Remember this nonsense:
It took a St. Louis County jury less than 50 minutes to return a not guilty verdict in the assault trial featuring Kenneth Gladney and two union members who were charged with attacking him outside a two hall event during the tumultuous summer of 2009.
The altercation itself was regrettable and was over almost before it began: the type of heated scuffle that happens countless times everyday in this crowded country, and everyday people move on with their lives.
But because this particular clash was captured on tape, and because Tea Party members went bonkers hyping it, and because right-wing media carnival barkers like Dana Loesch and Andrew Breitbart operate with no moral compass, the Gladney story blew up overnight and became a (demented) cause celebre among hardcore conservatives who hatched a weird fantasy about run-away union violence in America, not withstanding what was captured on the Gladney tape.
It’s difficult to capture just how madly the right-wing media overreacted to this story, doing its best to blow it up into a seismic, Rodney King-type of event. Fox New aired at least 20 segments mentioning Gladney, according to Nexis. Glenn Beck obsessed over the story. Breitbart penned a “I Am Kenneth Gladney” column in solidarity for the Washington Times. And CNN’s Lou Dobbs played dumb on the massive scale while hosting Gladney.
In the end, all the right-wing press had to show for their efforts were not guilty verdicts stemming from misdemeanor charges.
Indeed, the glaring problem with the Gladney tale was that rather than being savagely beaten and kicked, which is how right-wing bloggers breathlessly relayed the “brutal” tale, if you watched the videotape, Gladney appeared unharmed from the one or two seconds he was on the ground. He quickly sprang to his feet and was seen calmly discussing the aftermath of the scuffle with a police officer. (It was actually one of the “union thugs” who suffered a fractured shoulder during the dust-up.)
Someone ready some thorazine for Dana Loesch and Jim Hoft.
Tom Hilton
Jim Hoft, who couldn’t pass a Turing Test with 6 months of Kaplan and a 50-point bonus, had a headline yesterday saying “SEIU thugs cleared”. Um…if they’ve been cleared, then doesn’t that kind of make them not thugs?
Just asking…
Dave
It took the jury all of 40 minutes to return the verdict.
someguy
Somebody needs to hire those two guys and send them to some other tea party protests.
Chris
Wait… no, I actually don’t remember this, Wikipedia yields no clue on the subject, and Google mostly links to right wing websites talking about how union thugs beat and hospitalized a guy.
If it’s not too much trouble… what happened?
gocart mozart
30 minutes for introductions and to pick a foreman and then a quick vote ;)
Han's Solo
This kind of thing is why I don’t worry about the Right’s reaction should the DOJ go after Fox.
Will the Right poop its pants? Yes, of course they will. But look at them, they’ve had a loaded underwear hammock for decades. They’ve become the boy that cried wolf.
Dennis SGMM
I take it as a given that Gladney has given up his wheelchair. I further take it as a given that now that his usefulness as a prop is over it’s “Kenneth who?” with the wingers.
Chris
Okay, never mind. Found enough of the story that it seems the appropriate conclusion is this quote from Boondock Saints:
“It was a fucking bar fight! You guys are fucking p***ies!”
The case hasn’t gotten as much attention as all that, and I suspect most wingnuts will simply conclude “liberal activist judges” and go on convinced that Gladney endured a savage crucifixion for his faith.
gocart mozart
A brief scuffle followed by much rendering of garments and fake outrage or as they refer to it in winguttia, a typical news day.
Davis X. Machina
@Dave: Did they stay out just long enough to have the county buy lunch? I was on a jury once that did that….
gocart mozart
Wasn’t Gladney pretending to be so injured because of the incident that he had to be in a wheelchair? What happened with that?
Davis X. Machina
Band name. Three band names, actually: LW, UH, and LUH…..
What do I know, though? It wasn’t until they broke up that I found out that Sleater-Kinney didn’t have guys in it named ‘Sleater’ and ‘Kinney’….
