Head Stompin’ Update

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As some of you already know, the person identified as the alleged stomper of Lauren Valle’s head is a volunteer for Rand Paul’s Senate campaign named Tim Profitt. The Associated Press reports that Profitt has been dropped as Paul’s Bourbon County campaign coordinator and banned from future events. Profitt will be summoned to court, where a judge will decide if he will face assault charges.

Also from the AP, to be filed under Profiles in Weenieness:

The volunteer with Rand Paul’s Republican U.S. Senate campaign who stepped on the head of a liberal activist and pinned her face to the concrete said Tuesday the scuffle was not as bad as it looked on video and blamed police for not intervening.

Profitt says someone saw Valle standing there with her sign and tried to get the police to contain her. The police said that wasn’t their job, possibly because as yet there are no laws against being a Known Liberal Carrying a Cardboard Sign.

There’s a more complete video of the incident at TPM now. I’ve watched the fool video several times, and it doesn’t appear that Valle got anywhere near Paul.

This is significant, because the official version of the incident emerging at Hateway Pundit’s blog is that Valle assaulted Paul — I’m serious — and therefore got what she deserved.

Really, Hateway Jim and his minions are now completely untethered from all sanity, not to mention decency. In Hateway’s world, being a paid liberal activist means forfeiting all legal rights to life, liberty, etc. One commenter actually was dismayed that Paul distanced himself from Profitt instead of thanking him.

Seriously, it’s obvious that it doesn’t occur to these, um, persons that people who disagree with them are people, too. Very sick.

14 thoughts on “Head Stompin’ Update”

  1. There are going to be nuts like Profitt – always. That’s disappointing but not shocking. The part of this that’s truly disturbing is the SUPPORT and defense of this guy among wingnuts on blogs. If the shoe was on the other foot – if the victim was a teabagger protesting outside an Obama location, no one on THIS site would be defending the attackers even if we found the protester distasteful.

    I’m disappointed that Rand Paul has not made a statement personally denouncing the attack and the methods. A lukewarm statement from a campaign mouthpice is not enough. Ron Paul (and I disagree with him on almost all issues) is a class act who would come right out and say he wants the guy in jail before Nov 2 and he doesn’t need that vote or support. Rand doesn’t want to offend any of the violent nuts he has in his corner.

  2. The victim should press charges. It is NOT the kind of publicity any candidate would want in the last week of a campaign.

  3. The victim (a small woman) should press charges because she was assaulted by a much larger person; e.g., a man. Any publicity that results is irrelevant. It is the idea that men can assault women and get away with it. What the victim doesn’t understand is that she may suffer some adverse effects of this assault later. It’s like being hit by a car. I was hit by a car while crossing in a marked crosswalk with the walk light. I thought I was lucky to get away with a sprained ankle and knee. But, several years later, I was diagnosed with a lifetime disease that has wreaked havoc in my life since. The doctor told me it was the car accident that triggered my disease. Last I heard it was against the law to assault a person “Carrying a Cardboard Sign” whether they are liberal or not. I thought it had something to do with freedome of speech.

  6. One thing worth noting is the part technology plays in exposing the truth. Brown shirts in Germany did not have to worry that every citizen with a cell phone was a potential photographer. In 1940, they could do as they pleased AND control how an event was reported. An eyewitness who saw it differently had no chance of being heard or believed. Now almost anyone can video an event and present proof to the world court of public opinion. If I can just figure out how this video works on my phone….

  7. Hmmm… “Profitt.”
    Really, “Profitt?”
    It just goes to show that in the conservative world, anything and everything’s ok, even a head stomping, of there’s a “Profitt” there.

    And I second what Doug said. If the shoe was on the other foot, no one here, or on any other repsectable liberal blog, with the exception of a few loony-tunes in the comment section (and even there, I’m not sure), would do anything but want the attacker treated like the criminal he is.

  8. I sometimes take up the fool’s errand of placing myself inside the mind of some of the opposition. I guess it’s a habit from my old days as a rehab counselor. It seems they really do feel assaulted and victimized when confronted with an opposing view. It’s upsetting after all and they are not used to dealing with criticism or reality. I wonder what the stripe of Libertarians who consider themselves paragons of rationality do to reconcile this with their utopian capitalism. In what set of circumstances does it become rational and necessary to knock someone down and step on their head in defense of freedom? I wonder how this act of “heroism” would have unfolded if she had been a man the size of a football player. I am sure the “brave defenders of liberty” would have secured the situation in much the same way, despite there being some actual risk involved. They’re patriots don’t you know.

    I think the midset fits with my idea of people who grew up in gated communities with the “propertarians” inside and the great unwashed menace neatly held at bay outside. Just an idle thought, but it fits metaphorically.

    “More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”

    –Woody Allen

  9. Profitt’s excuse makes “the dog ate my homework’ seem viable.
    It seems he has a bad back, and was using his foot to hold her down until police showed up. Really!
    Uhm, Mr. Profitt, what, the other guys holding her down weren’t doing a good enough job?

    Oh, and how long before we find out that his guy with a bad back and a foot-stomping fetish is on disability or Medicaid, but is out there supporting Paul because he hates government intrusion?

  10. Valle was on Olbermann last night. She said she would press charges. She said also that she’s part of a MoveOn group that’s been doing some “satirical” theatrics around Kentucky for the last two weeks and Paul supporters recognized her, though the attack does sound unprovoked.

  11. The link that “Jymn” left doesn’t work for me. But, I read on “Echidne of the Snakes” that the video showed someone grabbing her breast. Evidently the video has been pulled somehow. If it shows sexual battery, I am sure it will surface again. I haven’t seen the version in question, so it may not be true. To be honest with you, I watched the video once, but I have an unsettling visceral response when I see thugs ganging up on someone, especially a woman. I think I would be better off not watching it again.

    snip:

    Is this there way of passing on the tradition of the “southern gentlemen”? Would it have been less of a threat if she had been carrying an AK-47? She would just have been exercising her 2nd Amendment rights, nothing threatening about that.

    I may be naive, but I think the assault charge will stick, possibly as a felony due to the injuries. It seems that she could sue the campaign for negligence and the infringement on her First Amendment rights. Who knows, the lawyers might be lining up already.

  12. I may be naive, but I think the assault charge will stick

    There’s no reason they shouldn’t. Clearly those two over zealous good ole boys got carried away in protecting their cause. Pezzano should get charged for a sexual assault because he clearly is shown grabbing Valle’s breast, and he should also be charged with aggravated buffoonery for wearing that stupid “We the People” hat.

    Here in Florida, the kind of behavior that those two goons engaged in would almost guarantee qualification for a court ordered anger management course. No matter how right you think you are —like Mr. Profitt —you can’t pass the course (graduate) until you admit you were wrong

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