Updates — The other man in the Kentucky stomping episode told Kentucky CBS affiliate WKYT that he didn’t approve of the stomp. “Another man involved in the altercation, Mike Pezzano, who held down Ms. Valle, tells NEWSFIRST he doesn’t condone Profitt’s actions.”
Profitt has another excuse — he had to stomp Lauren Valle because he has a bad back and can’t bend over. So what would he have done if he could have bent over? Punch her instead? She was already on the ground and being held down by Pezzano, and not resisting, so exactly what did he think still needed to be done?
Get this: “And when asked if he would apologize to Valle. ‘I would like for her to apologize to me to be honest with you,’ Profitt said.”
Also according to WKYT, “Lauren Valle has been released from the hospital and is recovering from injuries including a concussion and a sprained shoulder and arm.”
At Hateway Jim’s site, a commenter who claims he was there has an eyewitness account that sounds plausible to me.
I was at the rally from the start with my 19 year son. … We were only a few feet & got a good view of the events that happened. We saw everything that happened. I have to say this but the headline & story posted here is not correct & to be honest is… not telling the truth. … I’m sorry but she did not go after Mr Paul, she was in front closest to the curb where Mr Paul’s suv would park. She was pushed towards the back by two large men. A few people noticed that. I guess because some people called her a hippie & an agent. But we didn’t notice that or cared, one older lady said “Hey young man that’s not how you treat a young woman†Paul’s suv pulled up she then started to walk around to suv like others were doing for a better view. At that point someone yelled out “She’s going after Paul!†Another women assumed they meant her and she moved away. The same two men moved towards the young lady, at that point another woman yelled: “Leave her alone!â€, that’s when she ran & looked very scared. My son was about to moved towards one of the men & that’s when the camera’s pick up the action. I grabbed him just in time we were right behind the camera man. After the event a good amount of people wanted the police to arrest both men & a few other people.
With the caveat that there’s no way to know if the guy was really there or not — It’s worth going to the link to read the whole comment (it’s #102). He is stunned at how the incident is being reported on Faux News and sounds like a disillusioned man. Not that the rest of the Hateway crowd cared; they are still convinced that Valle just got what was coming to her.
The Right is trying to paint Valle as a dangerous radical who has been arrested for her actions in the past. According to media reports, her most notorious prior acts were “defacing” a drilling boat after the Deepwater Horizon spill and unfurling a “Free Tibet” banner in Beijing during the 2008 Olympics. She doesn’t have a history of violent activism, in other words.
In the drilling boat incident, she and some others working for Greenpeace painted anti-Actic drilling messages addressed to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on some boat. Hardly a violent act, but the boat was private property so the group was afoul of the law.
And as for the Free Tibet sign — you go girl.
Valle says she never got a chance to get close to Paul because the Paul crew blocked her even as the candidate got out of his car. She believes they had identified her as a Moveon.org worker and “targeted” her. From what I’ve seen of the videos it does appear the Paul guys already had her surrounded and were manhandling her even as Paul got out of the car.
Updates — there was some question about whether Valle was groped as she was being shoved around. From these photographs, it appears possible.
See also Scott Lemieux’s review of wingnut excuses for the stomp.
You can’t even parody anything anymore. Yesterday I wrote about how she would be blamed for having her jack-booted face grind UP on the poor mans defenseless sneaker. Yup!
And now, the guy
doing the stomping
is asking the stompee
for an apology.
Dick Cheney started a trend when he shot Ol’ Harry what-his-face in the face with a shotgon, and got the guy to apologize. You remember our Vice President, don’t you? The guy with the charm of Darth Vader and the aim of Barney Fife?
Then Ginnie Thomas asks Anita Hill to apologize.
Now, this Profitt clown.
Next, the Neo-Nazi’s will demand an apology from the all of the Jews for wasting Zykon B gas in WWII in their mass suicides.
Gee, I wonder why Profitt doesn’t want his face on camera? If I was done wrong and victimized like Profitt claims to be… I wouldn’t be hiding my face. Let’s see what the judge has to say…From my view both men committed an assault regardless of what they consider as a provocation.
Profitt’s excuse is the classical spouse abuse mentality..”. Damn, women,you made me beat you!”
I guess Profitt is now seeing that with all his devotion and loyalty to Rand Paul that Rand just tossed him off like a used rubber.
I sure am glad that you are calling out the BS that ‘Dim’ Hoft spews out. Sully did too for a while.
And soon one of these morans will get the bright idea of purchasing a Taser. And then someone will die. And it will all still be the fault of the people trying to non-violently protest.
There was a time not so long ago when a man, perhaps many men, would have physically put a stop to what happened. The hand-writing-was-put-on-the-wall many years ago in New York City when apartment dwellers watched from their windows a young woman being beaten to death in a nearby alley. No one went to her rescue. Many viewers shouted, but no one went to her rescue.
The incident shocked this nation. The behavior of the on-lookers was called appalling. There were editorials written deploring the action of the on-lookers.
But today? The non-action of the men looking on hasn’t even been mentioned. I wonder if this is a sign that this country is showing clear signs of a people and country on the decline, sliding into decadence. Just a thought.
Felicity — although I agree in general with what you say, I disagree that the Kitty Genovese killing of 1964 (that long ago!) happened the way you describe it. My understanding is that few people in the apartment complex heard her (it was winter; windows were closed) and those who did hear something didn’t recognize it as a cry for help. I believe this; there’s a lot of street noise in New York, and people get used to living in the midst of a dull roar and tuning it out.
