Hundreds of Gadsen flag-waving citizens turned up at the Pershing Street address of the SEIU headquarters for a peaceful demonstration and press conference for Kenneth Gladney, the man who was videotaped being beaten by men wearing blue SEIU shirts in the parking lot following Rep. Russ Carnahan’s town hall on aging. Gladney suffered multiple injuries as a result and required hospitalization. He was released the following morning.
Gladney appeared in with his attorney, David Brown, and also brought a box of Gadsen flags to distribute. His attackers came at him for distributing the flags and hurled racial slurs; one woman arrested in the melee is on camera referring to his ethnicity pejoratively.
Several people, including myself, said a few words following Bill’s condemnation of Gladney’s treatment. Invitations were extended to the NAACP and ACLU to stand with us and decry violence as a means of debate; neither organization sent a representative.
Developing, video and more photos on the way.
Jim has some video of Gladney’s prepared statement:
Michelle has Bill’s comments and those of David Brown:
One of two counter-protestors, a nice college guy who, from where I was standing, was not unlike the folks brought into the Carnahan town hall; this one actually spoke with an elderly man about health care:
Compare Kenneth Gladney’s situation with that of Henry Louis Gates. So far, I haven’t heard the president come out and accuse the Mehlville police for acting “stupidly.”
Instead of issuing an apology, SEIU instead spent all night cobbling together a video, careful to omit their aggression and also the fact that one of their shirt-wearing people was arrested for assault.
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