“That’s Different; They’re White Guys,” Pt. Eleventy-Squillion [Updated]
Quod McArdle:
Instapundit and Orin Kerr have been posting about the problem with building a coherent story about what happened in Jena. But this strikes me as the deeper problem.
I got a few emails urging me to wear black yesterday to “Free the Jena 6”. But they shouldn’t be freed. Six guys assaulted one, and after he was lying on the ground unconscious, kicked him repeatedly in the head.* They should go to jail for this.
Above: Members of The Gathering of Eagles surround and kick Gold Star father Carlos Arredondo,
9/15/07 (photo: Hilsdon Photography)
So okay. Now the only question is: Can The Gathering Of Eagles Five** be tried as adults?
*McArdle has since done some research re: this questionable version of the narrative.
**Suggestion: If we’re talking branding, ‘The GOE 5ive’ is funkier, like the kids are into.
Update: Eagle Fred Peterson explains why he went up to the passing Arredondo and snatched away a photo of his son, Marine Lance Corporal Alexander Arredondo (KIA, Iraq, 2004):
I was leaving Capitol Grounds. The activity there had just about ended with the arrest of over 600 provocateurs and agents ‘anti-war’ of violence. There, we Eagles had organized teams of six men – mostly veterans – to protect the safety of Gold Star Moms (and Dads) from the physical threats and insults of hard-edge left socialists, Seattle anarchists, random lefty Raggamuffins and reflexive anti-Americans who made up the ANSWER Coalition …
I had spent the day in the company of an American hero – a youthful Army amputee, who wanted only to rejoin his brothers and renew his sacrifice in defense of country. It was a humbling and inspirational experience, to be in the presence of such selfless virtue in one so young and brave. It invited a camaraderie of high principle and enervated a keen sense of obligation to preserve and protect these worthy veterans from the predations of those lessers who insult their country and cause…
My teams broke up at the Capitol, mission accomplished, and I was walking alone back to the Mall when I saw the photo-image of a proud young Marine in dress blues being held hostage in company not of his own choosing and affixed to a coffin not his own.
The insult to his honor and disrespect to his Corps and cause by his captors was immediately obvious and intended. These same peddlers of provocation are paid to push their coffin-prop all over the country they revile. They subvert a common will and undermine the cause and country for which this hostage-Marine had sacrificed his very life.
The captive Marine was not among his own. He was surrounded and outnumbered by those who shamelessly exploit his image and memory, disgrace his uniform, his brothers in arms, and his willing sacrifice. He would never choose such company. He needed a rescue…
I liberated his image from the midst of the hostile crowd, intending to replace it in a position of honor Arlington, where he would rest with heroes and among his own …I respectfully carried the image of the fallen Marine and was not opposed nor confronted in any way until I has walked perhaps 25 yards down the sidewalk. There, I was attacked without warning and tackled from behind by a demonstrator who crashed into my back at a full run. I went down forward, tearing pants knees and shirt sleeve and five separate wounds requiring hospital attention. The Marine’s image, along with camera and sunglasses were smashed into the pavement. Before I could respond, six or so Eagles-vets were immediately pulling me away from the anti-war attacker.
One Eagle was holding the attacker and yelling, “He’s biting off my arm! I cannot believe this (A-Hole) is biting my arm!” That Eagle also went to the hospital where he was treated and given shots.
Other Eagles separated the two and held the attacker/biter for the police. Police Interviews were conducted and Eagles were asked if they wanted to prefer charges… No charges were filed by Eagles, who are unaccustomed to whining about minor injuries when they stand in defense of larger principles unappreciated – uncomprehended – by their attackers.
Two Gold Star Mothers who witnessed the entire episode and gave police statements said, “I am so proud of what you did! I wanted to do it myself … That coffin is such a disgrace to my son and all the others who have died to help others be free. Thank you so much! It made my day.”
Well, actually, – those few precious words, from one who has given the full measure of issue from her own body to the defense of our country, ‘made my day’ also …
Semper Fidelis.
[…]
Oh, well okay then. They’d organized teams to protect Gold Star parents from attacks, and when none happened, they decided to wander off and attack some Gold Star parents. Because for all they knew, some of these parents might not have had express permission from their dead sons and daughters to carry photographs around, which. . .you know, freedom only goes so far.
I was just explaining this to my friend Kyle. “See,” I said, “It was like the will of the people reached out with the iron glove of justice, eradicating the stain on America’s glory flagrantly committed by the vicious, cowardly traitor who — see, Kyle — dishonestly misappropriated the sacred photo of the fallen hero in order to violently smear patriots with the foul oil-like substance of demented hatred of, see, Kyle, our sacred American honor.”
In other words, it was just one of those misunderstandings that happen when the glory of American patriots is brazenly defiled under the stinking boots of saboteur-traitor vermin and their media lackeys. And you know how wacky those can get!
Can the Gathering Of Eagles Five be tried as adults?
No. They must be tried as seagulls.
no matter how many MM posts Sadly No does, I will always be tricked into thinking “she can’t possibly be that stupid/clueless”
But she always is.
Yes, after she went to Wikipedia to read about the Jena issue for (obviously) the first time in her frickin’ life, she followed that post with one that says “ummmm……never mind”.
