Let me get this straight.
An elected official, after a speech, is bum rushed by a liberal political activist attempting to throw things in her face. The perpetrator is let go without any negative consequences and proceeds to do a rhetorical victory lap, mocking her victim before the assembled media.
Meanwhile, some ordinary citizen engages in a heated argument over politics with a growing mob and the guy ends up in the jug, charged with a misdemeanor?
My characterization of the arrested party come from the evidence of the incident detailed in the City Pages. And you should take even these accounts with a grain of salt, as the CP is in its typical mode of transcriptionist for the side of any story that sounds too good to check for their political agenda:
… 52-year-old Gilmore -- who suddenly approached the trio and said the name, "Ayan Hersi Ali." Ali is a vocal, female critic of Islam. The three women tried to brush him off, saying they did not want to debate with him.And that, according to cops and witnesses, is when Gilmore became belligerent, taking photos of the women, and demanding to know why they were in the U.S. Geschiere says when she asked him to stop taking their photo, things only escalated."He started saying things like, 'This is America, welcome to America, this is the western world,'" says Geschiere. "So I immediately retorted like, 'Dude, we all grew up in America.'"As bystanders started to intervene, the shouting ramped up, and Gilmore started pacing around the crowd and yelling "Andrew Breitbart -- hello!" into his phone. That was the first time, says witness and visiting Netroots Nation-attendee Matt Glazer, that he realized they man was a conservative."He made it sounds like he was about to hurt people, so then that's when I called the police," says Glazer.Police arrested him after he threatened a bystander and wandered away into The News Room bar.
The City Pages articles includes some YouTube video showing parts of the confrontation, but none of the specific allegations listed above are documented. So it's possible they never happened as described. But, if they did, certainly, Gilmore said stupid, wrong, hurtful things. But was it illegal?
And alleged "threats" from some old, skinny, pale dude facing a mob is enough to warrant a call to the police and an arrest? Especially in light of the free pass received by the chick who assaulted Bachmann? Not to mention the mob that escaped scot free after descending on Andrew Breitbart, falsely accusing him of complicity in this incident, shouting stupid, hurtful, wrongful things, and threatening him by saying he would be "dealt with".
Mayor RT Rybak addressed a respectful audience at the Right On Line Conference Friday afternoon, ending with something to the effect of: You may think conservatively, but spend liberally in Minneapolis!"
He should have added a reminder to lay back and take assaults conservatively as good natured horseplay and keep a liberal lid on your own speech, or you might get arrested for it. Now go out there and buy stuff to help out with our sales tax revenue!
