It’s usually only in Roadrunner cartoons that we get the chance to see someone hit with “a boulder.” And a blow so powerful that it almost sent a woman tumbling “from the reverberation” it generated seems like it should be restricted to a Marvel movie fight scene. But the source of this astonishing power punch was a 39-year-old grocery store clerk who apparently can outdo the Hulk without breaking stride. He apparently delivered a single blow that was “as if someone shot me.” It really strains belief.
Or … Rudy Giuliani is a serial liar who can’t help spewing falsehoods on even the most trivial event. It also seems that Giuliani, once caught in a lie, has only one response: double down, triple down, quadruple down until the dark, dark hair dye of victory flows forth. Let all dignity, all common sense, all semblance of truth be trampled into the dust of the Four Seasons Landscaping parking lot.
Except in this case, the visual evidence of Giuliani’s lies is so obvious, even his biggest allies can’t keep from snickering.
On Monday, Joan McCarter covered the events of the “assault” on Giuliani. And there really should be nothing to add. Because there was no assault. Five seconds spent viewing the video of the event reveals a man walking past, giving Giuliani an open-palmed pat on the back, and continuing across the floor of the ShopRite grocery where this astounding feat of strength allegedly occurred.
What really is astonishing isn’t this “attack.” It’s that the man, store employee Daniel Gill, was arrested, charged with felony assault, and held over 24 hours by the New York Police Department. Because apparently there aren’t enough Black men trying to sell individual cigarettes to take up their time.
However, well after everyone on the internet had seen the ridiculousness of this incident, New York prosecutors apparently found time to check out the actual evidence and reduced the charges against Gill … to merely third-degree assault, third-degree menacing, and second-degree harassment. Which is a lot of crime for an encounter lasting roughly one second.
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It’s obvious that Gill does touch Giuliani. But touch is very much the correct word. He gives the man who Donald Trump made the head of his legal team a lighter tap than the average shopper in that store received a dozen times on the street that morning. However, ridiculous as it was, this whole thing is extremely likely to cost Gill his job, or to leave him facing court encounters that go on for months. It’s also certain to leave him with a police record that will linger the rest of his life.
All of this for something so silly that Newsmax doesn’t buy it.
Giuliani hasn’t even been able to keep straight on what Gill said in passing. At first it was a comment calling Giuliani a “scumbag” (completely believable), but now the claim seems to be something crediting Giuliani for the overturning of Roe v. Wade (much less so).
On the one hand, it would be terrific to see Gill actually go to court on this, because that would provide the opportunity to enter into evidence all the obvious, visible, and absolutely absurd lies Giuliani is putting out. It would be nice to think that someone out there might even think, “You know, if he’s lying this outrageously about something like this, then all that stuff he said about the election ...” But no. It seems unlikely that anyone who has bought into Trump’s Big Lie has that kind of rational thought. Also, Giuliani has already had his law license suspended and been fired by the last firm to which he belonged. His entire occupation is lying to Trump supporters.
It would also be nice to think that any reasonable jury wouldn’t even bother to leave the room before dismissing these charges. However, it would be completely understandable if Gill agreed to plead guilty to some minor charge.
Because that’s the way the system works: In one hand, prosecutors hold out a prospect of unending charges, police harassment, and the possibility that they might actually persuade a jury to go along with a charge that means jail time. In the other they present a “just plead to this and you can go home” deal. Left unmentioned is how this makes you a criminal for the rest of your life, and stands in the way of ever finding a job, ever renting an apartment, ever getting a home loan, or ever doing any of a thousand other things. It’s happened to tens of millions of people. It may also happen to Gill.
If Gill were a Republican who had been arrested for actually assaulting a Democratic leader, the obvious next step would be 24/7 cheering on Fox News, a whirlwind tour on the Republican rally circuit, and a successful run for Congress. But since it appears he was critical of Giuliani, expect him to show up in GOP ads this fall as just the kind of antifa/BLM/radical left menace who threatens to pat the back of all America should Republicans fail to capture both the House and Senate.