The amazing videotape below shows an encounter of Rep. Etheridge (D, NC-02) with college students outside a Nancy Pelosi Fundraiser. The students are presumably conservative activists but Etheridge quickly turns physical after the students ask the congressman to confirm that he supports the Obama agenda.
Etheridge insists that he has “a right” to know who the students are. I am not sure of the basis for that particular claim on a public street. What is clear is that he does not have the right to physical restrain a journalist or activist because they asked him a question on the street.
Even if these students were obnoxious, this appears to be a credible case of assault. While there was no serious physical harm, it is neither appropriate nor lawful to use such physical force unless threatened. The congressman is shown claiming that he is acting out of his right to know who these students are. That is not enough of a justification. This is not what is normally meant by pressing the flesh.
Based on the video, there is a basis for a criminal complaint. Celebrities like Sean Penn, Mick Jagger, and Kanye West have faced such charges in shoving matches with photographers.
Watching these videos, we may have been wrong about Democratic leadership telling members to avoid public meetings and unscripted townhall events. We had assumed it was for the protection of the members.
Update: Rep. Etheridge has issued the following statement:
“I have seen the video posted on several blogs. I deeply and profoundly regret my reaction and I apologize to all involved. Throughout my many years of service to the people of North Carolina, I have always tried to treat people from all viewpoints with respect. No matter how intrusive and partisan our politics can become, this does not justify a poor response. I have and I will always work to promote a civil public discourse.”
For other takes on the story, see Glenn Greenwald and Ben Smith.
Swarthmore,
Let’s not forget the time they had someone attempt to tamper with an elected officials phone lines.
To be clear, I agree with you, the Congressman shouldn’t have grabbed the guys wrist. However I can’t help but have a sneaking suspicion that the facts we know are not the whole truth.
Gyges It is the same group that did in ACORN. They probably set this guy up.
Swarthmore Mom,
Would this be the same Breitbart that has edited several other videos?
I’ll wait till the unedited version comes out.
Agreed, very poor response. I don’t care how bad a day he was having, just grabbing somebody’s wrist like that is unacceptable.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/dem-rep-apologizes-for-video-of-him-roughing-up-college-student.php?ref=fpi Looks like a Breitbart production.
What a maroon. Do Congressmen not understand that they are giving these people exactly what it is they really want anyway?
Activists on every side attempt to create these things not to convince anyone that they are right but to show that the other side is violent & imperial. Really this is not surprise.
While the Congressman does not deserve to lose his job over this but he should go to remedial public relations class.
This piece of trash could have walked away AT ANY POINT. He choose to stay and physically assault someone on a public street. He’s lucky the guy didn’t break his wrist in self defense. I don’t care who he is. If you ever grabbed my wrist, I’d break your arm. You grabbed me by the neck, you’d be in the hospital with a concussion. The camera recorded the assault, it most certainly could have recorded the self defense.
This trash should loose his seat, or at a minimum be censured. He should also be prosecuted for assault and sued in civil court for damages. He is sick.
A White Knight,
Go back to your hide out, its not night time yet. I think you need some help.
How would you like a camera shoved in your face?
This current office holder should be removed. He is a disgrace. The people that he represents should tell him how awful he looks and he should resign immediately.
Actually, he walked up to the camera, it wasn’t shoved into his face. I don;t care if this guy has an -R or a -D by his name, he was out of line.
Wrong, no doubt about it. I also believe that photographing public figures during interaction with members of the public is permissible. I can’t help wondering, though, when it became okay to shove cameras in other people’s faces. The one camera managed to record the relevant information from a reasonable distance.
I made many errors in syntax on the last post, sorry. The most important one I wish to correct is this, the govt. is willing to engage in war crimes and protect war criminals (past and present).
Cindy Sheehan speaks out about the level of manhandling and restraint on her speech or even ability to go near the White House, something she never experienced under Bush. Several protest groups were fined $20,000 dollars and put in jail, simply for posting fliers on an upcoming peace march. Peace groups have been arrested and beaten up for their protests. This comes from the top of the govt. and moves down, just as torture does.
We have a govt. willing to engage in and protect war criminals. They have so far gotten away with these actions because too few people will wake up and oppose the govt., now that the “benign” Democrats are in charge. This is a huge mistake and I hope liberals will start looking at and addressing actions, not based on which party is performing these actions, but on the nature of the actions themselves.
http://www.google.com/search?q=teabaggers+spiton+black+congressmen&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=dQq&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=v&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=kjkWTOPjN8vsnQedjKGVDA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBsQqwQwAA Representative Ethridge was clearly wrong but the treatment of some congressmen by the tea bag protesters is also wrong and racist.
Well, who was he? From the way he was dressed I’d say Bob Jones University, maybe? Or Glen Beck University?
Maybe Rep. Etheridge had a recent tumultuous town hall.
Granted he could (and should) have asked “Who are you?” without physically grabbing the “college student”. If he’d continued to question the interviewer longer about who he was and what was the project, it would have been to his advantage since they were probably a set-up and would be seen as such, eventually.
Of course we still don’t know Rep. Etheridge’s answer, either. It’s a mystery.
The student obviously hadn’t paid into Etheridge’s graft, er, campaign fund. Naturally that makes the student less than a constituent. “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” – Thomas Jefferson. You Washington shitheels should listen to your betters especially since Jefferson was better than all of you current lot combined. The less you represent the citizens and the more your represent corporations and your own greedy self-interest, the more you’ll have to fear. Cause and effect. Sleep tight, Washington.
It has become completely clear that govt. officials consider the public their “enemy”. There is to be no unscripted interaction with elected officials, who after all, are supposed to represent the people. Today’s BBC discussion of the parliament in Iraq which was just voted out because they are completely corrupt and were taking reconstruction money for their own bank accounts would just as well apply to the misleaders of our own nation.
From the president on down, we have a ruling elite that uses every tool at its disposal, including the use of violence to deter the people’s free speech and quash any hope of accountability. We have moved so far away from what our govt. is supposed to be that I do not know if it can be brought back.
We should not accept the violence, surveillance, and other tactics to keep the people away from the President and the Congress. They seem to feel their constituents are lobbyists, but we are the backbone of this nation and we have every right, conservative, liberal, and progressive to redress our grievances.
Wrap ’em in a Brook Brothers suit and tie and all you still have is a well-dressed redneck. Conservative or not, they’re still just students. He could have just walked on by:
And he is only representing his constituents interest, that’s all. A voice of the people of the people that he represents.
Dufus!