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.
Furthermore, in this video you will see a mouthy dork in a dark tan polo (African-American dude). I'm wondering if he isn't the GOP nutter, Kenneth Gladney, the "Don't Tread on Me" dude who claimed to have been violently attacked at this townhall?
In the video, you can clearly see a SEIU guy injured on the ground, he stood up with a pained look on his face and rubbed his shoulder, and then this dude in a dark tan polo, Kenneth?, asked the SEIU guy "what the hell is wrong with your shoulder?" If that is Kenneth, he doesn't look severely injured to me.
On the flip, let's look at this and then see what we can find.
This "Don't Tread on Me" dork in the dark tan polo keeps running his mouth throughout the entire video. "They attacked me" he says, but he doesn't appear to be injured and he is absolutely thrilled to see the cop car pull up. He runs up as the cop car is cruising in and he waves and waves to the cop, he almost caresses the cop car. He carries a familiarity with that cop car.
So, I'm wondering why these St Louis cops didn't make the conservative wingnuts abide by the same restrictive rules that they use for us at public rallies.
From TPM:
According to the Post-Dispatch there were at least six arrests. And the only person identified in the still very sketchy reporting appears to be a reform proponent rather than a teabagger.
The GOP wingnuts are reporting that pepperspray was used by the police on one "ObamaCare" proponent.
Seems she was a 51 year old woman who had attended with a friend. She took some pictures of someone assaulted (seems she may be the woman who took photographs of the SEIU man who was attacked and on the ground) and the cops accused her of interference for taking photos. Same with that reporter.
Looks like the cops arrested SEIU people?
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.
Well, from a Google search, it appears that one Kenneth Gladney is employed by the St Louis City Crisis Intervention Team Police Department. Hired in 2006.
Furthermore, one Kenneth Gladney has now lawyered up and claims he was viciously attacked and said attack required hospitalization. Now, this claim is substantiated by emails and from eyewitness testimony from the same lawyer who has filed this claim against SEIU (hmmm... wonder if they think union money is easy pickin'?) Race is supposedly a factor.
Email from eye witness and attorney confirms that SEIU-logo’d thugs attacked and beat a black man for distributing Gadsen flags following a Town Hall in St. Louis County on Thursday. Race was a factor in the beating.
So, what do you think? Is this a case of the GOP goon squads trying to pull in every persecution complex they have and run with it?
Update [2009-8-7 13:49:23 by bronte17]: Okay. There has been pushback in this diary and claims made that I am being a conspiracy theorist and accusing the St Louis police force of corruption or something. That is NOT the focus of this diary.
What I am trying to bring to the forefront here... is that the GOP nutters and their operatives succeeded in using internal networks to create a negative narrative of our supporters and the reality on the ground.
Yes, the video is of a police arrest. But, I'm asking how it is that the situation spun out of control such that injured parties and people documenting the confrontation were the ones arrested.