Tuesday, October 10th, 2006...6:09 am
This Is Main Gate Square….
Well, we have another incident of conservative victimhood on the blogs. Over at Arizona Growler, a fellow named Garrett O’Hara claims to have been “assaulted” by a Raúl Grijalva staffer. He has a complete podcast of the incident over on his blog. The podcast includes bits of his interview with Grijalva, which sounded more like O’Hara trying to start an argument than anything else, plus a melodramatic audio verite recounting of the incident, done with all of the urgency of an Edward R. Murrow broadcast from a London rooftop during the blitz.
I also listened to his pretentious and confrontational interviews with other democratic elected officials, and I can see why Grijalva’s staff may have found him irritating.
The incident occurred at a Rock the Vote event at Main Gate Square near the University of Arizona campus. O’Hara’s podcast initially implies that he thought that ASUA would slant the event. Already, he starts with the victimhood.
O’Hara asked Grijalva, as well as other elected officials, whether or not the Board of Regents should recind the decades long (extending back in one form or another to territorial days) ban on guns at the University of Arizona campus. This seems to be an odd issue for campus conservatives to hang their hats on, but que sera sera. Grijalva initially became angry because O’Hara interrupted his answer, and Grijalva didn’t appreciate just being used for O’Hara to make his political point. Eventually, O’Hara gave Grijalva room to answer.
It was later that the trouble ocurred. Grijalva was having a discussion with his opponent, Ron Drake, and O’Hara was hoping to play “gotcha” and find out why Grijalva won’t debate. Funny thing, Grijalva actually will be debating Drake. Never let the facts get in the way of a snotty attack though.
O’Hara nudged his way inbetween the two candidates, and attempted to record their conversation. This is when a member of Grijalva’s staff objected. O’Hara claims that the conversation wasn’t private because it was in a public place, but two people talking in a public place have some expectation for “personal space” and not have some guy record their conversation. This may not be a right recognized by the Constitution, but it is a matter of politeness and decorum. Given this, I can’t imagine why O’Hara would think that Grijalva would be overjoyed at having his conversation taped. The staffer may have been too agressive with O’Hara, but he needs to recognize his own obnoxiousness as well.
I can’t imagine that I would be treated any better by Republican staff members if I did something similar. Some day, I’ll treat you all to a retelling of the time I met Randy Graf. I didn’t even have a blog back then and wasn’t trying to interview him.
O’Hara feels he was “assaulted.” So, he did the first thing any concientious citizen in such a situation would do: he did a podcast and called a reporter. In today’s podcast, he says he will be filing a report with TPD. There were officers at the event; if he felt like a crime had been committed, why didn’t he report it at the time? Oh, I know, he was too traumatized and intimidated by the power of the left.
26 Comments
October 10th, 2006 at 8:05 am
Having talked to O’Hara and both Drake, The Tower knows that Drake didn’t protest O’Hara’s presence. And no, not because Drake wanted to use the incident to his advantage. Drake just wasn’t bothered by it. Grijalva was. Just like Grijalva can’t stand it when Drake shows up to his events. Especially public events at a public place (Raul’s district office in Tucson).
October 10th, 2006 at 8:17 am
Tedski,
Bull! Obnoxiousness is never an excuse for assault. The minute a Grijalva guy puts his hands on O’Hara a definate line has been crossed. There is no equivication that makes this OK, none!
Last I checked free speech is free speech as is recording of goings on in a public place at a public forum. I don’t know O’Hara and I do believe that he is perhaps annoying, but your support of his being manhandled becuase he doesn’t play for your team is wrong.
And your false comparison that “Republicans would do it too!.” is immature as well. I’m going to say that “No they wouldn’t, and they haven’t.” If they pulled something like this it would be national televised news. Macaca anyone?
Unless you know somebody that has been assaulted by a similar goon from the Drake or even Graf campaigns, Republicans most especially DON’T act this way.
Still love your blog though.
October 10th, 2006 at 8:26 am
Framer is right, it wouldn’t happen with Republicans because they rarely even let dissenters within 100 yards of their candidates.
October 10th, 2006 at 9:49 am
Rebuttal posted.
http://arizonagrowler.blogsome.com/2006/10/10/rum-romanism-rebellion-rebuttal/
October 10th, 2006 at 9:59 am
Framer -
I have some serious doubts about whether an assault occurred in the first place. All I can tell from the recording is that a staff member for Grijalva intervened. No “Grijalva guy” (and it was not even a guy according to O’Hara’s account) put his hands on O’Hara.
I’d buy your “Republicans don’t act that way” argument if I hadn’t been mobbed by sign swinging Matt Salmon supporters back in 2004.
October 10th, 2006 at 10:03 am
Wait…I mean 2002…its all a blur.
October 10th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Let me be clear about the “assault” issue: I don’t know whether it falls under the legal definition of “assault”. I was not physically injured, nor did the staffer intend to injure me. However, I am told that the mere fact that the staffer touched me in the process of losing my property by force makes it assault. We’ll see.
October 10th, 2006 at 10:32 am
The mere fact that a Grijalva staffer touched O’Hara crosses a line. If O’Hara were up in Raul’s face, being threatening would be a different story. But from the recording, and witness accounts, O’Hara was being quite civil.
October 10th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
Wow, I thought you wingnuts were supposed to be tough!