That photo is obviously doctored. I talked to a guy (Jamal or Jamir or something like that) at a 1-hour photo kiosk and he told me there was no way it was authentic. And what’s with that shaded area around the outside of the picture? My disposable camera doesn’t take pictures like that, so it couldn’t be real. And Michelle Malkin says that. . . . . . .
ARRRRR. I cannot get over it. Her contribution is Slogan Critique
and then this: “I don’t get it–they committed assault. Why would I support them?” HOW ABOUT YOU LEARN SOMETHING ABOUT THE CASE!!!!! How about maybe the point of a slogan is to grab your attention, and then you can educate yourself on the situation. how about maybe a multiple-year sentence isn’t appropriate for an assault charge in this case?
As if a four word slogan needs to contain all of the relevant facts, or else you can just dismiss it from your mind, and spend your energies criticizing the rally instead.
ok I need to take a breather.
Goddam it, how DARE you cast aspersions on those upstanding americans who rescued the photograph of Carlos’ Iraq KIA son, which was being held hostage by, um, well, by Carlos. But anyway, it (the photo – the boy pictured in the photo, Carlos’ son, is, um, dead) wanted to be with the photos of other brave dead US soldiers and marines, not displayed by the no-good peace loving commie Carlos.
That ratfucker had no right to display a photo of his own son. Thank goodness complete and total strangers were there to take it from him by force.
I’m pretty sure that, along with the executive staff of Moveon.org, Carlos Arredondo ought to be prosecuted and imprisoned. What the hell, along with those black kids from Jena.
/bittersarcasm
Can you imagine living in a place where in 2007 high school students would feel they needed to ask if it was ok for them to sit under the white kids tree? Much ass kicking is still necessary…
mikey
I should have included this image with my comment.
Note the similarities!
Well, mikey, if it puts your mind at ease, the events in Jena happened last year.
If CSPAN had more than one camera there would likely have been video footage of the assault. As it stands I remember the camera panning away from the stage to the crowd at one point towards some kind of altercation, so there may be a tiny bit of video. At the very least I hope there’s a lawyer or two working on this.
Now there’s a phrase I don’t say often.
Now the only question is: Can The Gathering Of Eagles Five** be tried as adults?
I thik the real question is, “Can the GOE5 be tried in Texas, where they’re fond of executing the retarded?”
I never thought I’d live in a place where I guy gets tasered for asking questions at a political speech, or a reporter gets pushed down the steps, or people got ejected from a political rally because they had a liberal bumper sticker.
Is it starting to feel like 1967 again? Is it just a matter of time before police in riot gear shoot down college students?
Billy pilgrim, since the National Guard is all deployed in Irackeynam, the college students will be shot down by contractors employed by Blackwater USA.
Or, that failing, by mentally disturbed korean students…
mikey
Gavin, that is spot-on, Sir.
Here’s O’Reilly:
Black Folks just like everyone else
“You know, I was up in Harlem a few weeks ago, and I actually had dinner with Al Sharpton…And we went to Sylvia’s, a very famous restaurant in Harlem. And I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship…There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, “M-Fer, I want more iced tea.”….And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all.”
Bill O’Reilly – a man who’s surprised that black people can run restaurants and even eat in them.
No. They must be tried as seagulls.
And they ran. They ran so far away.
Is it starting to feel like 1967 again?
Gad, I hope not. In ’67 I was a teenager on the beach, with zits, a dog and a motorcycle that occasionally ran. I had a tan, I had discovered that I liked beer and pot, and had become a decent surfer, at least by Northern California standards. I vaguely knew who Nixon was (he was a bad man, people said), and you couldn’t miss the fact of Vietnam, it was on the news every night.
But I was a KID! No way was any of that stuff a part of my life. I was young, and apathetic, and horny.
Thirty months. I had no way of knowing that everything was going to turn to dark ash in just thirty months. And that forty years later it would still be something I drug around in a sack behind me, weighing on every decision, dragging back every joy…
mikey
Thirty months. I had no way of knowing that everything was going to turn to dark ash in just thirty months. And that forty years later it would still be something I drug around in a sack behind me, weighing on every decision, dragging back every joy…
What happened??
Did you get drafted? Did someone die? Why did everything turn to dark ash? What went wrong?
I got a free, all expenses paid trip to Jello’s Holiday in Cambodia.
mikey
Oh dear God.
You know, Sylvia’s is like three notches up on the tourist ratchet from 500 other perfectly nice restaurants in Harlem. IIRC, it’s actually barely in Harlem.
Furthermore, the only problem that ever existed about going to places like these is that you have to freakin’ be polite to people.
drugAdled states:
heavily influenced by where you got your facts
Megan,
Asinine called, said it quit before you could steal it’s job. Congratulations.
“I don’t get it–they committed assault. Why would I support them?”
“I don’t get it”….”I don’t get it”… I LIKE that. You know, I think I’m going to use that from now on. When someone asks me “Why doesn’t Megan McArdle make any sense?” I’ll say “Gee, Gavin, I don’t get it!” If my friend wonders if I still get the Atlantic Monthly, I’ll just say “I DON’T GET IT!”
Hey Mikey,
Don’t forget we love you! I was too young for that mess, but grew up with a brother who was old enough (but didn’t get taken). My early life was informed by those hippie-lovin years, and I still hold that tightly (even as I am an almost 40 punk rocker).
