Insane Right Winger Assaults A Couple Of Would-Be Journalists

Just kidding. It was Democratic congressman Bob Etheridge defending himself from a vicious assault by two besuited students armed with a digital camera and incendiary questions.

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Yeah, that's a real "assault" right there. That Congressman really "went nuts."





Seriously, giving a name and a school would have calmed the guy down. I doubt most of you would take well to anonymous people ambushing you with a camera either.

And just because it's Wordforge, I should probably add:


"I demand to see the unedited video!"

and

"This guy's a plant from the other side!"

If the video is accurate (I don't like edited videos when they're trying to show something like this), then this Congressman was out of line. As U.S. citizens, these students have every right to ask these questions. If the Congressman didn't want to answer, he could have kept on walking. He didn't, and he got confrontational with them. Whether that's assault, I think so. He took swings at them and tried to grab their recording gear for them asking questions.

If the video is accurate. It would be nice if there were an unedited/unformatted version. It's best to leave the commentary until the end and let a person see the full video without interruption.

He did go nuts. He detained the one poster without the legal authority to do so.

The kid would have been within his rights to punch the guy with his free hand to get away.

However, he smartly didn't do that. I can't imagine a kid's rights mattering if he exercises them against a congress critter.

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Feel better, Ray?

Legally, the camera is an extension of "me" and if you grab/push/hit my camera, you've commited assault on "me".

Ever have that kind of thing happen to you, shootER?

Petey takes a break from being King of Rep to strive for relevance

Any video that has to interrupt itself to say "Okay, now here's what you should REALLY think" merely indicates the weakness of the material. I find it funny that the people who despise Michael Moore go scouring the Internet for stuff like this.

You're correct that the students should have identified themselves. But they're Millennials; they grew up getting trophies just for breathing, so it's hard to blame them for thinking "I has video camera. I is RELEVANT!" Their teacher should have instructed them in proper protocol ("You approach the Congressman, identify yourselves, show your ID, explain why you're doing the video and then ask your question").

What's amusing is that Petey thought anyone would be fooled by his headline, and that he will inevitably neg-rep me for this once his wrist stops hurting.

After Jamey posted the unedited footage from both cameras, I'm more convinced. Mainly that this Congressman is a hot head and instead of ignoring or saying "No Comment" he gets adversarial at the mere question of whether he supports the Obama Administration.

Now, whether these guys are students or not are open to question, but the Congressman was out of line for attacking them for merely asking questions.

Yes, but only a couple of times and neither time serious enough to press charges. People tell me that I have an "intimidating" vibe and I guess it's evident even behind the camera.

There was one time when I was young and didn't know any better that I almost had a real brawl with a guy, but the reporter stepped between us before I could clock the guy with the camera (truthfully, I probably would've gone to jail for that one ).

Re: Petey takes a break from being King of Rep to strive for relevance

Yeah, I went scouring.

And if you check out the unedited version, there's no evidence that the students pulled a "Michael Moore" on the congressman.

Has nothing to do with relevant at this point. It has to do with a guy who couldn't keep his game face on. A guy who, regardless of his political leaning should be expected to keep his game face on when approached in just this way.

How does one even answer stupidity of this magnitude?

They should have identified themselves? I don't think so. He's a fucking jagoff congressman getting back from what was probably a liquid lunch, not a cop.

Clearly assault. You don't have the right to lay on hands to someone else, especially for simply asking a question. And it becomes incontrovertible when the kid repeatedly asks him to let go of his arm and the Congressman refuses.

He should press charges, though I suppose youtube will do more damage in the long run.

To be honest, I would have pressed charges if I was the student. The congressman grabbed his phone, his wrist, and then grabbed him by the neck, that's battery.

Petey takes a break from being King of Rep to strive for relevance

So a coupla total strangers accost you on a side street and start asking you questions and you immediately get so friendly you're busted for pedophilia? Yeah, that sounds like something you would do.

Identified themselves as in "Hi, we're from the school paper and we'd like to ask you a few questions."

Sounds as if you've had more experience with cops than with ordinary human discourse.

And, yes, he overreacted. But as he says in his apology:

Poor Petey!

"I've been spat at, pushed on and threatened before and that's no excuse for my not walking on by," Etheridge said while declining to disclose if more words were exchanged. "Just no excuse."

Slow news day and Faux Red Room Outrage.

The congressman should not have put his hands on either the kid or his camera. Bad move on his part and, if I were running against him, I'd buy this footage from whoever holds the copyright and run it in commercials during the campaign.

