Bizarre, Congress, Constitutional Law, Politics, Society

Protester Identified in Abuse of Man With Parkinson’s Disease

Many of us were shocked by the scene of Tea Party activists attacking a disabled man with Parkinson’s disease who held a sign calling for health care reform. One man threw money at Robert A. Letcher, 60, and began screaming uncontrollably that him. The man has now been identified as Chris Reichert and he has issued an apology.

Letcher, a former nuclear engineer, suffers from Parkinson’s, was attacked while sitting in front of Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s district office. Since my father died after years with Parkinson’s (here and here), the video was particularly disturbing to watch Letcher dealing with such bullies.

Reichert now says “I snapped. I absolutely snapped and I can’t explain it any other way.”

He has added “I made a donation (to a local Parkinson’s disease group) and that starts the healing process.”

For the story, click here.

111 thoughts on “Protester Identified in Abuse of Man With Parkinson’s Disease”

  1. All I can say is the guy in the white shirt and tie was over the top. But he is right. I don’t have a responsibility to my fellow man to pay for his disability. It is not my duty to take care of him. I should not be forced to take my hard earned money to pay for someone else. The fact that they have a disability is immaterial; we are not our brother’s keeper or sacrificial milk cows.

    Someone’s misfortune does not give them the right to lay claim to my life.

  7. Tootie,

    Honestly, I don’t care about this nearly as much as I care about actual facts.

    The organizers of the original movement called themselves tea baggers. Some of the early usage only makes sense if the people using the term teabag knew about its other meaning. So it’s pretty clear that at least some involved in the early movement were using it in the fashion you’re so offended by.

    They chose a dumb name, now they’re getting made fun of for that choice. Now I’ll agree that it’s not particularly nice to make fun of people for their stupid choices, but in the end it was their choice.

  9. Gyges: this is what I realize: republicans are stupid and democrats are evil, as per Peter Brimelow. Though that rule doesn’t apply as well as it used to before republicans began advocating the slaughter of innocents as much as the democrats always have, it is still in operation.

    And we see how it applies in this situation. Republicans (or right-wingers) used the term innocently out of ignorance of the depraved customs and terminologies used to describe those depraved customs which leftists specialize in.

    While, on the other hand, democrats (or left-wingers) use the term with full knowledge of its obscene meaning as they are generally always up on these sorts of things. And they clearly delighted, in a most wicked manner, in the innocent mistake by what is generally viewed, by fair-minded peopled,as a group of very nice old people.

    Though left-wingers are using the term as an obscenity, insult, and “kick me” joke against nice people who don’t know it is obscene, I do realize that there are a few decent leftists who don’t know the meaning leftists are using it for. For instance, I just recently heard E. J. Dionne admit his ignorance of the foul use of the term depraved left-wingers are exploiting, and said he no longer uses it.

    A dazzling act of virtue.

    If you are correct, and I have no reason to doubt you, then this reminds me of the passage in Genesis that reads (KJV):

    “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good…”

    What the right-wingers had meant for good, depraved left-wingers meant for evil, insult, and abuse.

    No surprise there.

  10. Tootie,

    The video you linked above is too good to not be embedded. I searched the Turley archives to make sure the story didn’t make it to this blog. It didn’t.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22Qbmu9OG5M&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

  11. I find the actions of Chris Reichert at the event to be dispicable.

    I also find a Professor of Law publically referring to those with whom he disagrees as “Tea Baggers” to be just as dispicable.

  12. Tootie,

    You do realize the term was coined by the teabaggers first? There was that whole campaign about sending bags of tea to your elected officials, thus teabagging them. It was supposed to link the movement to the spirit of the Boston Tea Party (which showed a huge lack of historical knowledge). You don’t get to coin a term for your movement and then pretend you didn’t because you didn’t bother to do a simple google search to see what else it might mean. Although I’ll argue that based on these signs

    http://washingtonindependent.com/69660/correcting-jay-nordlinger

    at least part of the movement was in on the joke.

    By the way, both “Baroque” and “Classical” were terms of derision originally, and Debusy (or possibly Ravel) once severely beat a man with a cane for calling him an “impressionist.”

  13. I found this to be a particularly courageous act on Mr. Reichart’s part. Many of us have done something really iniquitous and been deeply ashamed later – not necessarily because we were caught, either. I did something in my 20’s that shames me to this day though no one else knows about it.

    Let those without sin step forward and further stone this repentant.

    And let the tea partiers finally understand how culpable they are when they wave their signs and shout their epithets which can cause someone to “snap” and perform such an uncharitable act.

  14. Please watch the whole video.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6xWGvdRQ9Q&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

  15. Teabaggers. Perfect description of them. Sucking on the gonads of the worst corporate psychos of the lot.
    Suggest you send some of them over to the UK for us to sort out. just let anyone over here catch them demonstrating outside one of our “evil commie” hospitals.

  16. Tootie,

    It’s not nice to play pranks on yourself. Kinda funny. Do you call up and leave messages for yourself looking for Prince Edward in a can too?

  19. “He has added “I made a donation (to a local Parkinson’s disease group) and that starts the healing process.”

    Seems to me he’s a day late, and a dollar short. Bet he’s a card-carrying member of the christian faith – obviously, he hasn’t learned that you cannot buy your way into heaven.

    Too bad this typical teabagger couldn’t be brought up on criminal charges for harrassment.

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