The Video: Allen West’s Scary Thugs
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Tea Party favorite Allen West’s supporters have shown their true colors.
A group of bikers backing West ganged up on a Democratic operative trying to videotape an appearance by West.
What was West and his supporters scared of?
Depending on the poll you read, the GOP’s West is either running slightly behind or ahead in his campaign to throw Democratic U. S. Rep. Ron Klein out of his beachfront congressional district.
Taking video of opponents at their appearances is common practice. The leather-jacketed thugs surrounding West play a different brand of politics, the politics of intimidation.
Is this West’s vision for the U. S.?
Here is the NBC 6 Exclusive report on the incident
October 19th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
How did they know she was a Klein supporter?? Did she have “I Luv Ronnie” buttons emblazened all over her?
These guys need to be present at all military funerals where that Cult Westboro Baptist church family holds up those evil signs!
Hmm …. Ron Klein is showing a bit of desperation…. way too wimpy for me —he needs to MAN UP!!!!
October 19th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
buddy, get a bike, be a real man
October 19th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
and i do not mean a tricicle, i know u are a reporter and that is their chosen choice of transportation.
October 19th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
“Man up”
It sounds stupid when kooks like O’Donnell say it; even more so when it is flushed down to blog commenters.
October 19th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Is West running a campaign to be elected or a Junta?
October 19th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
West Should Man Up OR Shut Up, if he is soooooo scared of what might be recorded.
This guy can’t open his mouth without something vile, demeaning, or offensive coming out of it.
October 19th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
West is a very viable candidate. Don’t be surprised November 2nd.
October 19th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Buddy
There are so many substantive issues in this mid-term congressional election that should be discussed and debated. Instead of discussing these issues, Klein and his supporters such as yourself engage in personal attacks and maliciously send out flyers with the Social Security number of West. It is disappointing but an indication of the low level of our political culture
October 19th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Like so many other things, it is all in the eye of the beholder. I see that video and I see a group of guys preventing a pest from disrupting an event.
October 19th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
I so don’t want a return back to the Bush Golden Age of Anti-Intellectualism.
October 19th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
a little brown shirt action here and there…what’s the fuss???…………….said first in 1933
October 19th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
I hear the sound of Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil.
October 19th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
I WAS a Republican until Scott and West showed up on the ticket in Florida. I am embarrassed to think that better candidates could not be have been selected to run for these critical offices.This is the best we could do???
October 19th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
This videographer was not only attempting to crash a private affair or party but trying to crash it with adverse intentions That is just plain stupid and rude. Good riddance
October 19th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Wow! The West apologist are either liars, ignorant, or both. The event was at a public park that was opened to the public to celebrate Veterans Day. There’s nothing wrong with videotaping a candidate giving a speech in a public forum that is opened to the general public. It was legal on the part of the videographer.
What was illegal was West telling his supporters to get that kid out of here thus inciting violence. If I was the kid, I’d sue the West campaign for assault and battery. That’s not who I want representing me!
October 19th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
Bob;
Please cite for me where this event was listed as a “private affair or party”.
It was at a public park in Delray Beach.
Nice job ace.
October 20th, 2010 at 9:52 am
Buddy:
Why couldn’t you blow this off just like the media did with the Black Panther intimidation @ the polling place in Philadelphia?
October 20th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
fake name…which media??? Fox ran with it for months…3 alta cocka black guys in front of a black polling place keeping no one away…….fair and balanced???
October 20th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
This country needs real change, not the phony cheap promises of the current and past administrations. This country needs to stop spending money on feel good projects and eliminate the national debt. We need to start this country on a path that will give our children an opportunity for a brighter future, not paying for our existing selfish lifestyles. With that i must say i want to see the common man in powers of position verses the existing groups and their clonies who just wait their turn to rape our nation. I’ve met both Klein and West, and i will vote for West.
October 20th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Vietnam veterans? West’s spokesman actually had the gall to lie and say these morons are Vietnam Veterans?
Assuming they were 22 when they served, and got out in 1970, that would mean these so-called veterans are now about 62 years old. Does anybody really think these guys in the video are a bunch of 60-something bikers? The minimum age would be 58, based on average service.
Why’s nobody pointing this out? Think people, and stop following mindless Republican garbage. My father was in Vietnam, and fought for the right of morons like this to assemble in a public park. Don’t let a guy who got drummed out of the service (and yes, West did get screwed on that), lie about people being Vietnam veterans.
These guys are morons. And of course, this is a public park and they had no right to kick anyone out.
October 20th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
The posters on this blog are either liars or ignorant. When anyone rents a public facility they have the legal right to include or exclude anyone they want. You can scream “public” until you’re blue in the face but it was rented for a private event and the West campaign had the right to stop Klein’s stalker from attending.
From the Palm Beach Post:
On Tuesday afternoon, Eric Call, director of the Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Department, sided with the West forces on the initial issue.
“It is reasonable to expect that you have the use of a reasonable amount of space around the building,” he said. “In fact there are grills, play areas that are associated with those buildings.”
Call said those areas immediately around a pavilion are part of the rental agreement and renters of a building are entitled to exclusive use of those areas
October 20th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Mr. Zorn above didn’t quite put the whole Palm Beach Post story online. Here is a portion he left out which is key:
But Call did not agree with the way the West supporters had handled the incident. He said the permit for the pavilion bore the number to call at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office if problems occur.
“It says right on the permit who to call,” he said. “We don’t want people taking matters into their own hands.”
The article also blames Allen West for the incident.
West told his supporters to “please escort him away because this is a place of honor and the organization that you represent has no honor.”
It goes on to say that the incident
“once again raised the question of District 22 GOP challenger Allen West’s support from local motorcycle clubs and accused members of those clubs of “thuggish behavior.”
October 20th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
CHANGE…yes but West is the wrong guy…he scares me when he hangs with people who get in your face ….his investments were not well thought out and he let others pay his bills…..I might have voted for Clay Shaw this time….not West…sad because he’s got a number of people ready to say he’s brave
October 21st, 2010 at 5:12 am
The point is simple: Watchu talkin bout Willis? Obama Bin Lie’n
October 21st, 2010 at 5:18 am
Point is simple: Someone is trying to crash your party. You can either:
1. Call the police i.e. rely upon the government and cost tax dollars to handle it (STOP for Dems) or,
2. Man up and handle it yourself (Libertarian approach)
October 21st, 2010 at 7:37 am
@Silky Bob (5:18 am)
How far out on the right wing do you have to be to believe potentially violent confrontations in public parks are preferable to calling the police?
(There’s that “man up” phrase again. It’s continued use make me wonder if the people employing it are trying to compensate for their own gender insecurities).
October 21st, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Roy L. Fuchs says:
West is a certified nut Job!
He was thrown out of Bush’s army for being nuts. If west wasn’t black and republican he would have been thrown in prison for being a dangerous nut case.