Dave
@ 10 – Davis X. Machina
I don’t know. But if I had to listen to this B.S. case, I would have made sure to get a meal out of it.
gocart mozart
How long before they start calling Rupert Murdock a liberal?
jwest
Didn’t someone pass a law that said mobs shouldn’t beat black people?
El Cid
Activist judges!
joeyess
I had a little twitter-to-do with Dana last night.
That her response to this tweet.
Of course I had to respond. It was like catnip,again and again
gocart mozart
Stay on topic jwest. We’re talking about Kenneth Gladney.
Han's Solo
OT:
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) writes:
Chris
Yeah. And you guys called it government overreach.
Martin
Activist juries! This and Anthony prove that the courts can’t be trusted, and all suspected criminals should face field executions.
/wingnut
jwest
Gocart Mozart,
I’m sorry, isn’t the topic the fact that union thugs were found not guilty of beating a black man? I assume there are laws against that.
There are laws against mothers killing their children and hiding their bodies, but juries also let them off too.
gene108
FTFY.
Right-wing media got some mileage out of the incident. That’s all they needed from it.
They just needed to get some guys, who might be sympathetic to factory workers and other blue collar types, to start thinking about them as “Union Thugs” and not working class Americans.
It worked.
It took the notion that people in Unions are lazy and have an entitlement mentality, when it comes to work and wages and kicked it up a notch by now sticking the thug label on them.
Since we all know unions have a long history of working with the mafia, I think a lot of people weren’t surprised the “SEIU Union Thugs” were using mafia like tactics across America in townhall meeting after townhall meeting, in 2009.
The facts on the ground, especially 2 years later, mean nothing.
How frothy the right-wing nuts get whipped up, at this very moment, by the right-wing media wurlitzer is all that matters.
They got their mileage out of it in 2009 and 2010 and 2011, with the union bashing bills floating around many states.
What happens 2 years later is irrelevant.
Scott
jwest: Crazy thing, but you don’t get to jail someone for something they didn’t do.
trollhattan
It just goes to show, foot-on-head-on-curb is the prefered method for dealing with rabble, also, too.
Has Rand Paul given that guy a staff position yet?
kay
Conservative bloggers and media personalities wasted two years of city resources on a trumped-up incident that ended with a misdemeanor charge, and an aquittal on even that.
She doesn’t have a jury set up or a courtroom. That’s because she’s a municipal prosecutor, and this is a minor charge. The defendants demanded a jury trial (which they’re entitled to if there’s any chance of incarceration) and she had to borrow the whole apparatus from the county.
Conservative activists and media personalities owe the people who live there some money, and everyone who had anything to do with this in that town knows it. Two years.
Stop wasting our time and money with your dumb-ass wholly political PR campaigns. That’s not what courts are for.
BGinCHI
Hoft needs to just leave these poor people alone.
After all, they don’t go to where he works and knock the dicks out of his mouth.
Svensker
Which fact? That the union people are thugs? This is a fact? You know this how?
Do you think they were guilty? If so, why did the jury find them not guilty, in under an hour?
If you have any facts, please present them. Assertions and smears, line up at the right.
jwest
Gocart Mozart,
Also, while trying desperately to stay on topic, I’m intrigued by the “brief scuffle” remark.
What is the approximate time range that future mobs can beat on black people without fear of conviction? Is it a combination of time and intensity? If you just smack him around instead of pounding on him, can you get away with doing it longer?
I don’t believe the argument you’ve made has been used since the early ‘60s, but it’s a safe bet that the Klan will be linking to you to help justify their actions.
BGinCHI
Stop feeding the stupid troll.
WereBear
This won’t be covered on Fox News. So it won’t happen.
Anyone starting a petition drive or anything? Nudge the DOJ to investigate Fox? I’m in.
Scott
Let us no longer feed the racist and morals-bereft troll, por favor.
Citizen_X
Oh what, kay, like the GOP would start all kinds of Major Drama over a routine act like raising the debt limit, then pass it anyway? Like they would campaign against lightbulb efficiency laws that they themselves passed and signed? Please be serious.