I;ve never said this to you, but thank you for your sacrifice, and let’s help the kids who are coming home now, with the same problems.
Peace,
Just a Guy.
I’ve been to Sylvia’s a few times. It’s good, but not THAT good. And it’s crowded.
P.S. I MADE YOU A FISH-GOD CULT. BUT I EATED IT.
Well every time I get to see the GOE up close and personal here makes me feel a little better. Yeah my experience with them is just photographs online, but that’s probably how close most of these patriots warriors are ever gonna get to an Islamo-fascist. So if these guys (and they appear to be 99% guys from what I’ve seen) can be heroes by ganging up five against one to beat up a middle aged father with severe burns over his body and steal a picture of his deceased son, then I to can be a war hero! And without even having to go to war either! I don’t think I’d look very good in a vest (leather or denim) though.
Give it a try, Gundamhead. Leather can be quite slimming…
mikey
Ya know Gavin, I was somewhat ambivalent about your “fireMegan” dot com thing or whatever it is. I’m totally behind you on that now. These two posts of hers on the Jena six ought to be more than enough to get her shit canned.
One thing about wingnuts is they don’t really understand where the line is. They just blink and stare at you when you mention “common decency” and have no clue what you are going on about. Megan has crossed that line. I truly hope she pays for it.
does anyone else really really want to say “mother fucker I want more ice tea” all the time now?
I bet hearing Samuel L. Jackson say it would be awesome!
I want some motherfuckin’ iced tea on this motherfuckin airplane!
You know, McArdle was just irritating before. Now she’s beyond the pale. I just cancelled my subscription to the Atlantic, and told them why. And that I’d come back the moment they kicked her bony ass to the curb.
No motherfucking iced tea, but still fun
I want some motherfuckin’ sweet tea.
Wait, wait, wait just a minute here. Those Seagull guys are kicking a Gold Star father? Aren’t the Flock the ones who got all murderous when someone accidentally squirted sunscreen on the Vietnam memorial wall or whatever cuz they loves ’em some war heroes so much and stuff?
They’re kicking a Gold Star father? What am I missing here?
Okay, I get it now. You guys are just makin’ shit up. Ha ha! Funny. I, uh, guess.
See, that Gold Star Father had the temerity to think that his picture of his dead son was his personal property, and was not sufficiently grateful when the GatheringOfEggheads liberated it.
So, I take it that the Gathering of Nazi Fucktards aren’t going to be arrested for this, right? I mean, I can’t imagine anyone arresting them — people might start thinking that laws are for Nazi Fucktards, too.
Six, if you throw George Bush in. (He started it.)
Look at those old farts getting their (racist) rocks off. I hope they get some anal attention in the slammer.
Other Eagles Gather.
Those eagles gather to support each other in fighting alcoholism, which is a good thing imho, M. Bouffant.
The seagulls pictured above gather to flaunt their stupidity and aggression. If I could be indulged in a bit of looksism, I’d say the ugly on the inside really brings out the ugly on the outside.
ah they’re dry-alcoholics like the president, that explains it.
They could’ve driven the flag point first through his chest, like in….I’m having a brain fart ….what’s that movie?
A serious thought. War is bad. To be “Pro War” is to be prima facie defective as a human being. When war happens, it’s because basic humanity has been unable to hold the field against fear, ignorance, greed and hatred. Adolf Hitler was “pro war”. Kim il-sung was “pro war”. These “eagles” seem to be “pro war”.
Could not someone, with a little funding and an internet connection create a “Gathering of Doves”? If the debate is war forever, war as policy, or war after war after war, where is the voice of sanity, the voice that says peace is the goal, not war. Not killing, but helping, raising people up, not burying them.
Peace is good for everyone. It’s good for America. It’s good for the world. It allows people to build, to invent, to educate and plan generationally. It solves problems, creates wealth and serves humankind well.
But where are the voices for peace? Where are the people speaking out against more wars, more hatred, more wealth down the toilet. C’mon, Markos, Soros, Frankin, anybody with money. Call me. I’ll take a shot. If they can make any noise at all rooting for killing, waste and disease, maybe, just maybe, there’s room for people speaking out for peace.
mikey
Not a comparison, more a contrast,™³²®©. My two closest friends are recovering, I lost interest in the boozin’ after quite a few years of it (saving me from those meetings).
The O’Reilly story reminded me of cometing and I had tow ait till I got home to find it.
Dorothy Parker wrote a story called “Arrangement in Black and White,” which is a vignette of the well-meant kind of racism exhibited by O’Reilly. The protagonist of Parker’s story might be excused because she was expressing those sentiments in 1920 – something, while O’Reilly’s bloviating his amazement that black people know how to order food and eat in a restaurant without wrecking the place in 2007.
“Listen,” she said, “I want to meet Walter Williams. Honestly, I’m just simply crazy about that man.Oh, when he sings! When he sings those spirituals!….Well, I think you’re marvelous, giving this perfectly marvelous party for him and having him meet all these white people. Isn’t he terribly grateful?….I think it’s really terribly nice, I do! I don’t see why on earth it isn’t perfectly all right to meet colored people…..Oh, can’t he sing! Isn’t it marvelous, the way they all have music in them? It just seems to be right in them!”
