black conservative protester. It may also be the ultimate reference point for what seems to be a highly garbled blog entry that appeared on Friday in the Orange County Conservative Examiner, headlined “SEIU thugs respond to Obama’s marching orders”:
Reports are pouring in from around the country that the well-dressed swastika carrying seniors are being pounded by Obama’s storm-troopers.
The Obama brown-shirts are showing up town halls and running rough shod over the elderly. Some of the elderly have been hospitalized from their beatings
SEIU connected to criminal’s of ACORN are filling pathetically small halls and pushing, literally, the legitimate protestors out.
Maddow provides evidence of ‘lynch mob ugliness’ (Raw Story)
Rachel Maddow turned to the example of Congressman Frank Kratovil — who was “lynched” in effigy outside his office — for further “evidence of ugliness” amid the angry healthcare mobs that have been disrupting Democratic town halls over the past weeks.
In one congressman’s words, the “lynch mob mentality” that has prevailed in displays of uncivil discourse has become so extreme, in some cases elected representatives have received death threats or are calling off their town hall meetings for safety concerns.
Maddow also focused on an audience at a Republican town hall on fighting healthcare reform. The people actually applauded a comment about Democrats being lynched, then erupted into laughter when Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) said, “I would assume you’re not approving lynchings, because we don’t want to do that.”
She added that the communications director for Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) told Talking Points Memo on Wednesday that a caller had warned, “Miller could lose his life over [healthcare reform]” — an obvious threat….
Congressman Miller, much like a growing number of his House colleagues, will not be holding any healthcare town hall events during the August recess.“Congressman Brian Baird of Washington [...] also announced that he won’t be scheduling any town hall meetings over the August recess because of what he called, quote, ‘a lynch-mob mentality out there. There is an ugliness to it,’ he said,” according to Maddow.
She continued: “And for evidence of that ugliness – well, Congressman Frank Kratovil, a freshman Democrat from Maryland [...] was recently lynched in effigy by an anti-health care reform protester outside his own office. Lynched in effigy, because of health care form.”
“This is a scary time in Washington,” he said. “It’s a very frightening time. I see Barack Obama is creating an enemies list of people who oppose this miserable health care plan. I think that’s frightening. That’s from a guy that can’t even show a long-form birth certificate. I think we all ought to be prepared to fight that.”
One audience member at the Tulsa Republican Club didn’t think that was enough, berating Sullivan for not doing enough to uncover Obama’s citizenship, the Tulsa World reported.
Throw The Healthcare Obstructionist Out!
More than two thirds of the American people want a single payer health care system. And if they cant have a single payer system 76% of all Americans want a strong government-run public option on day one (85% of democrats, 71% of independents, and 60% republicans). Basically everyone.
We have the 37th worst quality of healthcare in the developed world. And the most costly. Costing over twice as much as every other county. Conservative estimates are that over 120,000 of you dies each year in America from treatable illness that people in other developed countries don’t die from. Rich, middle class, and poor a like. Insured and uninsured. Men, women, children, and babies. This is what being 37th in quality of healthcare means.
I know that many of you are angry and frustrated that REPUBLICANS! In congress are dragging their feet and trying to block TRUE healthcare reform. What republicans want is just a taxpayer bailout of the DISGRACEFUL GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance industry, and the DISGRACEFUL GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT healthcare industry. A trillion dollar taxpayer funded private health insurance bailout is all you really get without a robust government-run public option available on day one. Co-OP’s ARE NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR A GOVERNMENT-RUN PUBLIC OPTION. They are a fraud being pushed by the GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance industry that is KILLING YOU!
YOU CANT HAVE AN INSURANCE MANDATE WITHOUT A ROBUST PUBLIC OPTION. MANDATING PRIVATE FOR PROFIT HEALTH INSURANCE AS YOUR ONLY CHOICE WOULD BE A DISASTER AND UNETHICAL, CORRUPT, AND MORALLY REPUGNANT. AND PROBABLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL AS WELL.
These industries have been slaughtering you and your loved ones like cattle for decades for profit. Including members of congress and their families. These REPUBLICANS are FOOLS!
Republicans and their traitorous allies have been trying to make it look like it’s President Obama’s fault for the delays, and foot dragging. But I think you all know better than that. President Obama inherited one of the worst government catastrophes in American history from these REPUBLICANS! And President Obama has done a brilliant job of turning things around, and working his heart out for all of us.
But Republicans think you are just a bunch of stupid, idiot, cash cows with short memories. Just like they did under the Bush administration when they helped Bush and Cheney rape America and the rest of the World.
But you don’t have to put up with that. And this is what you can do. The Republicans below will be up for reelection on November 2, 2010. Just a little over 13 months from now. And many of you will be able to vote early. So pick some names and tell their voters that their representatives (by name) are obstructing TRUE healthcare reform. And are sellouts to the insurance and medical lobbyist.
Ask them to contact their representatives and tell them that they are going to work to throw them out of office on November 2, 2010, if not before by impeachment, or recall elections. Doing this will give you something more to do to make things better in America. And it will make you feel better too.
There are many resources on the internet that can help you find people to call and contact. For example, many social networking sites can be searched by state, city, or University. Be inventive and creative. I can think of many ways to do this. But be nice. These are your neighbors. And most will want to help.
I know there are a few democrats that have been trying to obstruct TRUE healthcare reform too. But the main problem is the Bush Republicans. Removing them is the best thing tactically to do. On the other hand. If you can easily replace a democrat obstructionist with a supportive democrat, DO IT!
You have been AMAZING!!! people. Don’t loose heart. You knew it wasn’t going to be easy saving the World.
God Bless You
jacksmith — Working Class
I REST MY CASE (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/why-markets-cant-cure-healthcare/)
Republican Senators up for re-election in 2010.
* Richard Shelby of Alabama
* Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
* John McCain of Arizona
* Mel Martinez of Florida
* Johnny Isakson of Georgia
* Mike Crapo of Idaho
* Chuck Grassley of Iowa
* Sam Brownback of Kansas
* Jim Bunning of Kentucky
* David Vitter of Louisiana
* Kit Bond of Missouri
* Judd Gregg of New Hampshire
* Richard Burr of North Carolina
* George Voinovich of Ohio
* Tom Coburn of Oklahoma
* Jim DeMint of South Carolina
* John Thune of South Dakota
* Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas
* Bob Bennett of Utah
It’s funny we hear Republicans say that they do not want “faceless bureaucrats” making medical decisions but they have no problem with “private sector” “faceless bureaucrats” daily declining medical coverage and financially ruining good hard working people (honestly where can they go with a pre-condition). And who says that the “private sector” is always right, do we forget failures like Long-Term Capital, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Enron, Tyco, AIG and Lehman Brothers. Of course the federal government will destroy heathcare by getting involved, Oh but wait, Medicare and Medicaid and our military men and women and the Senate and Congress get the best heathcare in the world, and oh, that’s right, its run by our federal government. I can understand why some may think that the federal government will fail, if you look at the past eight years as a current history, with failures like the financial meltdown and Katrina but the facts is they can and if we support them they will succeed.
How does shouting down to stop the conversation of the healthcare debate at town hall meetings, endears them to anyone. Especially when the organizations that are telling them where to go and what to do and say are Republicans political operatives, not real grassroots. How does shouting someone down or chasing them out like a “lynch mob” advanced the debate, it does not. So I think the American people will see through all of this and know, like the teabagger, the birthers, these lynch mobs types AKA “screamers” are just the same, people who have to resort to these tactics because they have no leadership to articulate what they real want. It’s easy to pickup a bus load of people who hate, and that’s all I been seeing, they hate and can’t debate. Too bad.