Ash Can
@kay: It’s never a waste of public money when 1) it’s used to advance their ideology, and 2) it’s someone else’s tax money in the first place.
kay
The charge should have been a tipoff, jwest. Conservative bloggers and media personalities sold you a load of crap.
Next time, read the newspaper yourself, it’ll save you two years.
They charge is an “ordinance violation”. The only reason there was a trial at all was because there’s a (remote) possibility of incarceration. They went all the way to trial because they didn’t want to even give conservatives the satisfaction of a plea to disorderly and a fine.
joeyess
@jwest:
I’m not even going to bother with the acronym.
Shut the fuck up, you asshole.
gocart mozart
See “King, Rodney, re: beating” for an important precedent.
jwest
Kay,
So the union thugs were beating on this guy in a “No Black Beating Zone”?
joeyess
@Werebear: ayup
gbear
OT: MillerCoors bites the dust in MN:
Enhanced Voting Techniques
ACTIVIST JURY!!
Did we elect that jury? NO!!!
You know who else relied on the courts to acquit his thugs?
HITLER!
jwest
Svensker,
“Do you think they were guilty? If so, why did the jury find them not guilty, in under an hour?”
There are hundreds of examples of juries acquitting thugs for violence against blacks. I feel like Atticus Finch explaining how things are to Scout.
kay
I love the dramatic language on the Right wing sites. This was the trial of the century, apparently.
They’re idiots. It’s exactly the same as the insane dentist-lawyer in California. Now courts are just one more Right wing media newsroom, “on remote”. They don’t just cover trials, conservative media, they create them. There’s no line between creating news and reporting news. They do both.
kay
jwest, you got played. Next time, just look at the charge and ignore conservative media personalities. The “beating” you are insisting occurred isn’t a violation of an ordinance, it’s a felony, so that means you’re way off. Again, you could have saved a lot of time and anguish, had you just read the newspaper.
Linda Featheringill
From TPM:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/murray-to-gop-threatening-seniors-social-security-checks-is-frightening.php?ref=fpb
I hadn’t thought of doing that. Thanks for the idea, Cornyn!
It probably won’t happen but the very idea of it brought a smile to my lips.
jwest
Gocart Mozart,
“…we can’t tell who or how the fight started…”
How many times do you think juries in 1960 Mississippi heard this line? As you apparently believe, it’s perfectly understandable that the lone black man would attack the group of large white men.
Why, you know how they just can’t control themselves.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
jwest @
Maybe the conservatives should take it to the streets and demand NO PEACE IF NO JUSTICE like they famously did with Rodney King.
Meanwhile at what income level does blackman become a REAL American?
Bubblegum Tate
@ Tom Hilton:
Well, yes, if you’re sticking to the actual definition of the word “thug.” But that’s not what wingnuts mean when they use the word; it’s just a necessary term for them. All union members are thugs in WIngnuttia because being in a union by definition means you are thuggish. It’s like how the WWE calls its wrestlers “superstars” regardless of their actual superstar status (or lack thereof).
Gustopher
Someday, when we turn the real Union Thugs out, the right wing will look at this incident with fondness and nostalgia for their own naivete.
Live in fear, right wing! Live in fear! The Union Thugs are coming!
tbogg
One of the “attackers” of Gladney was a black man, a minister at that.
Do try to keep up. Moron.
Chris
To be more precise, unions have a history of turning to the only available people when they’re getting shot by their bosses and the authorities supposedly there to enforce the law either join in or look the other way. Thus joining a long line of people who sought help outside the law because the law itself wasn’t doing its job.
Once they got a fair hearing from the government (1930s and after), a lot of unions got out from under the mob’s wings fairly quickly. As I recall, Republicans were desperately investigating Walter Reuther in the 1950s for even a hint of corruption or malfeasance, and couldn’t find a damn thing anywhere.