Hey everyone, send Clif some love, k? His dog has passed away.
Where was that devil dog…what’s his name? Kokesh? Where were the vets in that march? Not that it is their job to protect the guy but I think they should assign a couple of their ugliest former Marine anti-war protesters to escort this guy from now on. I am just glad I wasn’t there when it happened actually. There would have been blood on the ground. I would have gotten myself into trouble.
One of these times those fuckers are going to mess with the wrong folks — and wish they hadn’t.
The urge to form a scrum and drive them over is pretty strong.
These people are convinced that anti-war folks will never fight back. Because anti-war people are pussies, as far as they are concerned. And being pussies, they are rightfully targets. Someone should identify these guys and call them out the next time-
Come out ye Black and Tans…
Yikes! I was looking for info on who’d been charged w/ what, & came across that Mark Hemingway clod @ NRO. Apparently nothing happened: “Arredondo was pulled off Peterson very quickly by a number of Peterson’s fellow veterans and counterprotesters, but not before Peterson was bloodied in the ensuing scuffle.”
Of course there’s a photo of his boo-boo. Believe it or shove it.
I’m smiling here. These are the voices of freedom and liberty. It took strength, courage and, yeah, violence to create the space for liberal democracy to work. And frankly, they are tearing it all down. It’s gonna take a fight to get it back.
No easy way to be free.
But maybe a little easier to create a police state….
mikey
Good holy christ almighty. This woman claims to be a journalist and she used her perch at the Atlantic to announce that six defendants in a crime she knows nothing about in a larger situation she knows nothing about belong in prison without so much as trouble to check Wikipedia, which to top it all off with a cherry she apparently believes to be a reliable source?
Gosh. Wonder who over there won their career in the swimsuit competition.
Pardon me. Could I please get some mother-fuckin’ ice tea? No, no. No mother-fuckin lemon, thank you.
That’s how I roll whilst ordering ice tea.
M. Bouffant: Thanks for the NRO link and what I’m totally sure is a completely accurate version of events.
I am reading the whole thing, but Mr. Hemingway moved between present and past tense so often that it makes me dizzy, and I fell off my chair and am hurled into another dimension of incomprehensibility.
See, I’m so gonna go into work tomorrow and, upon getting my morning sweet tea (don’t drink coffee), I’m gonna say, “I want some mother fuckin’ sweet tea”, and as usual, my co-workers are gonna look at me like I come from goddamn Jupiter.
Tell, when O’Reily told his charming little annecdote about how well behaved all the pickaninnies were in Harlem, did the person he told the story to not slap the ever-loving bejeezus out of him? ‘Cause that’s what I woulda done. I feel bad about that, but I figure I wouldn’t be able to help myself.
The comments at Chez McArdle are a sight to behold. She’s managed to draw in her usual coterie, a few dedicated detractors (noen is fighting like hell), a ton of pissed-off newbies and the Confederate Yankee/Green Footballs set. A sampler:
Wow.
Holy Shit.
Christ on a pony.
A long way from “Letter From Birmingham Jail.”
I think there are some times when war is justified. I just think those times are pretty rare. I think in the case of invasion it is justified to fight the invaders, which means I’m a traitor. But I wouldn’t have to be a traitor if my country wasn’t fucking invading other countries.
As much as I hate Bush, I would hate if another country came and deposed him. Even if I liked that country before, I would quickly grow to hate them. Of course, right now, I can’t think of any country powerful enough, except perhaps China, and they aren’t about to burn down their bank.
To be fair, that guy’s son was probably a pussy, anyways. I mean, he got KILLED, so he couldn’t have been a very patriotic Marine. It’s only fair that his dad got beat up. Besides, they weren’t even white! Everyone knows that only white people are true Americans, and have priority status.
These fuckers should be deported to a country where their reckless hate is appreciated. Like Sienna Leone. Or Saudi Arabia.
Mikey, as my dad likes to say, “I joined the army by personal invitation from the President.”
Being a glibertarian means never having to thing for oneself.
Hey Billy. Game 0ver. The fucktards have won, maybe the next dominate life form will lack the retarded tribalism which gave birth to religion (I’m calling you out xtians, mooselams, jooooos, hiderances (errr, hindoos) or whatever fucking religions you retards are.
Note: my grammar, despite the Delirium Tremens, is MUCH better than Megan McFucktard Glibertarian.
I am in your parish courthouse, prosecuting your black children as adults.
I believe it was Mel Gibson’s remake of Mr Smith Goes to Washington.
Good Lord….can you people get your Red-State/Blue State, rich/poor, urban/rural, white/blackbrownbeige civil war on, already?
Went to the Gathering of Patriotism Is The Last Refuge Of Scoundrels site & found this
http://gatheringofeagles.org/forum?forum=3&topic=1002&page=1
wonderful piece of writing from “boo-boo” Fred Peterson, who was so worried about the image of Alex Arredondo that he had to steal it. It’s the eighth one down, w/ the purple blockquote.
Linky no workee. You can also click my name, it’s in the first item on my “web log.”
And when does M. Malkin, defender of all Eagledom weigh in on this?
I would check, but I think even touching her website means God will hate me.
