Prior to the debate between Conway and Paul, several Rand Paul supporters pulled a woman with a Moveon sign to the ground then one stomped on her head. Paul has NOT called for their arrest. Police have not made arrests. Right wing commenters are suggesting that it was an act, or that, because she wore a wig, she might have been a threat, and the assaults were justified.
The Louisville Courier Journal reported, "Lauren Valle of MoveOn.org approached Paul and tried to give him an "employee of the month award" from Republicorp...a fake business MoveOn created to symbolize what it says is the merger of the GOP and business interests controlling political speech."
Images from the youtube video show the man who assaulted her and wrestled her to the ground, then the man who aided in wrestling her to the ground then stepped on her head.
Violent assailants at work. No police arrests were made.
Bluebluegrass.com has this image of the man who wrestled her to the ground.
Update! The assailant, above, has been tentatively identified as Mike Pezzano, according to intoxination.
Lauren Valle told Louisville TV station WDRB that she was trying to give Paul, the GOP nominee who is backed by the Tea Party movement, a fake award when his supporters wrestled her to the ground. Her blonde wig was pulled off and one person stepped on her head as she tried to give Paul a fake award.
The Associated Press says Paul's campaign released a statement calling the altercation "incredibly unfortunate" and expressed relief that the woman was not injured.
Valle told WDRB that Paul's supporters "weren't very nice to me" and said she has a headache.
Paul's campaign said in its statement that "Violence of any kind has no place in our civil discourse and we urge supporters on all sides to be civil to one another as tensions rise heading toward this very important election."
ThinkProgress.org reports,
MoveOn Executive Director Justin Ruben released this statement earlier today:
We're appalled at the violent incident that occurred at the Kentucky Senate debate last night. Numerous news reports clearly show that the young womana MoveOn supporterwas assaulted and pushed to the ground by Rand Paul supporters, where one man held her down while another stomped on her head. This kind of violence has no place in American society, much less at a peaceful political rally.
Our first concern is obviously Lauren's health and well being. She is recovering, and we will release more details as we have them. We are concerned that no arrests have yet been made, and we hope those responsible will be brought to justice quickly, and that Rand Paul will join us in condemning this horrible act.
This incident marks the second time in less than two weeks that supporters of a Tea Party candidate physically restrained a person to prevent them from confronting their preferred candidate -- although Joe Miller's (R-AK) private security force did not engage in such a brutal display of violence in order to prevent their candidate from being asked an embarrassing question.
A local Kentucky news site, kypost.com reported that the police claim the woman said she tripped and fell.
Prison Planet reported, " The Paul campaign itself was not involved and expressed regret and concern for the incident."
Comments on various sites:
" if she is not stop then she tackle Rand Paul and your headline becomes "Rand Paul tackled" you don't know if that was a gun, or a knife or a cream pie "
Looks like a set up to me that women was laughing as this was happening to her. Looks can be decieving, and why would she wear a wig to hide whom she is.
She was a plant so who is to say the guy to kicked her wasn't a plant also? Democrats are so evil I would not put it by them. Democrats will do nothing to stop their National Socialist Agenda. BTW, it is amazing how many liberal tools want to call the Republicans NAZI's when it is the Democrats that are the national socialists . You liberals don't like to get your azzz kicked don't be running up on Candidates like that she deserved what she got ,,,, Typical Liberal ..... I was just robbing this guy and he knocked my teeth out for no reason .... it's all his fault.
wow... once again the old, fat, ignorant, tea-bagging white men show their cowardliness and absence of intelligence. The guy stomping on her head belongs in prison
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