At last nights Conway/Paul debate in Lexington Kentucky, Lauren Valle a female member of Move.org attempt to give Paul a "RepubliCorp" Prize, to symbolize their merging of government and corporations supported by Republicans, but instead she found herself shoved to the ground and had her head and shoulders stomped on by Paul Thugs.
We all know this kind of thing was coming, but what's even worse is how Rand Paul has so far refused to condemn this assault.
The woman in question was hospitalized, suffering a concussion and several sprains, but according to Rand Paul - who was only a few feet away - this was just a matter of a little "pushing and shoving". Paul downplayed the incident appearing on, you guessed it, Fox News.
HOST: Political banter inside and now we have a brawl outside. As a female protester getting roughed up during demonstrations in the parking lot while Rand Paul and Jack Conway were debating on the inside in Kentucky. Her shoulder Stepped on after being stepped on after being heckled by two men there. [...]
PAUL: And there was a bit of a crowd control problem. I don’t want anybody though to be involved in things that aren’t civil. I think this should always be about the issues. And it is an unusual situation to have so many people so passionate on both sides jockeying back and forth. And it wasn’t something that I liked or anybody liked about that situation. So I hope in the future it is going to be better.
Paul tries to paint this is some kind equal culpability for what happened here, but let's be clear. She wanted to give Paul a sign, as a result Four Men Attacked Her. As noted by Thinkprogress:
. Video of the incident clearly shows at least two large men bringing Valle to the ground, while another rips her blonde wig off and a fourth steps on her knee. One of the first two men then stomps on her shoulder, with his heel clearly making contact with her head. Two members of the crowd then appear to try to intervene; a man can be heard shouting, "no, no, no, come on," while a woman tries to push away one of the men tackling tackling Valle.
Paul's Campaign put out this statement:
We understand that there was an altercation outside of the debate between supporters of both sides and that is incredibly unfortunate. Violence of any kind has no place in our civil discourse and we urge supporters on all sides to be civil to one another as tensions rise heading toward this very important election. We are relieved to hear that the woman in question was not injured.
But she was injured.
In the same way the Paul can't come clean about his own pagan bondage ritual with a classmate from Baylor college, he can't own up to what really happened here. As he has on so many issue Paul again bring nothing but FAIL to the common sense test. A WOMAN WAS ASSAULTED, and he can only try to play this down the middle as if there was any possible way that she could have brought this attack on herself.
Contrast that with Jack Conway's Statement. Via HuffPo
I was shocked to see video footage of a Rand Paul supporter stomping the head of a woman outside the debate last night. We can disagree on issues, and I don't know what preceded the incident, but physical violence by a man against a woman must never be tolerated. It is my hope that steps have been taken to ensure this kind of thuggish behavior never happens again in this campaign.
As I type this, Talkingpoints Memo now has the ID of the attacker, he wasn't just some random Paul Supporter, he was a Campaign Volunteer who had been Paul's Bourbon County Coordinator.
Smile for the Camera Buttercup.
The Rand Paul campaign has just severed ties with their Bourbon County coordinator -- a man by the name of Tim Profitt -- who has identified himself as the supporter who stomped on the head and neck of a MoveOn activist outside of the Senate debate in Lexington, KY last night, according to Fox News.
Profitt apologized for the scuffle to the Associated Press this afternoon, and apparently told them that the camera angle made the incident appear worse than it really was.
The "Camera Angle" did what? That's pathetic. Whatta Weasle!
Lauren Valle has now talked to TPM and says this attack was premeditated and that her attackers recognized her from other protests.
"The Rand Paul campaign knows me and they have expressed their distaste for my work before," Lauren Valle, 23, told TPM and two other reporters on a conference call this afternoon.
According to Valle, several men surrounded her before Paul arrived at the event in Lexington last night.
"They surrounded me," she said. "There were about five of them, they started motioning to each other, and they got behind me."
According to Valle, her partner, whom she identified as Alex, overheard the men threaten "we're here to do crowd control and we might have to take someone out."
Valle's own account of the attack is chilling.
"Rand Paul's car arrived, and as soon as it did, a couple of them stepped right in front of me and so I stepped off the curb to get around them, back out to the front, and at that point they started grabbing for me and I ran all the way around the car with them in pursuit, and the point at which they see the footage is after I've run all the way around the car and am in front of the car and that is when they take me down," Valle said.
As you can see from the footage...one or two people twisted my arms behind my back and took me down. I got into the [inaudible] position to protect myself and it was about two or three seconds after that that another person stomped on my head. I lay there for 20 seconds or so and then my partner Alex came and got me up and that's the point at which there's that media clip that is out of me speaking.
Valle states that there will be further legal action, but she hasn't decided whether it will be civil or not. I personally would recommend a restraining order, as the likelihood of her coming into contact with these men again is fairly high consider her work as an activist and their work within the Paul (or other) campaigns.
The hypocrisy here is astounding. The Right Cries and screams about poor little Juan Williams and his first amendment rights, when in fact William was violating his contract with NPR by allowing himself to be identified by Fox as their employee, and hence granting the appropriate "Liberal Points" to Fox, burnishing their thin sheen of "Fairness" with fake token "Lefties."
Glenn Beck: NPR Put Juan Williams against a wall, and Shot Him!
Shot him? NO, Fired Him.
To this very day Williams has the ranchos juevos cojones to claim what he said wasn't bigoted? As a result we have this call to have NPR defunded?
How about having RAND PAUL Defunded?
We've been hearing for months about the "attack" (actually fight) between SEIU members and Tea Partier Kenneth Gladney. Andrew Breitbart has been waving this flag for months claiming it was just an example of "Union Thugs" and racism because Gladney is black. (Except the guys he fought with were Black too) But Gladney wasn't even injured, and there is evidence that he provoked and started the fight himself. From what I've seen in the video, Gladney isn't the one on the ground.
And we had this ridiculous woman who claimed she was attacked by an mysterious Black Obama supporter who who carved a backwards "B" on her face.
When in fact, none of that actually happened. Phony Victims. All of them.
We've heard these whiners and bigots and bullies yell and scream for months.
ENOUGH!
What about bit of Justice for Lauren Valle? There is no way this came "From both sides". I expect assault and battery charges to be filed, or else the local police dept and District Attorney needs to hear an Ear FULL from MoveOn, from Progressives and all decent people in the country.
Vyan
Update ht comments Tim Profit the Paul Volunteer Stomper has been served with a criminal summons. I'm thinking that's not enough, he should be frogged marched to the jail for an arraignment, plus - he didn't act alone. This was a coordinated assault. A MUGGING. She was tackled slammed to the ground like a football game - without any pads or protection. Look at the SIZE of those guys on top of her! This is how they treat women? It's like a pack of linebackers taking down a bird.