Psycho City.
g mentioned Dorothy Parker’s story, and this whole thing also reminded me of the time Lt. Fancy took Sipowicz for ribs & cole slaw (and dug the proverbial knife in a bit by telling him to make sure there wasn’t any spit in his tea.)
Has Rev. Al actually confirmed this? ’cause it sounds like one of those “Why, one of my best friends is a Negro™” anecdotes scum like BO like to use.
They could’ve driven the flag point first through his chest, like in….I’m having a brain fart ….what’s that movie?
I think that was reality.
The Soiling of Old Glory
Where o where is the Corporate Media on this?
You just KNOW they would be all over it were the politics reversed.
I gotta get out of this nightmare, one way or another.
I suppose it is a good thing that Wingnuttia be given to all of us, but that’s because I’m a naif who thinks people are smart.
Someone fucking kill me. Just make it quick. You’ll still be unable to wipe the dead smile off my face, but you can be assured it is a smile of gratitude.
Freakish, late-Friday night concept:
All those with terminal disease who hate this Adminstration do a Jonesian mass suicide on the Capital steps.
I might join them, even without said terminal illness.
We could leave CD’s of our thoughts around, for people to pick up and pass around.
Now THAT would get some Corporate attention!
Christ. What a mess we are in. I can forgive electing the asshole the first time, but twice? No wonder the rest of the world thinks we’re idiots.
All those with terminal disease who hate this Adminstration do a Jonesian mass suicide on the Capital steps.
If leaving human meat near Dick Cheney [will to follow through lacking]
RB, I know you had something good coming, but I lost it.
Clearly leaving human flesh around DICK Cheney is iffy, but if you’re already dead, doesn’t it help you politically to have film of him eating it?
I posted this story a few days ago and I got no response.What the fuck,you don’t react to people like this by waving peace signs in the air.Did nobody have the balls and common decency to wade in there and break off a haymaker on one of these old dried up fascists?They were certainly outnumbered,or did no-one want to lower themselves to the same level as the GARF-FINKLE-GLUB-GLUB….
Judging from the pictures & (varying) descriptions, it was over almost as soon as it started. Don’t worry, we’ll probably have a few more chances to whack some of these fools. Check my link a few comments up, too. It’s deliciously awful.
I did,and I just got back from the bathroom.Still have that acidic taste in my throat though.
Clem said,
The comments at Chez McArdle are a sight to behold. She’s managed to draw in her usual coterie, a few dedicated detractors (noen is fighting like hell)
Thanks Clem, though I don’t think I’ve succeeded all that well. And now there is a new player, one Steve Sailor. Holy Shit! that man is crazy! I’m thinking paranoia laced with OCD. I’ve never heard of him before but I suppose he is well know by some. He is also a columnist at VDare. I guess I just don’t get out into the wilds of teh Internets that much.
“He gestures wildly toward the thousands of protesters on the lawn above him and tells them, “”One drop of your blood is worth more than all of theirs, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” They nod respectfully and say “Yes, sir.””
That’s a retired soldier talking to young Marines at the anti-war protest. Way to inculcate them with American values, you fucking jarhead.
The Jena Six that are above 18 should be tried and convicted. They had used violence rather than words even before the situation was infected with the nooses.
Let’s not get carried away – some of the Jena Six deserves to be locked up.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has noticed Steve Sailer.
Whether or not any of the Jena 6 deserve to be locked up, none of them deserve to be charged with second-degree aggravated battery for a school fight that didn’t even involve a weapon.
This is nothing less than old-school segregation style racism – pressing the most severe possible charges against a black person in a situation where a white person would get a slap on the wrist. Especially in light of the fact that the three white teens who started this whole race conflict by hanging nooses from the tree on school grounds got three days of in-school suspension for what they did.
The Jena Six that are above 18 should be tried and convicted. They had used violence rather than words even before the situation was infected with the nooses.
Is that the call of the Sensible Liberal I hear?
Aside from the naïve belief that these racists were going to start regarding Black people as human by the majesty of a teenager’s eloquence, I would dearly love to know what evidence you have that the Jena Six perpetrated violence before the nooses came into play. The students asked permission to sit under the “white tree”, they were told they could sit where they pleased, they did, and the next morning, there were three nooses hanging from said tree. Where, in this timeline, did the Jena Six use violence?
That’s not even the issue now, xel.
Read Gavin’s post again. Read the comments. The GOE5 won’t even be charged let alone have the book thrown at them. The white kids in Jena got slaps on the wrist for being racist dickheads while the black kids were tried and convicted as felons for defending their dignity. The white kids received support and tolerance from local officials; the black kids never have, even before the tree incident. That’s what this is about.
That Peterson text is fascinating, and not just for its “Cara al sol” tone and tenor. I’m especially struck by Peterson’s fetishization of Alexander Arredondo’s image. It reminds me of a practice in 17th- and 18th-century Spain and Spanish America, in which portraits of the monarch were taken not as representations but as physical embodiments of the monarch himself (see Osorio 2004). I’m sure there are examples of similar beliefs and practices elsewhere.
I hate to say it, but Megan’s got a point. She completely misses the real point, as usual, but it’s still the case that the Jena 6 committed a crime. The trial and punishment were utterly disproportionate, and the differential treatment of white perpetrators of violence and threats of violence (the shotgun incident blew my mind) has been disgraceful. Absolutely people should be fighting to get the six retried in an appropriate forum with an appropriate sentence, but the slogan should be “Jail the Jena 3,000”.
