KTLA news reports that a 65-year-old man got his finger bitten off during a health care protest in Thousand Oaks, California, outside Los Angeles. The man, part of an anti-reform protest that formed across the street from a pro-reform MoveOn.org rally, reportedly attacked a reform backer during an altercation, and subsequently had is pinky bitten off:
About 100 protesters sponsored by MoveOn.org were having a rally supporting health care reform. A group of anti-health care reform protesters formed across the street.At the blog DrumsNWhistles, blogger Karoli gives a first-person account of what happened. She was there, with the pro-reform people. She writes, sounding a bit shaken up:
A witness from the scene says a man was walking through the anti-reform group to get to the pro-reform side when he got into an altercation with the 65-year-old, who opposes health care reform.
The 65-year-old was apparently aggressive and hit the other man, who then retaliated by biting off his attacker's pinky, according to Karoli from DrumsnWhistles.
The man took his finger and walked to Los Robles hospital for treatment.
The man in the orange shirt hit the pro-reform guy (I'm going to call him PR Guy just to keep the players straight). Hard. (tweeted in real time) He punched him in the face, knocked him to the ground and into that thruway. As you can see from the photo, cars drive straight through that without stopping. The pro-reform guy could have been run over. He got up, tried to get back up on the curb, but Orange Shirt guy was in his face. Finger in his face, PR Guy standing, steps up to the curb, and there's a scuffle. Orange shirt seemed to have PR Guy in a hold, but again, I was across the street, so won't state that as absolute fact. Next thing I see is PR Guy's hat being tossed into the street, both yelling at one another, then Orange shirt walks away, PR Guy picks up hat and crosses to our side.No word on the age of the biter.
When he gets to our side, he tells a story in one sentence: "He punched me hard, straight in the face, so I bit his finger off."
Honestly, I thought he was exaggerating. I guess he wasn't.
August recess has seen a lot of crazy stuff happen: there were death threats against members of Congress, union members, and one against conservative organizers; there were people screaming at each other; on August 6, there were two scuffles at an event in Florida and a fight outside a town-hall in Missouri. But this is the purest example of sheer, violent atavism so far. Hopefully we, as a nation, can make it to Congress's return next Tuesday without biting off any more appendages.
Punch somebody in the face, what do you expect?
At least Orange Shirt had single-payer, Canadian-style (i.e., socialist) health care via Medicare.
No no no. I'm sure, in the spirit of opposing government-run insurance, Orange Shirt has refused Medicare and paid for this with a health savings account.
AP has it as the pro-reformer crossing the street to confront the counter-protester:
http://bostonherald.com/news/national/west/view.bg?articleid=1195192
"Ventura County Sheriff’s Capt. Frank O’Hanlon says about 100 people demonstrating in favor of health care reforms rallied Wednesday night on a street corner. One protester walked across the street to confront about 25 counter-demonstrators."
Be interesting to hear a few other witness accounts from both sides.
Argumentative confrontation is one thing; physically striking someone is another. Neither side has a monopoly on ill-advised actions. Nonetheless, if you punch somebody in the face, and then push them back down again when they try to get up, you should be prepared to suffer the consequences.
Amen. I feel absolutely no sympathy for Orange Shirt guy at all. He got aggressive first, and was attacked back for it. Perhaps he assumed that a passive liberal wouldn't do anything to retaliate. Again, you live by violence, and it comes back to bite you in the han, er, arse.
MoveOn has already issued a statement heavy on the passive voice. I suspect they know what the deal is.
And, while it's certainly entertaining to see Chris Good call for calm, it might be better if the Atlantic would help lead the way. For instance, over a year ago, Ambinder was at a McCain event where someone asked him a weak question about something important. Not only did Ambinder not follow-up with McCain, he didn't tell the whole truth about the issue.
And, just recently, it's not exactly like the Atlantic has been encouraging people to engage pols in real debate about things like UHC. They haven't been trying to counter those UHC opponents who've simply encouraged people to go have tantrums at townhalls. Yes, they've covered that, but they haven't said that those protesters should do something smarter and more effective instead. If you're a UHC opponent and you want to have a real impact, find a local trial lawyer or similar to really press a politician on the questions at that link.
How did Orange Shirt's finger get in the guy's mouth? I am guessing Orange was trying to gouge the guy's face and eyes. If so, he deserves to lose the finger.
But you left out the best bit from the article:
"The [anti-reform] man took his finger and walked to Los Robles hospital for treatment....Ventura County Sheriff's Capt. Frank O'Hanlon says the man had Medicare."
Ahh, irony.
Would be interesting to know how much moveon.org paid its protesters to show up.
Not much, but there is, I hear, a bounty of $250 per wingnut finger, and an even higher bonus if you eat it. Yum!
OK, that was in bad taste - I just heard the finger was not reattached. Still, given the circumstances, Mr. Fingerbiter may have a compelling defense to the charge of mayhem.
Still, it is a foolish thing to try to out-dumb the severely dumb.