There is a lie being perpetrated on the Internet. Hard to believe, but it’s true.
The left has put the propaganda engine on overdrive in its attempt to smear the right as racists. The lie is that some right winger stole a picture of Rosa Parks from a black woman at Claire McCaskill’s town hall meeting and tore it up because he hates black folks.
That simply isn’t true. It’s a lie.
Kevin Aylward at Wizbang crushes the disinformation with facts:
There’s only one problem, as this blown-up closeup of the video clearly shows.
What’s that on the back of his shirt? Yes, it says, “VOLUNTEER.”
It seems pretty likely that the man who tore up the Rosa Parks posters was working at the event in some sort of capacity for McCaskill. As the TPM link indicates it looks like he got arrested later. It will be interesting to see exactly what he was doing there, and who he was representing.
Earlier McCaskill warned the crown that signs were not allowed.
Political signs, as McCaskill warned during the event, were not allowed inside the Jefferson College field house. (College policy, not McCaskill, prohibited the signs.) Somehow, one audience member was able to carry in a sign, content unknown.
Somehow every single cable news network has missed this so far…
Update: Here’s a photo of the man being arrested. He still hasn’t been identified.
Given the heated atmosphere, the announced policy, and the man’s shirt it looks more likely that the crowd is appluading the enforcement of the announced rules, which everyone else in the audience is clearly abidding by, than chearing the destruction of Rosa Parks posters. Those cheering can’t even see the posters.
For what it’s worth Organizing for America (Obama’s campaign arm) signed up 636 people who said they were attending the meeting, and the St. Louis Tea Party group was not officially attending since they had already met with McCaskill.
The updated photo linked to in the quote clearly shows the word “VOLUNTEER” on the back of this gentleman’s shirt. He’s either working for the gym, or working for McCaskill, but he’s not some random right winger who hates two dimensional representations of civil rights icons.
UPDATE
IMPORTANT UPDATE: The man has been identified as James Winfrey of Cedar Hills, MO. Sen. McCaskill’s office has told us that he was not working for them or the college. Beyond that they have no other information on the man. As he was not there in any official capacity, we errored in identifying him as one of Sen. McCaskill’s henchmen.
Also I’m replacing the original headline, “Sen. Claire McCaskill’s Henchman Tore Up Rosa Parks Sign” with a more appropriate title, given today’s developments.
As I wrote to my college Lori late, last night, part of what amused me about the reaction of the left is that people were so quick to assume that the man was a rabid right-wing nut because the outcome (as opposed to the video evidence) played to their preconceived notions. I’m fairly certain the man is a member of some group, be it right-wing, left-wing, and he’s probably very concerned with people following the rules… I’m sure we’ll find out eventually.
Given the information I had last night he looked to be involved in the event. Today is appears that is not the case, though he may be a member of an organization that attended the event.
An interesting development. Was he just wearing an old volunteer t-shirt from another event, or for a group there?