They had used violence rather than words even before the situation was infected with the nooses.
Not according to every single story I’ve read about this, no.
Any proof to back that up?
Peterson sounds deranged and violent. It seems that he still thinks he is on the battle-field, and that such behavior is actually acceptable in civil society. I just hope he doesn’t seriously injure someone while acting out his paranoid fantasies.
Company not of his own choosing? I can’t get past that part, sorry. As if this kid’s father is supposed to take second to these desperate has-beens.
shorter Fred Peterson: “Carlos Arrodondo lost his son. . . but I got an owie!”
Back to picking on McArdle: In this post on musical copyright, she neglects to cite her source and does so with no indication of intentional irony.
Wow, Fred Peterson is seriously disturbed. He’s describing how he’s openly stealing someone else’s personal property … but in his mind he’s liberating a kidnap victim.
I’m pretty sure i watched about 150 of the 198 people getting arrested… until i got bored waiting them step, single file, over the barricade*, over the course of about 90 minutes. Bo-ring.
My understanding is that 196 people volunteered to be arrested, and two (2) people were being jackasses and got maced or whatever.
The dozen or so police officers arresting them were helping them over the barricade*. I saw zero punches thrown, and zero physical altercations.
I did hear some yelling.
*barricade = bike rack
Can we lolcat that picture of Peterson?
I suggest “I has a owwie.”
What kills me about McArdle is that having to produce a photo-ID to buy Sudaphed seems to outrage her far more than the miscarriage of justice in Jena.
It’s the quintessential glibertarian argument, really.
Showing ID to buy OTC medicine infringes upon the most Sacred and Holy Market, attempting to put limits on what The Market alone controls.
Civil rights are not really a market question, therefore automatically of less concern.
I mean, if African-Americans were really concerned about civil rights, they would have found a market-based solution to such problems by now, right?
Y’know, the sudaphed restrictions have had an interesting (semi) corporatist impact on the crank marketplace. Used to be a lot of little labs could turn out a couple ounces of crank at a time, just a couple guys, a day and a half of tweak and you’re in business for a week. These were thousands of little “mom and pop” operations that had their own clients, their own levels of quality and their own revenue streams.
When it became too dificult to acquire the sudaphed tablets that formed the basis for the reaction, the small local producers all had to shut down. But the market demand was still there, so the Latin American drug cartels (walmart in this scenario) simply set up large scale production in mexico and brought the crank in in large volumes.
So what was a small, semi-rural culture of production and consumption that supported itself now only creates wealth for the wealthiest of criminals, while expanding the market from a small community of cranksters to mainstream america. This is what’s being frantically hyped in the media as “The Meth Crisis™”
mikey
They’re just more efficient, mikey.
The Market is rewarding them for their production efficiency. That’s how The Market works. Who are we to question the wisdom of The Market?
Enervate? That’s either the most Freudian word choice possible or the nauseating, thieving little Frank Burns wannabe should’ve stolen a dictionary instead of a picture of a dead son from his father.
Man, makes you nostalgic for the good ol’ days of the small family crank lab, when Mom and Dad would send the kids round to the local drugstore on the weekend. The sweet, acrid scent of poisonous, explosive gases wafting through the air. Having your tooth fall out while eating corn-on-the-cob on the back porch, but it didn’t matter cause you were zooming like a sackful of hornets. Good times …
Holy god. These people are certifiably insane. The pseudo-tac language, the complete removal from reality, how he, oops!, left out that the bearer of the image was the SOLDEIR’S FATHER, WHO HE ASSAULTED.
Ooooohhh, those poor Eagles, had to go the the Hospital and get shots. Damn brownies, with their diseases.
This man is a psychotic liar, and the fact that his ass isn’t in jail right now is shameful.
Stealing that.
I like the comments from the guy who got bit, supposedly. OMG THAT ANIMAL BIT ME!!!
It’s just so savage! Certainly nothing like war, where the marines line up on opposite ends of the field and take turns shooting at each other, and when one side gives up they all go down to the pub and have a laff together.
Then of course there’s Fred Peterson, who thinks that stealing a grieving father’s picture of his son is some sort of heroic Rambo-esque rescue mission. Of course, in his defensive screed he never mentions that the picture was owned by the dead marine’s father, but eh, what’s that matter?
After all, like the other Seagulls point out, Arredono was simply being used by the left, since it’s entirely impossible for anyone to be anti-war simply because it’s stolen away their loved ones. No, some insidious mind control is at work! And who’s Arradono to say what his son might want? All he did was raise his son up from birth. The person who really knows what that dead marine would want is a man who never met him but happened to be in the corps, cuz all marines think alike, amirite?
This isn’t even good snark… sorry, it’s just too sickening.
Fred Peterson and his ilk are the real traitors. hey Fred, if you REALLY wanted to serve you country you would have died in Vietnam, we’d be better off without you.
tigrismus — “enervate”, right — right-wing idiots’ stupid linguistic mistakes are always so telling…
Additional Jena-related program activities:
From the SPLC’s Hatewatch blog.
