A serious bit of political thuggery in Kentucky

This video shows the attack by two goons, Rand Paul supporters, assaulting a woman from MoveOn.org last night outside the studio where Paul was debating his Democratic opponent in the Senate race, Jack Conway:



Two obviously very brave white guys gang up on a woman, one holds her on the pavement and the other stomps on her head. This little maneuver left her with a concussion.

Seeing the video of this, these two brave defenders of White Power may have been trying to do what's called "curbing", in which the assailants put the target's face on a curb and stomp on her head, which can simultaneously break face bones, cause neck injuries and leave a concussion.

Brave heroes of freedom like these, though, always claim "the other side does it too." So some female White Power Paul supporter claims somebody stepped on her foot. So "both sides" are at fault. We'll see whether the Tea Party lovers of freedom and order will rat out their fellow thugs who assaulted the woman in the video. And I'm sure *none* of this has to do with with FOX News and Rush Limbaugh incessently accusing MoveOn.org of being anti-American and various other forms of evil.

John Hudson of the National Journal gave it the boths-sides-do-it treatment in LIGHTNING ROD: Kentucky's Head Stompin' Senate Debate 10/26/2010:

Kentucky's rough-and-tumble Senate race got even rougher Monday night as violence erupted outside the Rand Paul-Jack Conway debate. In one scuffle, a woman from the liberal group MoveOn was held down and kicked in the head by two male Paul supporters. In another, a Conway supporter stomped on the foot of a female Paul supporter who was recovering from foot surgery. That woman's surgical incision was cut open from the blow and both women ended up filing assault reports. The Conway and Paul camps condemned the violence.

The assault shown is this video is some serious political thuggery. There are nonviolent ways to respond to people in a political crowd getting pushy or even violent, and as a general rule the nonviolent approaches are preferable.

But stomping on someone's head and neck can do serious and permanent damage. In fact, it's hard to believe that wasn't their intent. Any bystander intervening to stop an assault like this would be legally and morally justified in doing so, even if it required doing serious physical injury to one of the assailants.

I've been to many protests and political rallies and other types of political meetings, including some that involved scuffles and people who were out to start a fight. Hell, I work at a university where hardly a week goes by without seeing some protest or other on campus. And I know this head-and-neck stomping business is unusally nasty shit.

If you know anyone who is the sort of white-trash type who enjoys going out with one of his buddies and assaulting women like we see in this video, I would offer a couple of pieces of advice. One is that you might want to tell them doing stuff like this could wind up with them being injured and doing serious prison time on top of it. The other is that they are the kind of rotten punks not decent person would want to hang around with any more than they absoutely had to.

The evidence on the allegation of the woman who claimed her injured foot was stomped isn't as clear from the reporting as on the head-and-neck stomping assault. If the foot-stomping incident turns out to be true, I don't have a problem saying it was wrong, with a full stop at the end of the sentence.

I also won't have any problem distinguishing such an incident from what we see in this video. What these two punks did to that woman could have left her seriously paralized with a neck injury.

Bill Estep and Josh Kegley report in Rand Paul volunteer being served with criminal summons after stomping incident Bluegrass Politics 10/26/2010 that someone is being charged in the attck:

A supporter of Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul is being served with a criminal summons after he was seen on video stepping on a liberal activist’s head, according to Lexington police

Tim Profitt, a volunteer with the Republican’s U.S. Senate campaign, apologized on Tuesday and told The Associated Press that the camera angle made the scuffle Monday night appear worse that it was. He criticized police for not stepping in and says other supporters warned authorities about the activist.

Rand Paul, the fine Christian white man who did a full-blown WATB act when he claimed Conway was attack his sacred faith, hid like a good White Citizens Council type behind a both-sides-do-it statement:

Paul has cut ties with Profitt, of Paris, Ky., who allegedly assaulted a liberal activist during a rally Monday night in Lexington, his campaign announced Tuesday afternoon.

Paul had been criticized earlier in the day for not denouncing the attack strongly enough, but the new statement said Paul is “extremely disappointed in, and condemns” the actions of what it called a supporter.

“The Paul campaign has disassociated itself from the volunteer who took part in this incident, and once again urges all activists — on both sides — to remember that their political passions should never manifest themselves in physical altercations of any kind,” the statement said. [my emphasis]

And, as we see in that report, also in good White Power fashion, he cut his fan loose as quickly as he could. Sorry, dude, that's the kind of crowd head-stomping punks like you run with. The White Power types aren't know for being big on this whole loyalty thing when it might inconvenience them. Also:

On Fox News Tuesday morning, Paul said there was a lot of passion on both sides when he showed up for the debate. Scores of Paul and Conway supporters had gathered in the parking lot of KET.

"It really was something where you walk into a daze of lights flashing, people yelling and screaming, bumping up. There was a bit of a crowd control problem," Paul said on Fox. "I don’t want anybody, though, to be involved in things that aren’t civil. I think this should always be about the issues. It is an unusual situation to have so many people, so passionate on both sides, jockeying back and forth and it wasn't something that I liked or anybody liked about that situation." [my emphasis]

The Paul supporter with the foot-stomping accusation isn't providing much detail, it seems:

The stomping was one of two reported to Lexington police outside the debate. Paul supporter Marsha Foster, 49, reported that earlier in the night a person had intentionally stomped on her broken foot, causing "minor visible injuries," according to a police report. Foster could not be reached immediately for comment.

There is a Marsha Foster listed on the website of Liberty Candidates.org with the following bio:

Marsha Foster
Team member
Candidate for Nicholas County Constable
Nicholas County, KY

Marsha is a stay-at-home-mom home schooling midwife apprentice liberty activist who lives in Kentucky. Her business is Great Expectations Birth Services.

She serves on a watchdog board reviewing the current activity in the KY state legislature. She has served as Campaign for Liberty KY-CD4 coordinator. She is the Nicholas County GOP vice chair and has served as district and state delegate. (Hey, you gotta start somewhere!)

She is a current (2010) candidate for Nicholas county constable. The inspiration to get involved in the fight for liberty came during Ron Paul's presidential run in 2008.

She is a former CPA/tax preparer but sent the certificate back and retired from tax prep for ethical reasons.

It includes this photo:



Here's a video of Aqua Buddha commenting on the assault incident:



As Emma Mustich notes in Paul, MoveOn respond Salon 10/26/2010, in this interview Aqua Buddha "conspicuously declined the opportunity to condemn the attack."

Dave Neiwert reports in Rand Paul's lame response: Won't condemn or disavow assault by supporter, calls it 'unusual situation' C&L 10/26/2010, "The stomper has been identified as Rand Paul's Bourbon County coordinator, Tim Profitt."

Tags: radical right, rand paul