I have hesitated to pursue this particular issue because I believe that violence, threats, and property damage have no place in our political discourse. When someone receives a threat of violence, or has personal property damaged by protestors, I personally believe it diminishes us all. It also gives our opponents an excuse to dismiss our concerns and cause by labeling us as "thugs" or "vandals" or "extremists." And in general, I personally take reports of violent actions or threats, by people on either side of an issue, at their face value. When someone communicates that they have been threatened I believe them, with or without video documentation, because I feel that the risk of dismissing a real threat outweighs the potential damage of a false report (although I acknowledge that false accusations can be extremely harmful as well).
But something about Wisconsin State Senator Dan Kapanke's claims of a windshield "smashed" by protestors after the Senate vote on collective bargaining rights didn't sit well with me. While there was a serious threat sent by email to all the Republican legislators last week, which threatened not only them but their families as well, that email seems to have been sent by one woman and law enforcement is handling the situation. We all know that the $7.5 million in damage to the Capitol building cited by Walker's administration in court was a gross exaggeration. And while some "news" outlets claimed that there was extensive damage to the Capitol building the night after the Senate's rushed vote, in fact even the most conservative blogger in Madison, Ann Althouse, and her husband could find only one - yes, one - instance of damage to an entrance door (which she gleefully documented in a photo).
With how remarkably peaceful the demonstrators at the Capitol have been, despite all of us being union thugs and all, I was therefore very surprised that Senator Dan Kapanke's car was damaged by protestors. However, his staff has talked frequently about the damage in the past few days. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal noted that "an aide to Kapanke says that windows on Kapanke's car were broken in Madison." In the same article, the incident is described further:
"Also, Kapanke's windshield was damaged on March 9 after the Senate voted on the budget-repair bill. Kapanke was advised by Capitol police he would not be able to reach his car parked on the Capitol Square because of protesters. A state trooper moved the car, and when Kapanke went to his car a short time later, he found a hole in the windshield."
Rose Smyrski, Kapanke's chief of staff, has been quoted as referring to the windshield as
"smashed" in numerous sources.
So what's the big deal about a windshield? Apparently, it's a very big deal among conservative "news" outlets and the conservative blogosphere. The vandalism of Kapanke's car window has been picked up and cited over, and over, as a symbol of how violent the protestors are. Without this one example of damage to personal property, in fact, there would be no other example of damage to any Republican's property (although there is allegedly a person in La Crosse who keeps putting nails in Kapanke's driveway at his house, but no damage has resulted).
Given how unusual it was to hear of any damage done by the Capitol protestors, I took a look to see what kind of damage it was. Hearing about broken and smashed windows, and in a couple of sources a "hole," I guess I wanted to see how angry someone must have been that night after the vote. So I found a video of Kapanke himself showing a reporter the "damage."
I am no auto glass specialist, but I am a former long term resident of Phildelphia, so I have extensive experience evaluating smashed car windows. I know the damage that results when someone completely smashes out your window in order to get inside your car. I also know the damage that results from someone beating on your car with a rock, a garbage can, someone else's head, etc, or shooting a bullet through it. In the case of someone trying to damage your car window without trying to get inside, you get a dent, surrounded by those spider cracks in the glass. Sometimes you even get a small hole in the middle of the dent, surrounded by spider cracks. But I have never, ever, seen a thin, single crack with no associated dent or spider cracks as the result of blunt trauma to a windshield.
The video of Kapanke's crack (!) shows what you get when a crack forms spontaneously following a tiny, sometimes invisible, chip from highway travel. It can happen when you go over a pothole and suddenly a crack forms, or if the temperature of the car is low but the windshield gets suddenly warm. And I am fairly confident that any auto glass repair person that Kapanke took his car to would tell him the same thing. The damage seen on the windshield looks spontaneous, not intentional.
So why is this being perpetuated? You would have to ask Kapanke and his staff. I absolutely believe that threats of harm against anyone are abhorrent, and feel terrible that the Republicans and their families have to fear for their safety. Kapanke may have had nails placed on his driveway, and that is also, in my opinion, unacceptable in our society. But if Kapanke is truly interested in making this dialog peaceful, why is he perpetuating claims that his car was damaged by protestors, when there is no evidence of intentional damage to it? He is fueling anger and hatred towards protestors, while simultaneously denouncing it when he is the target.
Updated by FlotsamInaWebSea at Tue Apr 05, 2011 at 02:49 PM PDT
As of 4/5, when several news outlets in Wisconsin have picked up on this story and the fact that the police found no evidence of vandalism, I went back to the video that had been on the WKOW 27 news site, and it is now gone. It actually still was online two days ago - I know because I forwarded it them to Rachel Maddow, and checked to make sure it was still available before I sent it on. But today, the same day that this makes the "mainstream" news, the video had been deleted from the article.
I have, or course, emailed the editors at WKOW to see why they pulled the video at such an interesting time, and will post if I hear back.