UPDATE: Assailant arrested; Also, two others arrested for spitting on recall workers in separate incident...

Brad Friedman Byon 12/20/2011, 7:45am PT

Thanks to the Rightwing's unshakable lock on our national media, had the Governor of Wisconsin now up for a potential recall been a Democrat, the photo above might have been among the most familiar photos in the nation this week.

However, since WI's governor Scott Walker is a Republican, this is likely the first time you've seen the photograph, or even heard that there has been yet another violent assault on a citizen petitioner seeking signatures for his recall.

Add this one to the Rightwingers found openly discussing collecting signatures for the "Recall Walker" campaign, only so they could then burn and shred them, and to the death threats received in the middle of the night and to the 30-year old West Bend man, Jeffery Karnitz, who's been charged with two counts of election fraud for defacing petitions.

The story of what happened to the camera above begins this way:

This camera was three weeks old. It was stripped off of my wrist, and thrown full force into the street by a crazy rightwing bastard. The card and battery are missing, which I learned when I tried to retrieve the day's photos and video.

It includes this:

My winter coat was ripped. My camera was destroyed. My hand is badly bruised and hurts like hell. The police left after taking all of our stories, and the three of us went back to the intersection to retrieve our signs so as not to leave litter. As we walked back, a wizened old man came up his front walk and let us know how happy he was we were hurt, and how much he hated us. He drooled positively fecal invective. Another car whizzed by and gave us the finger. Earlier, a man in a passing car slowed down and pantomimed shooting at Angela with an imaginary rifle. This is life in Walker's Wisconsin. I don't see it getting any better real soon.

The story ends with the police finding the man who did it and promising criminal charges, before this thought from the person whose camera was destroyed by a political supporter of Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin:

We don't want trouble. We don't want debates. We don't want to convince anyone of anything. We merely want to give people the opportunity to sign a legally prescribed petition derived from constitutionally defined laws whose intention is to allow redress of an aggrieved population if an elected official is off the rails.

Read the full story of what happened from "noise of rain" at dKos here. And then remind yourself how everyone in the nation would likely have heard about this incident, over and over again, days ago, had the violence in this story been carried out by a Democrat against a Republican. And keep all of that in mind next time you hear one of Andrew Breitbart and Rush Limbaugh's pathetic brainwashed zombies complaining, once again, about that dastardly biased "Liberal Media."

* * *

UPDATE 12/20/11, 11:52pm PT: The local NBC affiliate, TMJ-4 in Mequon, reveals the identity of dKos blogger "noise of rain" as Dave Hakman and reports that the man who destroyed his camera has now been arrested. Details from TMJ-4's coverage follow below...

Dave Hakman was holding a recall Walker sign when a supporter of Governor Scott Walker wanted to give him a piece of his mind last Saturday afternoon at the Mequon Library. Hakman told TODAY'S TMJ4, "I was definitely scared, I've never been in a fight in my life". Meanwhile, Lane Hall said he tried to step in and calm things down. But he claims the Walker supporter became physically violent. "And he yelled very aggressively and violently I'm going to kill that blankity, blank, blank," said Hall. "out of nowhere he just kind of ducked down and did a football move and ran as fast as he could at me knocked me down, grabbed my camera from my hand and took the camera went to the street and whipped it down." Hall's camera was destroyed and his winter jacket ripped. Mequon police arrived and arrested the man.

The police have yet to release details from the arrest, so Walker's latest violent supporter has yet to be identified publicly.

In related news, two men were arrested for yet another alleged assault on recall workers Monday, according to The Capital Times...

Two Barneveld men were arrested Saturday in Iowa County for allegedly spitting on people gathering signatures on petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker. Timothy Peterson, 28, and William Peterson, 55, were taken to the Iowa County Jail on tentative charges of disorderly conduct, according to a news release from the Iowa County Sheriff's Department. The incident was reported at 12:12 p.m. Saturday in the village of Arena. Deputies found the two men at a business in Arena and made the arrest. The report said both posted bond and were released from jail.

CORRECTION: This article had originally stated that Mequon, where the petitioner alleged had his camera broken by the Walker supporter, was in "our favorite Rightwing County of Waukesha!" It isn't. In fact, Mequon is in Waukesha's neighboring County of Ozaukee. We regret the error.