Finally one guy saw what was happening out his window and yelled at the assailant, who ran away. It is likely the NYPD were called at that time, but the cops didn’t give the incident a high priority and did not respond.
Meanwhile, Genovese had crawled toward her building but was unable to get in. At that point she was out of view from windows. Genovese’s lung was punctured during the first assault, and it is unlikely she could have called out loudly, if at all, at that point. The assailant came back to the area, found her, and finished killing her. The few people, questioned later, who said they heard something thought it was just a quarrel. A passer-by found her body shortly after the second assault and called the police, who finally showed up.
Initial reports said that many people in the complex watched Genovese being killed and didn’t do anything to help. Apparently, subsequent investigation showed that only about a dozen people in the complex were aware that an assault was taking place outside, but none of them saw the entire sequence of events. And some of those people claimed they had called the police. I don’t think the NYPD ever admitted this, but the incident led to some reforms in NYPD telephone protocols. So I’m inclined to think the police were called and just didn’t respond.
So, while it was a dreadful thing to have happened, I don’t think it’s symptomatic of anything.
This is really kinda creepy.
Yeah, she engaged in some minor activist crimes, causing no property damage (or, extremely minor if they had to slap a coat of paint on). Honestly, I’d be annoyed, but kinda admiring, if it’d been my boat she’d boarded. (Doing it under cover of night? Then I’m just annoyed. Doing it knowing full well you’ll be arrested? That’s gutsy.)
She was not engaged in a crime – and she was put in a situation in which she could legitimately feel her life was in danger. This is why assault of this nature is a crime; simply being put down to the curb is probably not going to damage anyone, but *the victim doesn’t know what’s going to happen next*.
And then the assault was compounded by someone stomping her, and yes, righties, the video is clear. He did not place a foot on her to try to maintain control; his foot shoves down. He’s trying to hurt her.
This isn’t a tough call. This isn’t a “let the guys revel in their minor victory before reining them in”… this is tell everyone who was involved, and everyone who cheered, that they’ve disgraced themselves and the party… assuming, of course, that it’s true.
And if it’s *not* true… well, if it’s not true, then the Republicans *are* turning into a party of thugs. Because this kind of thing is disgraceful to anything else.
Was she beaten bloody? No – but that’s not the point. The point is, there are people cheering this, and that means that there are people getting the message that “the bad thing is, *they got caught*.”
Which brings this full circle, doesn’t it? I find her minor property crimes to be annoying, but gutsy, because she’s proud of what she does, and she’s careful not to hurt anyone.
I find this kind of thing cowardly and ugly because this is shameful, hurtful, and if there’s any pride, it’s completely undeserved.
The thing is, there were enough big guys there that they easily could have just blocked her — one very petite woman — from getting anywhere near Rand Paul. They didn’t have to grab her, much less wrestle her to the ground, to do that.
The fact that they seemed to think the police should have taken her into custody before Rand Paul showed up for just being there with her cardboard sign tells me these guys genuinely don’t understand that other people have rights, too. Their mindset seems to be that to be on the “other” side makes one a wrongdoer, somehow.
I agree that she had no way to know what they were going to do to her. It seems to me kind of fundamental to human civilization that we can’t go about grabbing other people and taking physical custody of them just because we’re angry at them.
maha, thank you for filling in the details on the Genovese incident. I, however, continue to think it and subsequent ‘its’ are symptomatic of a public unwilling to put their lives on the line for the injustices we are experiencing. Perhaps it’s because I’m so bloody long-in-the-tooth, maybe, but I’ve experienced what can happen when we take to the streets.
I’ve related this anecdote before but I need to say it again. A large Orange Country hotel was hosting a world-wide arms convention. A large number of us stood outside the hotel for the full week it was in session protesting the event. The following year, the hotel was again asked to host the same event. The hotel turned down the request saying that it couldn’t afford the bad publicity. I have great faith in the power of the people, as it is now about the only ‘power’ we have left.
felicity,
My opinion has been for awhile that the US has been in a long slow decline. The grossly uneven disposition of wealth is just one of the indicators. Not caring for your neighbor is another.
There isn’t any question about her being groped. Watch the video: 7 seconds in he has his hand on her shoulder, and repositions it lower onto her breast for no discernable reason. That one is questionable, but 2 seconds later, right after he pins her to the ground, he reaches up under her arm with his left hand, spreads out his fingers for a good grip, grabs, gives a good squeeze and removes his hand.
There is no other interpretation. the guy’s a bully and a perv.
The Kentucky Stomper would be wise to secure a trademark on that cool moniker. On the World Wrestling Federation circuit it could be worth a fortune. It just fits..The Mananas Mauler, The Masked Marvel, The Kentucky Stomper….
Re: groping. Watching KO this morning, after having read the above last night, I paid particular attention to that possibility when the tape of the incident was played.
There is nor doubt that a left hand was on the lady’s left breast. I would say it was there very briefly. Also, she appeared to be wearing a heavy fleece jacket or pull-over hoodie.
If any touch is considered groping, it happened. But I am at a loss to be able to provide a definition of groping.
Don’cha just love Rethuglicans? The a-hole who did the injury wants an apology. What he needs is a timeout in the Crowbar Hotel. Idiot!
The video’s up on Youtube. The Gropes are at the 7 and 9 second marks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhjg2W7vlMc&feature=player_embedded