Last night on the Right Angles blog, Jon Ham pointed out that reports of actual violence at health-care town hall meetings occurred only after President Obama urged unions to get involved in policing, er, monitoring the meetings. (Cue Rahm Emanuel channeling Montgomery Burns: “I prefer the hands-on touch you only get with hired goons.”)
Today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported six arrests after fights broke out at a forum on aging hosted by Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo. One person was hospitalized.
Kenneth Gladney, 38, a conservative activist from St. Louis, said he
was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags
with “Don’t tread on me” printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch
from the emergency room at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, where he
said he was awaiting treatment for injuries to his knee, back, elbow,
shoulder and face. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers,
also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack.
“It just seems there’s no freedom of speech without being attacked,” he said.
For his part, Carnahan blamed the protests on … insurance companies, physicians, and hospitals. (I guess.)
In a prepared statement released Friday morning, Carnahan said: “Sadly
we’ve seen stories about disrupters around the country, and we have a
handful of them here in Missouri. Instead of participating in a civil
debate, they have mobilized with special interests in Washington who
have lined their pockets by overcharging Americans for a broken health
care system.”
Carnahan (heck, the entire Obamacare caucus) would do well to set aside the talking points every now and then.
