Tampa Town Hall On Health Care Reform Disrupted By Violence (VIDEO)

Note: Several hours after this story was posted on Thursday night, the Tampa Tribune removed a reference to protesters carrying signs that depicted President Obama as the Joker. Yet one conservative blogger who attended the event reports seeing several people "with signs depicting President Obama as the Joker."

Police officers were called to calm down an unruly crowd outside a health care reform town hall meeting in downtown Tampa, Florida on Thursday evening, according to local news reports.

Angry protesters screamed, yelled and banged on windows as officers hurried to guard the entrances to the facility, where U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor was trying to discuss the various health care reform proposals being debated in Congress. One photojournalist said that a fistfight broke out inside the building, reports WTSP.

Many of the hundreds of protesters said that they had been inspired by a conservative activist group promoted by Fox News host Glenn Beck and some received emails from the county Republican party, according to the St. Petersburg Times:

Instead, hundreds of vocal critics turned out, many of them saying they had been spurred on through the Tampa 912 activist group promoted by conservative radio and television personality Glenn Beck. Others had received e-mails from the Hillsborough Republican party that urged people to speak out against the plan and offered talking points to challenge supporters.

The Times added:

The spectacle at the Children's Board in Ybor City sounded more like a wrestling cage match than a panel discussion on national policy, and it was just the latest example of a health care meeting disrupted by livid protesters.

The Tampa Tribune reports that some protesters carried racist caricatures of President Obama and added details of more fights and scuffles:

Several of the protesters' signs bore an image of Obama with his face painted as the Joker, an image that drew protests of racism locally when it appeared on a Web site thought to be associated with the Pinellas Republican party.

There were at least two scuffles between protesters trying to enter and organizers manning the doors.

One of those involved in a scuffle, Randy Arthur, of Oldsmar said he was injured by those manning the doors and said he would file a police report... Randy Arthur, who owns an air conditioning service company, later talked to police officers, his knit shirt ripped and a few scratches visible on his chest. "They slammed him into the wall,'' Kathy Arthur said.

Watch this video shot inside the raucous forum:

Watch this video report from the local Fox affiliate:

Comments

[Blindfaith88]

03:31 PM on 08/12/2009

I am so sick of these simple people hiding behind they're bibles, proclaiming "the good word"
Health care has nothing to do with Jesus or the bible but since this is the way they would like to fight lets talk about it. You dont think that God would want all people to be covered under law and equally? God wouldn't want all to be able to get help if sick and dying? If the Rich guy was to get sick, why would his life be any more important then the bum down the street?
care for the sick. clothe the naked isnt that in the "good book"
how come this country can't stick to the facts? they hide behind race and religion and then call it freedom.
Come on! These people are taking freedom away, denying people the chance to hear the facts and make a decision. Where are those ppls freedom?
This is the beginning of a race war, with the media and the republicans tesion is rising and it will not be long til the sounds of guns blasting will not just be in Iraq, but here in our own cities!
( HEALTHCARE, THATS AN IMPORTANT TOPIC, CHECK YOUR BIBLES AND BURNING CROSSES AT THE DOOR)

[Principaldad]

09:35 PM on 08/12/2009

Jesus helped the poor and the sick first and foremost. It is central to the message of the Gospels. In fact, one of the big "crimes" that Jesus committed was healing the sick on Sunday. It was so important and central to Christianity that the Catholic Church commemorates it by recognizing anointing of the sick as one of the seven sacraments.

The religious literalist Pharisees that Jesus fought against (and who were responsible for his demise) were exactly the same as today's right wing fundamental conservatives. THESE were the people who kiIIed Jesus. That they call themselves "Christian" is the most terribIe irony.

[EmoryRodgers]

03:09 AM on 08/12/2009

hey i dont like Obama mush either mostly because he listens to conservatives to much.

we need a socialist democracy not that I'm a socialist but we need to repair all the damage that corporations have used religious/ nationalis t fools create!!!

[EmoryRodgers]

03:06 AM on 08/12/2009

if this isn't corporations paying for these protesters then where were these protesters when we were lied into a war?

[EmoryRodgers]

02:46 AM on 08/12/2009

if we dont get universal health care i suggest that we all should check into hospitals for every cold, cut, scrape, or any other minor problem and lie about who we are so the insured will have to pay for it.

that will break the backs of insurance companies

[nakwa]

06:14 AM on 08/11/2009

So what should we believe now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e62DGZPG0_0

kind of lost myself here....

[Elbrando]

05:10 PM on 08/10/2009

I have seen baboons act with more civility than the people in this video.

[dennisrs]

06:27 PM on 08/10/2009

Never seen a real pack of Baboons have you.

[TheSpecter]

07:21 PM on 08/10/2009

I have and they are FAR more well behaved. You tools should be ashamed of yourself.

