Listening to Tucson Tea Party co-founder Trent Humphries complain to The Guardian about how his organization was being portrayed, I almost felt bad for him. He’s right that a lot of people jumped to conclusions about the motivations of the shooter and overstated the case against the Tea Party.
The local sheriff, Clarence Dupnik, quickly pointed the finger at the growing vitriol, hate and anger directed against the government on talk radio and by Tea Party supporters in Arizona, where Democrats and liberals from President Obama to Giffords are portrayed as enemies of the people, un-American or Nazis.
After the Sheriff made those comments, Humphries started receiving hate-mail. So, yeah, I could see where he was coming from when he pushed back a little. But now I see he chose to interject himself into a town hall meeting with the victims held by Christine Amanpour. And it wound up getting ugly with one of last week’s shooting victims [J. Eric Fuller] getting arrested for one count of threats and intimidation and probably one to be added for disorderly conduct.
The theme of the event was “An American Conversation Continued” — the idea being to continue the conversation that a madman’s brutal rampage had interrupted. So it was inevitable that the conversation would eventually turn to politics. It did, toward the end, with Amanpour leading a discussion on a very touchy but obvious topic: gun control.
That’s where the atmosphere turned tense. When Tucson Tea Party founder Trent Humphries rose to suggest that any conversation about gun control should be put off until after the funerals for all the victims, witnesses say Fuller became agitated. Two told KGUN9 News that Fuller finally rose, took a picture of Humphries, and said, “You’re dead.”
When State Rep. Terri Proud (R-Tucson) rose to explain and clarify current and proposed gun legislation in the state, several people groaned or booed her. One of those booing, according to several witnesses, was Fuller. Witnesses sitting near Fuller told KGUN9 News that Fuller was making them feel very uncomfortable.
The event wrapped up a short time later. Deputies then escorted Fuller from the room. As he was being led off, Fuller shouted loudly to the room at large. Several witnesses said that what they thought they heard him shout was, “You’re all whores!”
A Pima County Sheriff’s spokesman told KGUN9 News that they charged Fuller with one count of threats and intimidation, and said they plan to charge him with at least one count of disorderly conduct. Humphries told KGUN9 News that he does plan to press those charges.
Fuller can’t threaten people like that. It’s against the law. But if Humphries is really concerned about his reputation he should learn to shut his pie hole and stop inserting himself into the fault lines of the this debate.
Wow. It really is KGUN ..
My observation exactly. Yikes.
PTSD, anyone?
You aren’t suggesting we limit Humphries First Amendment rights to free speech are you? Or are you just asking he be more sensitive like the Ground Zero Mosque people were asked? š
Its a pretty scary world.
See Delay on with Matthews this week talking about how if he was still in Congress he’d be packing heat on the floor of Congress? And he’d feel safer if others did too.
He should shut his pie hole. Voluntarily, of course.
Boo, you say: if Humphries is really concerned about his reputation he should learn to shut his pie hole and stop inserting himself into the fault lines of the this debate.
but inserting himself in the faultlines is the strategy. it has been the GOP strategy for years.
I don’t expect him to follow my advice, but it would be nice if he would.
wait, so let me get this straight: Sarah Palin and her thugs get to put rifle sites on various state legislators and tell their partisans “don’t retreat, reload”, and one of their victims does the same thing back and it’s “incivil”?
See, where I come from that’s called “payback’s a bitch”, aka “reaping what you sow.”
Good on Fuller: his comment about “whores” is even more apt.
Yeah, where was Sarah Palin’s arrest warrant?
So sick of US politics these days…
as you may have seen at my place, outside of dropping inflamatory threads at facebook, I’m pretty done with this nonsense.
You have no idea how much happier I am now that I don’t pay as much attention.
and let me add that at last summer’s health care town hall in Philly, some scary-ass tea party bikers were trying to intimidate participants by taking photos of us, as if they were going to use them against us later or seek us out.
guess it’s okiyar…
I don’t blame him for getting pissed off, but he can’t threaten to kill the guy. That’s rather obvious.
sure he can. read the comments below. All sorts of people get away with threats of violence all the time.
the difference here is that it’s the right wing in the cross-hairs, and we can’t have THEM be the target, can we? When it’s Trent Humphries and Sarah Palin using violent inciteful rhetoric, it’s just political speech. Some poor MF who actually served in the military gets shot in the knees and is pissed that someone who’s got dirty hands doesn’t want to talk about gun control? Well, that’s off limits, beyond the pale.
either apply the rule consistently, or don’t apply it at all. Maybe Jesus turned the other cheek, but most people aren’t Jesus.
Fuller can’t threaten people like that. It’s against the law.
Merely saying, “You’re dead,” in a heated moment does not meet the legal definition of an intimidating threat. Fuller was not holding a weapon at the time of his outburst nor did he add, “I’m gonna kill you.” There has to be some evidence that he intended to cause actual harm to Humphries.
I really don’t blame Fuller for getting pissed off. He made it all the way thru a military career without getting shot then gets ambushed at his local Safeway. Having a hate-radio jock jump up and declare gun control off limits in the discussion tapped into the rage he was already feeling.
