I had hoped to be writing about what a good time I am having here at Netroots Nation. However, there was an event last night after the keynote speech that has been on my mind and after the events of last night and then today…I have to write about it.
More below the fold…
Me and some other attendees decided to head over the SEIU after party. We left the Hilton about ten minutes after ten. The restaurant/bar was about a block or so away. As we approached the bar we heard shouting. Upon coming closer we could see that one man in his late fifties, early sixties was harassing some Netroots Nation attendees. These attendees are all female and all were wearing a hijab.
I am unclear what started the whole thing; my understanding is that the man said something as he passed the women that was derogatory towards them and the fact that they choose to wear the hijab.
By the time we arrived he was screaming at them saying that they were not Americans…all but one of them were American (One was a guest to our country from Pakistan). The gentleman, (and I use that term quite loosely) wanted to start an incident. He kept trying to photograph the women; they did not want him to photograph them. At this time several people were on the scene and getting between him and the young ladies. He kept trying to get closer to take photographs. At this point me and another person stood between him and the women and pushed him across the street (not physically we just invaded his personal space until he moved.)
He kept yelling from the across the street…he finally went into the bar across the street. About this time the police arrived. They went onto the bar and came out with him in handcuffs. The officers interviewed us and then took him away in the squad car.
I believe I have all of the facts straight in this diary…things happened fast.
Today me and one of the young ladies that were involved in the incident were interviewed by freespeech TV. This may go national.
Here is a video of the final few minutes of the confrontation…it starts at about 4:30 on the video. Thanks to Jeremy Ryan for having his video camera on hand. The video will tell the story of the final few minutes better than I can…you can here me yelling “Enough” at some point n the background.
3:53 PM PT: I apologize if this does not seem well written...I am running on about four hours of sleep. I will try to comment as I can; however, the Internet at the hotel is kinda crappy...It took me over an hour just to get this diary posted.