Who knows what happened here. Conservatives are latching on to this part:
Kenneth Gladney, 38, a conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with “Don’t tread on me” printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was awaiting treatment for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack.
… which is horrible, but generally ignoring the part about police macing liberals for taking pictures. Sounds like an all around cluster fuck. I expect to see more of this.
St. Loius Today: Six people, including P-D reporter, arrested at Carnahan meeting
August 8, 2009 at 2:57 am
As if anything that these right-wing thugs say can be believed. We should be so fortunate to live in a country where the labor movement is militant enough to confront these bastards, physically.
I think your analysis is insufficient. It’s not just a clusterfuck. It’s the result of coordinated right-wing provocations which are likely funded and aided by powerful right-wing politicians and the insurance industry.
This isn’t just a case of “something unfortunate happening.” This is a coordinated attack on democratic rights at the hands of nascent American Brownshirts.
See also: Fascism, American Style on Black Sun Gazette
I urge everyone to go out to these events and do what they can to defend democratic rights. Fascist hooliganism cannot be allowed to shut down public expression of opinion, which it is absolutely doing.
For their part, the Democratic response has been very, very tepid. They’re simultaneously urging people to write very strongly worded letters to Congress and avoiding any comparison of these right-wing goon squads with fascism. Because nothing is more frightening to a corporate politician than calling a thing by its correct name.
Again, my article outlines my feelings on this. I urge everyone interested in this topic to read it.
August 8, 2009 at 4:15 am
Yeah. When people are beating up your protesters, it’s fascism. When it’s union guys beating up wingnuts, it’s awesome. FWIW, the only person reported to have ended up in the hospital so far is a black peaceful protester, beat-up by people who ganged up on him. Very courageous and enlightened.
August 8, 2009 at 9:45 pm
It seems to me that you are ignoring clear evidence that one side is there demanding answers to the health care crisis and the other is a corporate goon squad hellbent on ending any debate. If a peaceful protester was beaten by a mob then that’s fucked up. I’m honestly more concerned about things like meetings being canceled due to disruption by fascist thugs. These people are emboldened by victory and all I am advocating is the presence of armed guards to protect legitimate debate.
August 9, 2009 at 1:49 am
Here’s another example of how these goons exercise their “democratic rights.”
August 9, 2009 at 8:02 pm
There must be tens of thousands of blogs and comments on this. Bottom line; the video of the “beating” doesn’t show anything even closely resembling Mr. Gladney’s version of events. The only person who seems to have received an injury is the SEIU member who is seen lying on the street in the beginning of the video.
August 10, 2009 at 3:29 pm
m.wade – I haven’t seen any video from the event, do you have a link?
August 10, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Here we go: http://mediamatters.org/blog/200908080004