This video provides the full breadth of what happened at Senator Claire McCaskill's town hall event in Hillsboro, Missouri.
I must make one thing clear, it is not the intention of this video in any way shape or form to blame the actions of the police officers. They were doing their job and this video is intended to highlight the discrepancies between what was covered by the media and what was not. In addition to how biased those in attendance were towards the 4 black females. If they were fair then they would have shown the same displeasure towards the 3 white audience members holding the "Don't tread on me" flags, which were held up the entire town hall event.
...a late entering African American woman breaking the "sign rule" is an outrage upon civilized society and is pointed out instantly. It is enough of an outrage so that some jerk can jump out of the stands and try to rip it away (for God's sake, it was a Rosa Parks poster). Yet, a bunch of people can stand after that with their "Don't Tread on Me" flags and there's not a whisper from the crowd...
This individual was across the field house from the other two individuals. She's standing in front of the media riser at the end of the field house opposite the podium.
You think all those upset people in the stands at the field house couldn't see those "Don't Tread on Me" flags because of all the noise? Nah. Apparently loud, obnoxious, and rude behavior are indications for colorblindness in the yellow spectrum.
This is the only video of what actually happened at the event this afternoon. The news only showed the woman being escorted away by the police. What happened was the women walked in with signs, the crowd booed and yelled at the women. The women rolled up their posters and put them down. A photographer/reporter approached the woman on the end and wanted to see what the poster was. As the woman went to show the photographer/reporter what the poster was, a man from the bleachers stood up and snatched the poster from the woman and photographer/reporter. As the woman went to retrieve her poster the police stepped in and escorted the woman and the man from the building....
One individual decided to take on the physical role of sign enforcer.
I spoke with Maxine Johnson outside the field house after the event was over:
Show Me Progress: So, what happened? What happened, did, after you sat down?
Maxine Johnson: When I sat down I put my sign in the chair in front of me. It was rolled up. And the reporter kind of, news reporter crawled over there, she was standing up and she asked could she take a picture of the sign. We unrolled the sign laying down in the chair. And she was taking a picture of Rosa Parks. This man comes out of the crowd, snatch my sign, I stood up, they said he pushed me. I don't remember anything 'cause you know by that time my adrenaline going everywhere...All I'm thinking about is getting my sign back. I got up in...to proceed, go get my sign back. 'Cause he was crumbling it up. I said, "Give my sign back!" When I said that, next thing I know I had four police officers on me and one on him. I'm the victim here, [laugh] you know. And then as I say, "I'm pressing charges!"...I said, "Obama, Obama!" So, you know what, you know like I said Rosa Parks fought for our freedom back then, now I'm fighting for our freedom now...So we're fighting for the next generation...
After yesterday's two hour long open forum on health care at Jefferson College in Hillsboro Senator Claire McCaskill (D) took questions from some of the media in attendance:
Senator Claire McCaskill: Hi guys.
Voice: Hi Senator.
Question: What was your reaction to the crowd today?
Senator McCaskill: You know, I, I wouldn't, let me say it this way. This is hard, but, I'm proud of, overall, the people that came out today and that most of them wanted to stay through it and ask questions and answer questions. I think it is a healthy thing for Democracy. And I, I wouldn't want to do it every afternoon for the rest of my life [laughter in room] because it was obviously contentious. But that's okay....
Rude, loud, and obnoxious. And to think that there wasn't a dirty anti-war hippy anywhere in sight.
After driving five hundred miles (in eight and a half hours) round trip I had time to reflect and process the event at Jefferson College in Hillsboro. The seemingly impotent rage coming from some of the people in attendance was stunning in its force.
They're pissed that Obama is president. They're pissed that McCain isn't. They're pissed that Jim Talent isn't their senator. They probably voted for George W. Bush twice (and probably his daddy twice). They'd probably be pissed if you pointed out that dubya is and was a monumental screw-up - it reminds them that they made that particular choice. They didn't vote for Claire. They'll never vote for Claire. They're outraged that their sense of entitlement about calling the shots in what others should believe and even how the open forum should have been run isn't accepted or catered to.
To them a late entering African American woman breaking the "sign rule" is an outrage upon civilized society and is pointed out instantly. It is enough of an outrage so that some jerk can jump out of the stands and try to rip it away (for God's sake, it was a Rosa Parks poster). Yet, a bunch of people can stand after that with their "Don't Tread on Me" flags and there's not a whisper from the crowd.
They're pissed that Claire asked how many of them were on Medicare (several hundred) and then asking how many wanted off (a handful) -
pointing out the crowd's hypocrisy about government health care. No matter what anyone does they'll be pissed and stay pissed. And they
ain't voting for any Democrats. Ever.