(No doubt that’s just proof that the thug was REALLY Mafia tied, because if you can’t find any evidence that’s just further proof of the conspiracy. Or something).
Oh, and fuck the Mafia, and all other organized criminals, but to be fair, not all of them can be licensed criminals like the Pinkertons.
Bubblegum Tate
I have to admit, I do find it funny when wingnuts pretend to care about Black people.
kay
It was the prosecutors first and only jury trial. Ahem. Any of this starting to come clear to you yet? Just an inkling that perhaps the extent of this crime was dishonestly portrayed by Glenn Beck?
Chris
@ Gustopher,
It’s always entertained me how they manage to simultaneously believe that we’re dainty, faggy pansies who’ve never had the balls to throw a punch in our lives, and terrifying hardened “thugs” who would rape and kill them all if we had even the slightest chance.
Svensker
Odd, you don’t look like Atticus.
So you think the union guys were definitely guilty? Based on what? And that the jury was prejudiced against blacks? Based on what?
13th Generation
@Kay
Kay, you can’t reason with someone when they have their fingers in their ears going NAH NAH NAH NAH I can’t hear you!
Good effort, though.
Chris
Good LORD. That’s certainly something the Glenn Beck types were careful to omit when describing the whole scene as a racist union lynch mob.
So to recapitulate, “a large crowd” means two people, “a white crowd” means half of it was black, “a beating” means a fight in which the only person seriously injured was one of the alleged beaters. Am I going to need a Newspeak-to-English dictionary every time one of those trolls opens his mouth?
kay
Oh, thank you. I’m just playing around with him. I (personally) think they’re all rattled and nervous over the spectacular Murdoch implosion plus their complete and utter capitulation on fiscal conservatism, so I’m enjoying that on my lunch hour :)
jwest
Tbogg,
“One of the “attackers” of Gladney was a black man…”
That explains it. Gladney, a small businessman who was advocating for smaller government, lower taxes and less regulation was perceived as being a traitor to his race by the black union thug.
How could anyone fault him for delivering the beating Gladney so richly deserved?
Ash Can
@Bubblegum Tate:
I know. Isn’t it precious?
Shorter jwest: LOOKIT ME EVERYBODY IM NOT A RACIST IM NOT A RACIST IM NOT A RACIST AND ALL OF YOU ARE BECAUSE I SAY SO HAHAHAHAHA
quannlace
Damn, at least a sandwich!
Chyron HR
Total time for j “Atticus Finch” west to start ranting about “black thugs”: 68 minutes.
Dennis SGMM
Chris
You have to admit, “HAH! You people are racist TOO!!!” is a much easier trick than actually trying to convince the public that your side isn’t racist.
Someone’s mommy never taught them that “other people do it too” isn’t a defense even when it’s true.
Svensker
OK, that tears it. Jwest = DougJ. Spoof troll! (If you’re not a spoof troll/DougJ and are serious, then you need to be careful anytime you walk by someone holding a graham cracker and some chocolate because they’ll be making S’mores out of your brain in a NY minit.)
Ash Can
@Chris: I’d love to see this fine Champion of Black People’s Causes show up in the comment thread of one of ABL’s posts on racism. It’d be like watching a matchup between Tunch and a sardine.
ETA @Svensker: This crossed my mind too, if only because of the sheer over-the-top hilarity of that last comment. I know troll-feeding is frowned upon, but I can’t help it; this one is making me laugh.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Chris #63:
With the added bonus of making it harder for real victims of actual racism to obtain justice by clouding the air with chaff.
I’m Brian of Nazareth, and so is my wife!
bemused
gbear@39
Thanks for the heads up. I don’t drink any of those but I will send this on to people who do.
I’m thinking there will be a lot of people calling their legislators when they can’t buy their favorite brew, people that have never called one in their whole lives.
The Moar You Know
I know that jwest’s side has never considered the following, but they really should: if they push the good working class of this nation any further into the abyss, they may actually get to experience real union thugs. You think this was an act of violence?
