A first-year law student at the University of Virginia tried to ask George Allen some questions the senator didn’t like. So three big guys with Allen stickers on — staffers? — beat the guy, wrestled him to the ground, and nearly put his head through a glass door.
This news account on YouTube calls it a “fight” but if you look at the video the victim did nothing but ask questions — all the violence is on the Allen team side. Click below to see for yourself:
The shirts are not brown, but the spirit is there. I wonder if there’s any connection between the Allen staff’s frayed tempers and the latest poll, showing Webb at 50% and Allen at only 46% — within the margin of error, but Webb’s first lead nonetheless. [Update: Actually there are four polls now showing Webb ahead, but all within the margin of error.]
[Update (2): More details at The Carpetbagger]
[Update (3): Sen. Allen’s reaction to the incident? “These things happen.”
I guess that is true, especially when the candidate is one who says stuff like, “Let’s enjoy knocking their soft teeth down their whining throats.“
The victim, incidentally, is named Mike Stark. In addition to be a 1L at UVa (whose graduates include… Senator Allen), he’s a former Marine, and has a blog.]
Looks like there might be scope for an interesting civil lawsuit with the Allen campaign and Allen himself amongst the defendants.
Interesting possibility here, ask a question, get beaten up. Sounds to me like a possible motive for the attack would be to supress the question. An argument to be made for discovery?
Probably not enough time before election day but if the same incident had happened two months out the scope for guerilla lawyering would have been rather more.
Take a look at the CNN video, it shows the whole thing
Very difficult to see this as anything other than assault.
I’m stupid, thank you for the education. I was completely unaware that hecklers (particularly those shouting “questions” about whether or not someone spat on their spouse) must be tolerated in public forums and all political discourse must come to a standstill until they finish their tirades.
Why do people that won’t sit down and stop cursing get thrown out of sports arenas? This must be “assault” and illegal too. Why were the UNNICO strikers limited to the sidewalks? Why not let them walk through University lectures too?
I feel so stupid. I hope that ex-marine gets out of the intensive care unit soon.
Actually, just because someone is shouting in a hotel lobby, even (let us assume) rudely and inappropriately, doesn’t give you right to put them in a choke hold, throw them to the floor, etc. What you have if you think something wrong is going on, is you have a right to call a cop (or maybe hotel security). It’s different if the person attacks you physically, but that’s clearly not what happened here.
Now that we have that of the way, Anon (why is that defenders of brownshirt tactics so rarely sign their names?), please explain again, in simple terms I can understand, why a Senator’s constituents can’t shout questions at him — even rude questions — in a public place during an election campaign? This isn’t like disrupting his speech in the ballroom. And at least some of the questions Stark asks — especially about Allen’s mysterious arrest record — do seem absolutely legitimate to me. I personally don’t care if Allen spit at his former wife, although I do find the accounts of George Allen’s torture of his sister somewhat disturbing.
Watching this, my wife said, “Oh, those Republican fascists.” No – it’s a sign that the Allen polls are telling a much more disastrous story than you’ve heard in the media. This seems to me like pure, unadulterated, frustration. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Democratic staffers have similarly acted when, in the closing days of a poll, they confronted a citizen asking uncomfortable questions. At a certain point, you lose it.
Of course, there’s a broader question: How does Allen respond to this? Does he repudiate his over-eager staffers? His response will tell you everything you need to know about this candidate.
Several things to note:
(1) The extraordinary bitterness and desperation of this election.
(2) The evidence of Democratic momentum going into the elections.
(3) The spectre of election irregularities that could deliver both houses of Congress to Republicans.
(4) The possibility that, if such irregularities can be attributed to Republican-funded, criminal manipulation of our election system, that our Constitution will not survive.
Yours,
The Pink Bunny of Battle
Awoken this morning by radio alarm with local yokel ‘news’ guy parroting dem talking points about ‘stalking stark’ incident. Then the first article I found was AP/bob lewis breathlessly reporting about serious-sounding ‘chokehold’ occurrence. Uh-oh! Citizen-journalist. Vet!! Ex-Marine!!! It certainly sounded important. Upon closer look, however, including at the video:
Apparent known stalker menacingly charges public servant engaged in campaign of ideas, screaming and knocking into several bystanders. When this ‘trained killer’ refuses to cease his attempted assault, he escalates the physical violence with those justifiably trying to remove him. Finally subdued and shown the door, he mutters ‘punk’.
I think Kerry was wrong and mean-spirited when he maligned our brave troops, stating that servicemembers don’t “make the most of it” (education), don’t “study hard, …do… homework and …make an effort to be smart”. But these demeaning words would seem to apply to Stark.
Stark’s website gives some clues about his depth of committment to and definition of free speech. There he advises one to “study the terrain carefully before you join the battle”, the final step being the ‘showdown”. We see in the video Stark studying the terrain as he careened through innocents in his attempt to assault Allen. This (one-man) mob rule is what goes for intellectual discourse for liberals.
It seems that Stark’s only other claim to fame is waving a poster with lurid words on it in front of a live-television camera during family hour. Another example of liberals’ engagement in the realm of ideas. Were those filthy words an ‘illuminative quote” from one of Webb’s porno works? Will Webb have the guts to apologize for these apparent criminal acts of his agent provocateur?