As Growler recorded in his commentary, he was “Lightly” touched, and in his response to my inquiries over at AZ Congress watch he downplayed the touch as a move by the female staffer to calm him down.
I said if they damaged his equipment I would certainly complain and ask for reimbursement.
I know you guys are looking for a “Macaca” moment, but it ain’t gonna fly. In fact, I would shut up about it before anymore people find out you were upset because a woman touched you.
What will the Freepers and the Minute Maids say?
October 10th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Thanks toc001. You’ve just won the argument for people defending O’Hara because you’re personally attacking him.
October 10th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Let me rephrase myself. You’re attack him personally…rather than the event that occured.
October 10th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
Too many accounts of the physical contact are wrong. I’ve posted a clarification.
http://arizonagrowler.blogsome.com/2006/10/10/clarification-on-the-physical-contact-issue/
October 10th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
This post has been removed by the author.
October 10th, 2006 at 3:04 pm
So you will tell us about the time you met Randy Graf? That would make a splended Halloween post
(… so, I was standing in line at the supermarket and I turned around and recognized Dracula standing in line with his shopping cart, right behind me…)
October 10th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
What a ridiculous bunch of tripe. If O’Hara doesn’t know and/or didn’t recognize it at the time as assault, then he obviously wasn’t assault.
My goodness, you should change the name of your blog Arizona Growler to Arizona Whiner if you going to keep this up!
Cheese anyone?
October 10th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Due to the nature of the blog, I was unable to fully read the posts. However I looked up the criminal code regarding assault. If the suspect was a public servant (ARS 3-105.33) and Mr. O’Hara felt he was to come to bodily harm by the staffer then he could press charges of a Class 2 misdemeanor. Or the staffer could in turn press charges of a class 1 misdemeanor for threatening an assault which would have occured according to the current blog post had the staffer been male. I will check with a lawyer on this but it seems that there was no harm outside of some damaged equipment.
According to what he has posted, Mr. O’Hara would have not had to deal with this situation at all had he just listened when the staffer stated his time was up regardless of his own personal feelings on the matter.
As for other national events regarding assaults by Republicans on individuals, I direct Mr. Framer to the Florida recount incident in 2000 where a group of Republican congressional staffers rioted and assaulted the officials attempting to recount the votes cast. This was of course national news due to the fact that the recount was national news. However I think what you meant to say is that “Most Republican staffers would never act in this manner.”
October 10th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
Sounds like a typical wimpy right wing pussy. Hope the media ignores this, but won’t be surprised if they don’t.
Grijalva may want to say that O’Hara was aggressively his face and personal space and that is unacceptable, but so is an aide muscling someone — if not a situation of immediate danger to Raul (and if it even happened).
O’Hara, if you can’t take some shovin,’ don’t do the pushin.’ Weak guy.
October 10th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
Right on DRP!
Guard, I didn’t just call O’Hara out, I called you and framer out too! The more I hear about it, the more ridiculous it sounds.
O’Hara even said it was a light touch on his arm, so what are you bed wetters crying about?
Oh, I called you bed wetter, does that mean you won again?
Damn!
October 10th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
WATBs, period.
October 10th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
“One could argue that [the staffer] was taking advantage of her gender.”
Can you imagine what an awesome military strategy this would be? All-female American troops disarming defenseless male insurgents…
October 10th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
My gosh, how do you know just because the staffer was female, that proves he was a wimp? She could have been like Charlotte Atlas or something, you know the staffer who carries all those heavy boxes full of briefing books. Maybe if she had been unsuccessful at getting Mr. O’Hara off the case, her backup plan was to scoop up Congressman Grijalva under one arm and leap like a gazelle up several flights of stairs in record time, force open a locked metal door and then stack 500 lb. blocks up on the other side of the door. Maybe she only merely touched Mr. O’Hara for good reason, because if she’d used all of her strength and pushed him he would have flown several feet backwards through the air and splatted on the wall.
I mean, heck, you guys are jumping to conclusions. How do you know that she didn’t just totally overpower the poor, average guy Mr. O’Hara with her Herculanean muscle power? You don’t know that for an absolute fact, now do you?
October 10th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
toc001, i think you need a hug. you’re an angry person, and you need a hug. everyone give toc a big group hug! there! wasn’t that better?
October 11th, 2006 at 7:41 am
Yea guard I feel better, but I think someone grabbed my ass! Is that assault? I think I’ll call my mommy!
October 11th, 2006 at 9:53 am
Elizabeth,
A person cannot press criminal charges. Only the State can press charges for criminal assault. The person in this instance may report the alleged crime to the police who will then forward a recommendation to a prosecutor to press charges. So, nice try in interpreting the law.
I thought I read somewhere that you are running for JP. Wow, you just proved that you are surely the right person for the job with that stellar legal analysis.
October 11th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
I consulted a lawyer with the Maricopa County Attorney’s office and he said that my stating that the young man in question can press charges of assault by filing the report with the local police is accurate but that it is indeed the police who would further the case by sending it to the prosecutors.
So we were both right Labwire.
If you want, I can ask a judge about it.
And I can tell the difference between a defendent and plaintiff as well as stay awake all day regarding the other matter.
October 11th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Glad to know that narcolepsy won’t keep you from performing your duties!
(And don’t trust everything lawyers tell you)
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