I’d submit if that’s the case you don’t know what an act of violence is.
Chris
You just uncovered one of the central truths about the average conservative voter. One that largely explains why their rhetoric is so over-the-top and completely divorced from reality.
Dennis SGMM
@The Moar You Know
Haymarket, Pullman, Rouge River…
Bubblegum Tate
It’s like how they simultaneously believe that Obama is a empty-suit/puppet as well as a brutal, tyrannical dictator.
General Stuck
Everybody relax. Bloody Bill has this and makes some lemonade sweetened with today’s delivery of wingnut Zen.
Man, that is deep. So the good news is it is today, instead of yesterday. They say time heals all wounds and turns morons into geniuses. Well, not really, that last part. But one day is kind of short notice for the wounds to scab over.
Especially, when today and tomorrow will be run by these folks according to Kristol.
Whew! Finally, shit will be back in the protective bosom of wizards like Michelle Bachmann, and the rest of the tea tard gang, to rescue republicans from doing stupid shit.
There is more to the deep well of Bloody Bill’s wisdomery.
That will be like giving the Three Stooges their own hospital to perform brane surgery without a license. What could possibly go wrong.
The problem the wingnuts have, is a failure to understand they only control 1/3 of the legislative three legged stool. and wonder why they keep falling over. If they had the senate, then they could do these power politics with Obama and have some chance of more success, though limited by their limitless stupidity. But as it is, leading with their chin, and a planetary size sense of entitlement, pretty much melts into irrelevance with the cold hard numbers of the sausage maker. It doesn’t know that Obama is black and stealing the white man’s country. And it doesn’t care about republican butthurt. It just is, and has certain requirements to be used successfully by one party or another, and hissy fits will get you nowhere. But that is proportional to how much of it they control. With the WH, and its veto power mostly ruling the roost.
Svensker
As well as, the U.S. DOES NOT torture! How dare you say that! Besides those damn Mooslins deserve to be tortured because otherwise we’ll all die, so damn right we torture!
I really should get to work, shouldn’t I? Where’s the Caribbean beach when I need it?
Joel
@troll:
Gladney’s race is basically irrelevant. The guy is pure clownshoes. Frankly, the only people who should be delivering his beatings are Larry and Moe. Of course he is emblematic of the entire clownshoes conservative movement, right up to this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezUrzdTWsDY
EconWatcher
Kay, I say this will all respect: as a front-pager, you especially should not be feeding the troll. I know troll-feeding is a tradition around here and all, but we need some leadership on the issue.
ArchPundit
==That explains it. Gladney, a small businessman who was advocating for smaller government, lower taxes and less regulation was perceived as being a traitor to his race by the black union thug.
Is small businessman the name we use for guy hired to sell buttons by con artist who turned into his lawyer later? Gladney was hired by a clown who sells buttons and other political trinkets to both conservatives and liberals. The clown then took Gladney for a ride trying to make the incident into a money making opportunity for both.
Now, the jury that saw the evidence didn’t say that there wasn’t a fight, it said that McCowan and Molens were not guilty of the charge. Given some accounts claimed Gladney slapped McCowan first, this seems to be a reasonable decision.
Ben Cisco
@General Stuck: Damn, that is some stupid shit. How does this man not fall down every flight of stairs he approaches?
ArchPundit
==Gladney’s race is basically irrelevant. The guy is pure clownshoes.
This is pretty much right. Gladney showed up to the ‘rally’ in front of the SEIU HQ after this in a wheelchair. There was nothing to suggest he was hurt that bad. However, now he is walking around in a neck brace which he didn’t have after the incident a couple years ago almost now.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Clearly this and the verdict in Flordia v. Anthony are all the proof we need that American justice system is completely corrupt!1
/fReichtard.
$50 says at least one wingnut attempts to conduct counter-intelligence on the jury members.
burnspbesq
Juries have a tendency to get it right.
