What “both sides?”
Ok, having spent the last 24 hours mulling over the attack on a Moveon.org protestor at the Paul-Conway Debate the other night and the responses I’ve seen at various places, I think I’ve got the knee jerk rage out of my system.
I got yer First Amendment right here.
I had initially posted a link to the Pandagon article about it with a brief commentary in my private journal, and a friend linked to that, and I had to quit responding to people in his journal after a bit, because I could not deal with the onslaught of “I can’t believe Liberals are upset that someone wants to hear both sides” bullshit going on.
Ok, people, here’s the deal.
Several someones were exercising their right to freedom of speech outside the debate. Some of them were exercising their right to free speech on behalf of Paul, and some were exercising their right to free speech on behalf of Conway. When Paul arrived, this woman who was engaging in some protest theatre on behalf of Moveon.org tried to move to where her cameraman could get a picture of her and her sign and Paul in the same shot. Several of Paul’s supporters CHASED her around his car, then threw her to the ground, pulled her wig off, and two of them held her down while a third stomped on her head and shoulders.
The guy who did the stomping, a volunteer coordinator for the Paul campaign has said that he believed she was rushing Paul to attack him… with paper, apparently. Has since stated that if the police had intervened (when she wasn’t doing anything illegal at all, the cops should have just arrested her for having an opposing view in their presence, obviously) they wouldn’t have had to throw her down and stomp on her, and has also demanded an apology from the victim for making him attack her.
Yeah… He’s also stated that the video doesn’t show what it pretty obviously shows: him very carefully placing himself to stomp on her, stomping, then stomping again. He says he “slipped” because he has a bad back. Yeah… that’s not a slip. You can see the video at the Pandagon link, as well as a multitude of others, including at Countdown, which also has an interview with Ms. Valle, the stompee.
Look, I don’t care how “unfair” you think I am, but unless she swung on those rednecks first, I fail to see how anything she did merited being wrestled to the ground and stomped on hard enough to sprain her shoulder and give her a concussion. Disagreeing with someone’s politics is not reason enough to attack someone.
Polimicks 
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