How ’bout one of those purple heart bandaids for poor Peterson?
http://www.threetwoone.org/uggabugga/2004/bandage-purple-heart.gif
Wow, Fred Peterson is seriously disturbed. He’s describing how he’s openly stealing someone else’s personal property … but in his mind he’s liberating a kidnap victim.
It truly was a bizarre, disturbing read. I felt like I was reading some psychologist’s case files.
Um. And according to Peterson’s account, local law enforcement had no interest in protecting Carlos or his rights. I’d really hope that’s not the way it actually went….
mikey
Uh, I think we’d all better think twice before picking on McArdle again.
She’s packing heat.
Actually, what happened was, six black kids at the pharmacy were laughing at her for pitching a fit about being carded, so she went back to her car and retrieved her shotgun. Upon her return to the pharmacy, the black kids fell out laughing and McArdle called Yglesias for backup.
Yglesias was packing heat.
Details of what happened next are still trickling out, but I’m sure Wikipedia’s account will be authoritative.
mikey: I think the police did pretty well all around (w/ the whole event, not just this part) & at least were there fairly quickly to stop the beating, according to Mrs. Arredondo, though his actual property rights may not have been too well protected. Seems like no one really wanted to press charges, GofEs or Carlos. Probably more hassle than it would be worth, I’d bet the DA would have dismissed all charges anyway.
And if you look at the photos, at least one of the Smegmas (the one w/ the flag on a stick) seems to be restraining the asshole who looks like Sg’t. Slaughter. (Didn’t someone upthread refer to baldo as the Chief Eagle?)
I’m not sure we can believe anything Fred Boo-boo said, he seems to be in a fantasy world of his very own.
OK, I’m out of that silly Fire a Very Nice Woman Who Knows Exactly What She’s Talking About Blog as of several days ago. Now I know how all the RW pants-pissers feel when they’re confronted by, well, anyone.
Any further communication may be addressed to me at: undermybed@thesecretbunker.co.nz.
Seems like no one really wanted to press charges
Hmm. I guess. Maybe I come out of a weird, gray world where people don’t actually get to “press charges”, but in all my experience with law enforcement, nobody ever actually cared who wanted or didn’t want to “press charges”.
The cops were there. A bunch of people commited violent theft against a guy who had every right to be there, doing what he was doing. Somebody explain to me why LE can arrest people who ask uncomfortable questions at a political event, or wear contraversial tee shirts, but this is somehow ambiguous?
Bouffant, you’re a smart guy. I don’t know where you live. But if you think that street level law enforcement is going to be even handed, or even honest, you need to get out on the street and look at it again. Because it’s pretty clear who committed the crime. Making it muddy is just Rovian.
Carlos is not a poster child, and we’d really wish to have a much clearer, more perfect victim. But it’s never going to be that way. But rights are vanishing before our very eyes, and if you think that street level uniformed law enforcement is going to honestly arbitrate these disagreements, you’re going to be disappointed over and over again…
mikey
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a fairly scientific fighting style designed to inflict an amount of pain most people are unfamiliar with in quick order. It’s not only very useful in submission wrestling, but also excellent for self-defense. While the more advanced techniques can do quite a bit of permanent damage, a basic working knowledge of Brazilian will not only enable most people to take on a person of any size, armed or no and formally trained (in most other disciplines) or no, but also to force them to the ground and keep them rolling around there in agony for a little while without any serious trouble.
The idea is to force someone to (wrestling) submission without their input in the matter, and it’s pretty much custom-tailored to that. That’s part of why the UFC was, for the first few years, largely the Brazilians kicking everyone else’s ass.
In theory, if I knew it better, I don’t know if I’d be so happy about doing nothing while a bunch of fascist fatheads ganged up and flailed at a frail old burn victim. In fact, if I had the formal training necessary – something that would only take a couple of devoted months, such as one might have in a vacation or a few hours a weekend for a year or two – I would probably feel compelled to make them knock it off. While these sorts of people do talk a big game when it comes to weapons, most of them are too enamored of their penis-substituting handguns to bother with a knife, and have no idea to actually use a gun to defend themselves – not that a skilled BJJ ground-fighter is liable to get punched solidly before an untrained opponent goes down, let alone shot.
Of course, that’s just me thinking hypothetically. I’m not suggesting anything.
Heaven forbid.
Thanks, mikey, I’m at least a smart-ass. And I’ve lived in the belly of the beast, Los Angeles, CA, the city that pretty much invented “pro-active,” paramilitary policing, since 1973, in the “police terror” (as F. Zappa called it on the liner notes of the first Mothers album) centers of Hollywood, Silver Lake, & West Hollywood (which is under the jurisdiction of the L. A. County Sheriff’s Dep’t., and just because they sport khaki rather than the Gestapo dark blue of the LAPD, they’re no less strict). I’ve been a hippie, or long-haired, anyway, or a punk, or at least dressed pretty funny (natural targets for the heat) for a lot of those 34 yrs. And while I don’t get out like I used to, when I did I was drinking & smoking in public, etc., as well as just looking like a weirdo. A year ago August, I threatened someone w/ a gun in the privacy of my own apartment, & when the Sheriffs came to investigate I ran downstairs, still pissed & raging, in T-shirt & jeans, barefoot, & found several of those little red beads of light on my shirt, as well as hearing “Tase him.” So (pissed & raging or not) I had the good sense to go face down on the sidewalk, & ended up in the loony bin for a couple of weeks. The sheriffs probably could have put me in the criminal loony bin, but they didn’t. Not my only street level LE experience, just the most recent. And I’m not being forgiving of the D. C. police just because the LASD gave me the mental health option.