That said, if (as garamet suggested above) the kids were from some college journalism department, they should've identified their organization when he asked. My employer requires that we do that, but only when asked and we're not allowed to misrepresent ourselves to people.

Now if the kids were part of some College Republican group or something, then, no, they don't have any obligation to identify themselves to the congressman.

He should've just kept walking or told them, "I'll answer your questions when you tell me who you're with." Instead, he tried to play tough and ended up looking like a douchebag.


Oh, and it's a cop-out that the kids' faces are blurred. If you're going to do something like that, have the stones to put your face out there, too.

Re: Petey takes a break from being King of Rep to strive for relevance

Ramen is not a United States Congressman, at the end of the day he doesn't answer to any one.

Bob Etheridge on the other hand, is a Congressman. He answers to the people, and he needs to be held to a higher standard.

Re: Petey takes a break from being King of Rep to strive for relevance

Infantile insult aside, a simple "no comment" or "no thanks" while continuing walking would be fine.

Infantile insult aside, their approach is irrelevant.

Overreacted is an understatement. Assault charges are not out of order in this case.

Uh huh. Nothing like an "apology" from a victimized perspective. If the video hadn't gone viral on the internet, I wonder whether this apology would have even been issued.

A federal politician throwing haymakers and grabbing a kid's neck on the street? Don't see how it wouldn't make the news considering there's video evidence.

Re: Petey takes a break from being King of Rep to strive for relevance

"Poor Petey" is the best you can do Margaret?

(BTW, frontline asked you a question here, and you didn't answer. Any chance you're going to this year?)

Re: Petey takes a break from being King of Rep to strive for relevance

The magic D after his name is supposed to make shit like this go away, you know.

Frankly, I am surprised Garamet is trying to downplay assault. I don't see why those kids or anyone needs to identify themselves when asking a question of a congresscritter....any American with a question deserves an answer, it doesn't matter who...they work for us. If he didn't have time, he should have said "No comment" or "I can't do this now...please contact my office."

Nothing justifies him putting his hands on anyone else.

I don't disagree with you on this, however, I've seen plenty "gotcha" reporting in which correspondents/reporters and the like have shoved cameras in the faces of every stripe of celebrity/politician and demanded answers with nary a syllable of identification.

Doesn't this kind of thing happen quite often these days?

Re: Petey takes a break from being King of Rep to strive for relevance

From what we saw, they don't accost him. In fact, when they first ask the question, the Congressman is still about 10-15 feet away, and that's aside from the fact they were standing out in the open, with cameras.

As for the getting friendly, all he has to say is "No comment, Gentlemen" or "I have no comment at this time". Let them get confrontational. Let them make the first non-acceptable move.

Political apologies are a dime a dozen. "I'm sorry I did wrong" usually means "I'm sorry I got caught", and that's prevalent on both sides of the aisle. Maybe he does feel bad, but he still has to face the responsibility of what he did. Joe Schmoe gets arrested for getting in a fight out front of a public place and has to face up to his actions. While I'm still not convinced the students were actually students, this Congressman will have to do the same.

Not everyone is ethical.

That said, just because you didn't hear them identify themselves doesn't mean they didn't. The majority of the time when we do it, it doesn't get used in the piece because that part is almost never relevant to the story. The only times I can recall putting the "identification" part on air was when someone was kicking us off their property.

Mark it down, the sentiment that you can't film police (public servants) in public will soon be given legal sanction by the public servants who write the laws, and it will be uniformly applied to all "public servants".

Of course the reason no name and school were given is the same as the reason his face was blurred: the guy's almost certainly a known Republican operative or staffer, not a student.

It doesn't matter who it is.

The guy asked a question and was assaulted. There is no justification for it.

Considering that shoving a camera phone six inches from a guys face without permission likely qualifies as assault and extremely limited actual harm was done, uh, no.

The congressman acted utterly disgraceful, especially considering walking away was an option for him. He's an employee of the people who stepped waaaaay over the line - would anyone ever do something remotely like that to their boss? I think this incident really speaks to how polticians think they are better than Joe or Jane Average. I hope he gets charged.

My ass.

There's no way you could constitute asking a question and putting a camera near an individual qualifies as assault. As soon as the question was asked, the intent was clear, and that was not to cause physical harm - there is no reason for the congressman to feel threatened.

There was reason for the student to feel threatened, and the congressman did lay hands on him and restrain him.

You must be a SHITTY lawyer.