Kicking 'em While They're Down
Julian Sanchez | September 16, 2004, 2:23pm
UPDATES! There have been many fairly important updates to this post—chief among them that the person identified in the second photo has denied being the person depicted in the first. That account is now here. We've closed comments on this post because people were posting personal info that could be used to contact and harass the guy. That would be clearly non-Kosher even this weren't an investigation still in progress; since it is still in progress, it's super bacon cheeseburger with a clam on top non-Kosher. END UPDATE
So I see that TalkLeft and other liberal blogs have been wondering about the identity of this guy:
...who purportedly kicked a female protester (video here) at the Republican convention. Of course, if you're trying to identify a hardcore right-winger, left-wing blogs are probably the wrong place to post your query. Because someone on the right might've recognized a former National Taxpayers Union intern (left):
I didn't know the guy, but a few people who were in town this summer and did seem fairly certain it's him. Assuming it is, I guess "the angry and debilitating, empty-rhetoric of mob-style street politics" he denounces here are less debilitating when you're in the mob.
UPDATE I showed this video, in which the kicker is shown more clearly and speaks briefly with a reporter, to someone who spent the summer as part of the same internship program. That person says it's him...
UPDATE 2: Naughty, naughty NTU... someone there just cropped their 2004 intern photo, leaving this, with the guy I'm being told appears to be the kicker cropped out. Of course, I expected as much, so the full photo is still above.
UPDATE 3: Allow me to clarify that I'm not posting this just because of the resemblance in the photos (which would be grossly irresponsible), but because of numerous people who spent the entire summer with him using language like "absolutely sure" and "no doubt" about the guy in the RNC photo and video being the same person. Another blogger has just passed along the following email, which I'm told was sent some time ago but held back for want of multiple confirmations, which I've had at this point:
The young republican who kicked a girl in ABC video is a junior at Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) named Scott Robinson. Although I have been an acquantaince of Scott's for 2 years and know of his radical republican ideals, this video was over the line and heinous enough for me to speak up. [AUTHOR-IDENTIFYING COMMENTS REMOVED] I hope this helps in doign whatever it takes to ensure that something like this does not happen again and Scott is held responsible for his actions. Thanks
UPDATE 4: Yet another D.C. intern this summer who knew Robinson is JD Henchman. He's absolutely postive that the person in the video is Scott, and adds: "I'm not surprised that Scott would do something like that."
joe | September 16, 2004, 3:08pm | #
I had a funny experience with the NTU. I was selling art door to door on Capitol Hill in 1995, and knocked on their door. The office manager or director or whatever was late back from lunch, and everybody was pissed, so when she walked in, they made her buy them some framed prints.
So I'm walking out to the car with her, and I say "Hey, National Taxpayer's Union. I've heard of you guys!"
She, suspicious, "Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah! I read about you in Time."
Warming up, "Yeah?"
"Yeah. You're the people pushing the flat tax idea, right?"
Smiling, "Yes, that's right."
"You know, that idea has really taken off..."
Big smile at me.
"...since Jerry Brown started pushing it in his campaign."
Huffy, "WELL, it didn't REALLY get going until Speaker Armey put it on the agenda!"
"Ohhhh...."
I only ended up selling about half a dozen pieces, but it was worth it.
thoreau | September 16, 2004, 8:07pm | #
I would think that in a situation of a disturbance the Secret Service should simply arrest anybody who gets violent, period. Whether it's a protestor or somebody who seems to be on the opposite side, they'd simply arrest anybody who get violent. The goal isn't just to get the protestors and leave everybody else alone, the goal is to restore order to the event where their protectee is speaking, period. Anybody who gets violent for any reason is a threat to law and order there.
The notion that they simply lacked the manpower to handle this guy without abandoning their primary charge would imply that if the protestors would have just brough a few extra people with them they would have had free run of the place.
The only excuse I can see is that maybe they didn't realize what he was doing. However, as I recall he was kicking the woman that they were holding. Shouldn't they have noticed his foot coming in there, even if they weren't facing him directly? I mean, sure, it's a chaotic situation and all, but they are supposed to be trained observers skilled at identifying and subduing anybody who engages in violence in an area they're trying to secure. And it's not like this is the most stressful situation the Secret Service would expect to encounter. A handful of shouting people with signs should pose far less stress for them than, say, a sniper taking shots at a protectee or some other situation that they (presumably) train for.
We're left with 2 possibilities:
1) They aren't as observant as one would hope. If a relatively minor disturbance can make them oblivious to some guy kicking the person that they're holding on to, I want a refund on the taxes that I paid toward their salary. To quote the Donald, "You should have noticed that dipshit thug kicking the person that you were taking control of. It's your job to notice violence even in stressful situation. You didn't do that, so I have to say you're fired."
2) They didn't see a need to deal with the dipshit thug kicking the girl because he was one of the "good guys" and she was one of the "bad guys." That's the sort of thug mentality I'd expect from, say, the LAPD's Rampart CRASH units, not nation's most elite (supposedly) law enforcement agency.