Neither of us really know what went on there, but the excerpts I posted (Whatta pimp!) from a right-wing asswipe, & from the wife of guy whose son, & then his son’s picture, were taken from him can be compared, & it doesn’t sound like the actual theft of the picture was violent. If the NR asshole is to be believed, Arredondo didn’t even know Boo-boo had taken it until it was pointed out to him, & while I do absolutely disbelieve Hemingway’s “liberal rage” narrative of Arredondo: “In a rage, Arredondo took off and tackled Peterson from behind at a full run,” even Mrs. A. says Carlos “leaped on the man to retrieve the picture.” Since people don’t usually “leap” on someone from the front, I think it’s likely Mr. Arredondo did get him from behind (and since Psycho Fred was walking away, how else was he going to do it?)
So that’s not going to look good when pressing charges. Of course, the big brave Eagles were trying to pick a fight: “A bystander named Ramesh witnessed the whole encounter and also retrieved the picture of Alex for Carlos. He was quite distressed at how he watched the men follow Carlos as he pulled the memorial, purposefully yelling epiphets and eventually taking Alex’s photograph.” And Arredondo gave them an excuse, flimsy as it is. My guess is that the cops were more interested in defusing the situation, especially at the end of a long, tiring day of people marching, emotions running high, angry Eagles spoiling for a fight, then honestly arbitrating the situation. And since the cops, not having witnessed the theft of the photo, couldn’t arrest anyone for it, charges would have to be pressed. It’s not like they took Arredondo away in cuffs, even though he was the victim here. Maybe some of those dirty commie pinkos who, according to the Eagles, are exploiting poor Carlos & financing his every move (I see the Hand of Soros in this!!) will help him sue some of those pricks. He’ll probably get more satisfaction from that than a day in criminal or misdemeanor court. Like I said, it’s the kind of thing most DAs would dismiss anyway. The monetary value (unfortunately the criteria) of Alex’s picture would make it petty theft at best, restitution & a few hours of freeway pick-up would probably be the sentence, upon conviction. A nice lawsuit to get some serious money & time wasted in court out of that Sg’t. Slaughter looking fuck, & maybe expose a little of the Eagles patriotism would be much more satisfying. I’ve seen more than one demo where someone’s poster is grabbed & ripped up (usually by those level-headed Men of the Right, no “rage” there, of course) & I doubt if any one’s ever been arrested, let alone prosecuted for it.
I’m not denying that the D.C. Police’s sympathies are more w/ the Seagulls than those on our side, I just don’t think the cops wanted to cart any one on either side off to jail in a confrontational situation like that, and probably convinced all parties that it just wasn’t worth it to press charges, certainly not then & there.
Aw-reet, another Saturday evening spent polishing my writing skills. Law School here I come!!
[…] that MoveOn.org thing: What sort of partisan thugs would condone a group that only days earlier had assaulted a Gold Star father um, […]
Not only is there almost no coverage by the corporate media of black violent crimes against white people, in high profile cases they proffer the black criminals as ‘real victims’.
To illustrate the bias of the corporate media, imagine if the facts were reversed – if a gang of six white kids led by someone with four previous convictions for violent-crime had attacked a lone black student, kicking and stomping him into unconsciousness. As far as the corporate media are concerned, they would be interviewing the black victim on every TV talk show across the land, discussing his fear, his pain, his suffering. They would be interviewing his crying relatives and friends. They would not be voicing any fear that the white attackers would be treated too harshly, or even that they would be treated at all.
No one knows who put up those nooses, but the people who lost out most from it were ‘white racists’.
Methinks this is all a wee too pat of a situation… No one in their right and thinking mind would ever be, “pro war”… It makes no sense…
Unless…
You work for or are somehow involved in, the military/industrial/info complex or, the government…
I believe the term is,
“agent(s) provocateur”…
And the police’s response to this crime of assault and battery, of which there are several videos? Nada. Zip. Zilch. (And at least one of the attackers has blogged about committing the attack!)
In a place where peace activists are routinely arrested for standing in one place for too long? Gimme a freakin break…
Granted, they did stop the assault, but the attackers not only did not get arrested, they were honored at the white house by our benevolent dictator guy!
This all stinks to high heaven, people… It smells of a new tactic by the psyops folk, to begin the programming of the already mind numbed masses of, “it’s ok to attack peace activists!”…
And it doesn’t look as if it will be too difficult to implement, what with the total non-defense of Carlos’ attack… Watch the videos that are all over youtube… Don’t watch the assault though, watch the people around the assault… Watch how many of them just raise their hands or shake their heads as they turn away from the assault! It’s not just sad, it is sickening to watch…
It will be very interesting to see how many more peace activists will be attacked in the coming months… And what, if anything is done to the attackers…
And whether or not there are criminal charges placed against the attackers, there is always the path of the civil court system…
Anymore attacks on anyone, much less peace activists, should be handled with zero tolerance…
This is all getting curiouser and curiouser…