Almost two years after the national uproar over health care reform, a jury has acquitted two labor union activists accused of assaulting a man selling conservative buttons outside a Cogressman Russ Carnahan town hall forum.
Service Employees International Union members Elston McCowan and Perry Molens had been accused of misdemeanor assault in the August, 2009 tussle with button salesman Kenneth Gladney. The fight caught national attention at a time when there was rampant speculation the union had been dispatched to tamp down opposition to President Obama’s health care reform.
Jurors heard conflicting testimony in the two-day trial over who actually started the fight, and they viewed video tape showing the end and aftermath of the brawl — but no video showed who threw the first punch.
So, do you dispute the value of a Missouri (notoriously conservative–the ‘Show Me’ state) jury’s decision in this case? The rule of law is composed of certain precepts that may defy the unschooled. But we all must sometimes claim ignorance–not having been at the trial ourselves–and accept the decision of the jurors, lest we revert to totalitarian rule.
Actually, not so objective Lib/prog, it’s generally a result of who can afford the best attorney for the court room show. Let’s see… SEIU money and big time attorney against local guy. hummmm
When it comes to he said/she said type cases, no one knows where the jury chips may fall. But it’s pretty much a given that the big time, high profile attorneys at the disposal of the union thugs had the advantage.
However had you read the article, you’d find that the diminutive black button vendor, who was beaten by two SEIU thugs of far more substantial size, was taunted by the black SEIU thug prior to the beating… calling him an “Uncle Tom” for daring to dislike Obama. Oddly enough, the dodohead used that admission of his race baiting as the supposed reason that the vendor… half the size and outnumbered… “started” the fight.
right…. and the stimulus has worked. Got a few watches I can sell you too, if you’re that gullible. Little guy takes on two big guys and expects no retaliation?
But I guess that self-admitted race baiting and SEIU method of handling dissention slips right thru the sketchy grey matter that randomly appears between your ears, eh? Such lovely behavior for SEIU representatives to respect.
Liberal1, thanks for conforming to your basic position. The Show Me State is notoriously conservative? Perhaps by Illinois standards, but it is no way “conservative” although it is getting more so with the abstract failures of people like the Carnahans. The exception is St. Louis and St. Louis County.
St. Louis County, where this trial was held, is “notoriously” far left. It is comprised of mid-income union workers who fled the city (St. Louis) during the white-flight days of the late ’70’s. Those were the same people who had voted in Democrats, adding to the destruction of St. Louis since the days of Mayor Cervantes.
The jury in this trial was almost 75% union members. And the DA put a first-time trial lawyer on the case, knowing that he was unexperienced in picking a jury that would be simpathetic to Kenneth Gladney. How biased does a jury have to be that when a defendant admits that he beat Gladney into the ground, because he claimed Gladney had a banner showing Obama as the Joker (which others testified Gladney did not), that they find that defendant innocent? BTW, this was the same DA’s office that announced during the last presidential election that it would prosecute anyone (including Missouri media) that made any desparaging remarks about Obama.
Kenneth Gladney has one other option; a civil trial. And if anyone starts a legal fund for him, I’m on board.