I wonder how many times Humphries has yelled “hate” and “kill” during one of his radio programs. Maybe a listener should charge him with intimidation.
dollar says Humphries has never served a day in his life.
Actually, taking a picture of someone and saying “you’re dead” is very clearly a violation of the law. It some jurisdictions it is called a terroristic threat.
link
I don’t think this man should be charged, considering the circumstances. He should get counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Sure, you can threaten people every day if you want to. As long as your views fall on the “right side” of the issues.
I’m about to go the route of brendan and just say “enough”. It’s just plain bullshit.
Oh, and in the days following Boehner’s hilarious remark, we got this:
Tea Partiers and Ms. Sarah of Wasilla, please explain to me, once again, why it’s not fair to be talking about vitriol and words having consequences? Oh, that’s right. We just can’t take a fucking joke.
Nowhere in this post or in the Guardian article does it mention that Mr. Fuller was shot in the knees. It just says he was a victim, which these days could mean anything.
With that in mind, it makes Fuller’s outburst all the more understandable and sympathetic. Here he is with his knees all shot up by a guy who (among other things) is blathering about gold standard currency and government mind control (two prominent right wing tropes), while Humphries, who’s featured in the guardian article saying this:
..goes around BLAMING THE VICTIMS and saying that he (Humpries) is a victim too?? I’d lose my temper too.
You reap what you sow: Humphries and his ilk encouraged a violent atmosphere in Arizona, and now that a bunch of people got killed, they don’t want to own up to it. I suspect that, combined with the bullet to the knees, was the final straw for Fuller.
Well, you are a better person than me for feeling sorry for him because I think Trent Humphries is getting exactly what he deserves. He whines about a conspiracy to destroy the Tea Party and silence criticism of government when his Tea Party is in fact a conspiracy hatched by the billionaire babies to stir the pot of violence and hatred for political power gain. I don’t really care if Trent Humphries is a stooge or just ignorant. On second thought, maybe we can help with the ignorant part. I’m talking about the basic definition of violent rhetoric. Read the article:
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/01/what-is-violent-rhetoric#more-18397
Now with a better understanding of how this works, Trent Humphries can stop with the false equivalencies such as “The Democrats are using this opportunity to bludgeon their opponents,” and “Giffords owns guns,” and “finds a picture of Giffords brandishing an AK-47 several years ago,” and “You have President Obama telling a rally that we punish our enemies. You have him saying things like: if they bring a knife, we bring a gun.” When it comes to actual real violent rhetoric, the candidate his organization supported in the last election, Jesse Kelly, a former marine who served in Iraq, published a controversial campaign advert which included the lines: “Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.”
So Trent Humphries, how is this working out for the computer company you run? Have you noticed any protesters with pictures of gun sight targets on your company or organized efforts to get your customers to do business elsewhere, the sort of thing Haley Barbour would do?
I am the most disgusted with his statement, “So if she lived under a constant fear of being targeted, if she lived under this constant fear of this rhetoric and hatred that was seething, why would she attend an event in full view of the public with no security whatsoever?” Maybe Trent Humphries is upset now because he and his family are feeling some of that terror. Maybe now he can understand what a dangerous game the tea party is playing to stir the pot of hate and violence for political gain.
Trent Humphries accuses the Democrats of using the killings fallout to destroy the Tea Party and silence criticism of government. The truth is the Democrats are more like the ACLU where we may disagree with what you say but will defend your right to say it. When you go over the line, we cannot help you with public disgust. Maybe the public is finally disgusted with the tea party stirring the pot of violence and hatred for political gain. That disgust is what will destroy the Tea Party.
We do need to assign blame for this tragedy. This problem exists because treatment for mental illness is viewed as a waste of money, no real method to make sure mentally ill people are denied access to guns, the gun show loophole and allowing anyone to have an extended clip with 30 rounds of ammunition. Anyone who opposes fixing this problem should receive directly all the blame for this tragedy.
Late update:
“The man Fuller is accused of threatening, Tucson Tea Party co-founder Trent Humphries, said he was worried about the threat, and the dozens of other angry e-mails he has received.”
“I had nothing to do with the murders that happened or the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords,” Humphries said. “And I wonder, if he (Fuller) is crazy or is he the canary in a coal mine? Is he saying what a lot of other people are holding in their hearts? If so, that’s a problem.”
It seems Trent Humphries is maybe finally starting to understand the consequences of Tea Party violent rhetoric on a personal level
There are apparently some people who sincerely believe that the Democrats are trying to turn the US into Germany, circa Hitler or the USSR. Here is an article from the Tuscon Citizen that I would say is pretty reasonable but read the comments. People who would seem to be fairly intelligent and educated also seem to be extremely paranoid when it comes to anyone from ‘the left’. I am concerned that the irrational talk is heading toward another spell of McCarthyism!
http://tucsoncitizen.com/view-from-baja-arizona/2011/01/13/the-link-between-hate-speech-and-violence
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Best possible plea for the guy, “Temporary sanity.”