Bender
Finally! Balloon Juice stands up for the rights of 6’4″ 250-lbs. Union Goons to beat down 5′ 6″ black people selling flag pins!
Standing up for The Little Guy!
Bender
You got that right!
Love,
Orenthal
jwest
Bender,
Let’s not be unfair here.
Balloon Juice supports violence against anyone who doesn’t think as they do, regardless of race, religion or national origin.
That’s the American Way.
Davis X. Machina
@The Moar You Know: It’s a long list. Just this week, Lawyers, Guns and Money has had commemorations for the confrontations at Bisbee, Arizona in 1917, and Homestead PA in 1892.
ArchPundit
==Finally! Balloon Juice stands up for the rights of 6’4” 250-lbs. Union Goons to beat down 5’ 6” black people selling flag pins!
You forgot elderly and disabled for McCowan, but that might be inconvenient for you.
Tony J
You know the butt is hurt unto bleeding and flaky scabs when the trolls turn up.
Oh, they do not like the way this looks. Not a little bit. Time for some TV-trained wingninja to carve an O on Gladney’s face and give the brethren an excuse to scream “Reprisal!” at the top of their lungs.
Chris
And you know it’s REALLY hurt when they start calling in sock puppets for reinforcements.
Bubblegum Tate
Is it just me, or is everybody who willingly gives themselves the title of “pundit” a total fucking idiot?
Tony J
Chris,
I know, it’s like “Taking one for the team” is all they can hope for out of life.
“We held that hill. And though it fell, in our hearts we hold it still. Inviolate. Unchanged. Truthy.”
Mummy should have held them more, Daddy somewhat less. But that’s not where they are.
Tony J
Bubblegum Tate,
All the people in that self-selecting group certainly seem to qualify, so no, it’s not just you.
Nom de Plume
Not difficult at all, given some of the reactions we’re seeing in this very thread. Lots of “A black man was beaten!” nonsense, which is in direct contradiction to what can clearly be seen on the tape, which is why the jury probably rolled their eyes at each other and played charades for 39 minutes before they got around to voting.
What’s difficult to overstate is just how accomplished wingnuts are at ignoring evidence that is right in front of their faces.
ArchPundit
===Is it just me, or is everybody who willingly gives themselves the title of “pundit” a total fucking idiot?
Did I do something to piss you off?
Chet
@ Chris (#53):
In the wingnut mind, the Dems are an hourglass coalition with latte-sipping metrosexual elitists (and/or Jews) on top and scary black/brown/poor people below. Clearly, the idea is that the fomer outsource their dirty work to the latter.
Rathskeller
Chet::
Actually, that’s explicitly part of the Turner Diaries. Evil, semitic thugs are the brains and black men are the brawn as they tear away guns and rights from the righteous white men. It’s like all the racist caricatures at once.
Chris
But then, which is Obama? He’s a latte-sipping metrosexual elitist, clearly…
… but… but… but… but… HE’S BLECK!!
Chris
Alternate Eighties movie reference;
“White men! White women! The swastika is calling you. The sacred and ancient symbol of your race, since the beginning of time. The Jew is using The Black as muscle against you. And you are left there helpless. Well, what are you going to do about it, Whitey? Just sit there? Of course not! You are going to join with us. The members of the American Soçialist White Peoples’ Party. An organization of decent, law abiding white folk. Just like you!”
“Illinois Nazis. I hate Illinois Nazis.”
Bubblegum Tate
@ Arch Pundit:
You know what? My bad, and my apologies. I didn’t realize that you were quoting a troll with the line about “the rights of union goons to beat down people selling flag pins,” and I thought you were in the Gateway Pundit/Instapundit vein.
ArchPundit
LOL–I actually chose pundit years ago–I’ve been blogging for 10 years and it was sort of ironic at the time. Now, you aren’t so wrong. I was just confused what I’d done to piss people off.
Royston Vasey
@chris 97.
Yay! Blues Brothers!