[Marlowe Indeed]

02:27 PM on 08/10/2009

$1 of every $700 spent IN TOTAL last year for 'health care' went to paying ONE CEO'S salary! If this doesn't make you sick then you're immune, which likely means you're a rich, bloated, middle-aged White guy sitting in front of a microphone.

http://sickforprofit.com/

[panamarine]

01:45 PM on 08/10/2009

WHY Healthcare Reform/Insurance Reform NOT a good thing? From what I read that is being proposed, and compared to how hospitals, Doctors and Insurance companies dictate and handle the insured and Non-Insured it is reasonable to me that it should be reformed. The hollering opposed masses somehow, to me, seem that they are just disagreeing with the change, JUST to be disagreeable, because their Republican party of NO tells them that anything the Democrats come up with will be injurious to their health. It's like the Tobacco lobby saying: " Do not pay attention to the Warning label on the packs of cigarettes"

[Arrecho]

01:32 PM on 08/10/2009

Insurance Industry Funded Fascism brown shirts at work.

They just need the armband.

Where are tasers when we need them?

[JohnnyWalkerBlueLabel]

03:02 PM on 08/10/2009

Seems to be the democrat funded fascist brown shirts in action (Acorn, unions, etc.). These conservatives simply want to exercise their 1st amendment rights.

[rock2casbah]

05:47 PM on 08/10/2009

Tee hee hee.

[PoliticalAmazon]

07:10 PM on 08/10/2009

Hello Sarah! [WAVES]

[mongoose63124]

07:56 PM on 08/10/2009

seriously, chanting "hear us now"? what fascists....wake up and embrace the reversion to common sense, it begins in nov '10

[dennisrs]

11:29 AM on 08/10/2009

Unemployed need Healthcare now take a look here:

Wa.lgr.eens and Take Care Health Systems Announce Offer of Free Healthcare Services for Families that Suffer Job Loss and Have No Health Insurance.

http://news.walgreens.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5171

[kitsinu]

09:45 AM on 08/10/2009

1) We are already paying for unisured people's health care. Get a $1k+ stitch at the emergency room and ask yourself why it cost so much.

2) Hospitals are going bankrupt and closing due to uninsured people being unable to pay for their emergency treatment. Whether you are well insured or not, this endangers you and your family.

3) Insurance companies ought to pay for the treatment that the policy said would be paid for. That they are upset about having to pay out on policies ought to concern everyone.

4) The minimum allowable insurance, as regulated by the government, is not the maximum amount of insurance you can buy. You can get more for more money.

5) Every nation in the world has a limited amount of health care. This must be distributed somehow. How it is distributed is indeed a form of rationing. Everyone will not receive the same level of healthcare, they will receive the level of healthcare they can afford.

[darker]

09:02 AM on 08/10/2009

Town Hall meetings turned out to be NOTHING but STAGED opportunities
for THE REPUBLICAN PROPAGANDA MACHINE and
publicity-seeing DRAMA QUEENS, and nothing more.

WHY?
Because THAT'S how "the media" wants to report them.

Common sense is dead and SENSATIONALISM rules everything
in the RUBBERNECKER APPROACH of today's Media kings.

[dennisrs]

11:23 AM on 08/10/2009

darker---bull

[hairyhuman]

02:52 PM on 08/10/2009

except he's right.

[sandalwoodnj]

12:38 AM on 08/10/2009

LIES. Acorn union thugs have been coming to the meetings shoving regular Americans against walls

They let thugs in and would not let others in the meeting. Thats why they banged on doors or windows.

[ordinaryguy]

08:52 AM on 08/10/2009

it's sad that despite all of the evidence showing these town halls are packed by healthcare companies, pharma companies, conservative operatives, etc., people like you, sandalwoodnj, like to just throw out lies counter to all reality.

[hairyhuman]

02:52 PM on 08/10/2009

I heard this too. This is not made up information.

[nothingmusic42]

11:49 AM on 08/10/2009

it's funny. you righties have proped acorn up to be this giant boogie-man. you clearly have no clue what you are talking about, you just rant on and on about acorn.
considering bush's private little army, blackwater,and it's ties to right-wing political groups, you really shouldn't be worrying about acorn.

[hairyhuman]

02:53 PM on 08/10/2009

gotta watch out for those little old ladies who voice their opinions in the town hall meetings.

[jemborg]

10:00 PM on 08/09/2009

Wow! I'm a freedom loving Aussie and I find this paranoia over decent pubic health care amazing.

We've had it for almost 30 years.

I've expounded on this in many of Huffo's threads but let me simply say... America you deserve better, do not believe the Conservative lies.

[rock2casbah]

05:50 PM on 08/10/2009

Do not believe your fellow cpuntryman Murdoch's of FIX news fame's lies, you mean.

Dear Aussie, Would you all start a "Bring Murdoch Home" campaign? I and my fellow Americans will be very big contributors.

[scotia626]

07:28 PM on 08/09/2009

asking totally uninformed, misinformed and uneducated people "what they think" about health care or any other issue is very dangerous; ignorant people make ignorant choices and the repugs wouldnt have it any other way.

[dennisrs]

11:27 AM on 08/10/2009

scotoa626 - maybe the ignorant should not be allowed to vote either.

[hairyhuman]

02:54 PM on 08/10/2009

Then you'd always have a republican in the White house... you don't want that, do you? lol