Carl Levin, Michigan Senator, Gets Hit In Face With Pie During Q&A Session

Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) joined a well-documented list of famous people who have taken pies in the face Monday, when a Michigan State student hit the lawmaker with a confectionery projectile during a question and answer session at a deli in Big Rapids, Michigan.

Ahlam Mohsen, the 23-year-old perpetrator of the saccharine assault, later told local news that the act was meant to protest the perceived pro-war legislative record of Senator Levin, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Carl Levin is one of the most respected senators in Congress," Mohsen said, according to The Big Rapids Pioneer. "People tend to blame the war on Republicans, but we wanted to target Levin today to send a message that liberals and Democrats are just as implicated in the violence as the Republicans."

Mohsen was arrested and charged with assault and battery after the incident, but has yet to be arraigned, CNN reports.

Levin's immediate response was to say that someone who "throws something at somebody or hits somebody with something doesn't understand the blessings of America," but the Senator later released a statement on the incident:

"I hold meetings like this morning's so I can hear the views of Michiganians, and I'm more than willing to hear from people who disagree with me," Levin said. "But at the end of a great meeting this morning, two young people took advantage of the gathering to read a long statement accusing senators of war crimes, and one of the young people threw a pie in my face. They didn't hurt me, but they hurt their cause even more than their own extreme words had already done."

Comments

[rr52]

07:15 PM on 08/18/2010

Senator Levin is my senator and I will vote for him until he decides to retire. The man voted against the war in Iraq. The man had his Armed Services Committee staff conduct an inquiry into the objectivity and credibility of intelligence on Iraq prior to the war, The Repugs divided this into 2 parts, and of course stalled out the 2nd half. Levin demanded to know why for the first time in history Bush opened U.S. oil reserves while still importing oil from the Middle East. And Levin and Merkley proposed a bill to literally stop all derivitive driven trading by the big banks and were left out in the lurch by both parties before both parties paired down the touted "biggest financial reform since FDR" to a meaningless nothing. Our investments/mortgages/retirements are still at major risk!

Levin does what is right against great opposition from everyone/anyone. Read the latest from Rolling Stone on the financial reform fiasco in the August 19th issue by Matt Taibbi titled, "How Wall St. Won." Levin and Merkley should be applauded for standing against the entire senate to protect us for good.

[abmania]

02:51 PM on 08/17/2010

so it had NOTHING to do with the fact that she was a muslim and before the attack criticized Levin for his defense of Isreal...listen to the original story

http://www.myfoxla.com/dpps/news/woman-hits-sen.-carl-levin-with-pie-20100816-wpms_9209479

[eahce]

03:33 PM on 08/17/2010

Your point?

[eahce]

02:33 PM on 08/17/2010

Should have been tar and feathers.

[Jeff317]

02:29 PM on 08/17/2010

Assaulting a Senator (or anyone) is not protesting.

[Yg Bluig]

12:58 PM on 08/17/2010

The slippery slope of American discourse.
"You lie!" leads to you pie!

[publicedukated]

12:54 PM on 08/17/2010

Why is the group that the pie assaulter is affliated with not mentioned?

[kaptaintripps]

08:16 PM on 08/17/2010

Because they're FAMILY VALUES' Chr!st!ans! Duh! (We hear you...thanks for bringing this up.)

[publicedukated]

10:40 AM on 08/18/2010

Why would you think they were "family values"?

[chavo]

12:51 PM on 08/17/2010

Good.

[Osmona]

11:12 AM on 08/17/2010

I thought this kind of stuff was done in places overseas, like in Iraq when a reporter threw a shoe at bush. America is NO better than the rest of the world.

[A Meat Beetle]

12:47 PM on 08/17/2010

We Americans could do ourselves and the rest of the world a great service by taking to heart the final sentence of your post. We're no better or worse than anyone else--just another group of people living on an arbitrarily defined piece of geography.

[Pleroma]

01:17 PM on 08/17/2010

thanks for that.

[Osmona]

01:34 PM on 08/17/2010

We COULD be worse than other countries. I can't remember EVER seeing so much disrespect for a President in other countries. You'd be hanged. But I guess that's what's SUPPOSED to make America a free country, with "freedom of speech" and all. However, some people's rights to "freedom of speech" should be REVOKED. They are definitely abusing that right.

[rtgmath]

11:06 AM on 08/17/2010

The screaming from the right about the "hypocrisy of the left" makes little sense here. The pie-thrower could be charged with assault if the Senator so wished.

It is true that assaults on figures by liberal or left-wing groups have a softer texture than those by the right. The left packs pies, the right packs guns. I am quite certain that guns are much more intimidating. The threats of "second-amendment remedies" against our elected officials by such figures as Sharron Angle are much more of a severe nature than the threats of banana-cream and a bit of theater.

Still, it was an assault. Carl Levin can press charges. The young person behind the assault is probably willing to face a bit of jail time for making his point.

And as to the hypocrisy of the left, can those who accuse the left actually point out instances where the right has thrown pies at liberal elected officials? What consequences followed? If they cannot actually show hypocrisy, they shouldn't call it.

My observation is that the right is growing increasingly violent in their words, actions, and calls for armed insurrection. Why people packing heat have shown up close to Presidential activities, and have been left alone. Had people shown up with guns close to the activities of President Bush, they would have been hauled off to jail. But Obama has respected peoples' rights.

Perhaps Republicans need to stop finding ways to excuse their own bad behaviors.

[Jeff317]

02:29 PM on 08/17/2010

Nice making this story about how lame the GOP is.

[nongrata]

04:45 PM on 08/17/2010

Yes, the left-wing Weather Underground was well known for the soft texture of their bombs and bullets.

[rtgmath]

04:57 PM on 08/17/2010

Boy, you have to go way back to think about them. Any left-wing radical groups on the horizon today? How prone to violence are they? On the other hand, I'll raise you scores of militias (right wing radicals), tea-party hysteria threatening elected officials with "second amendment remedies", etc.

The left had a few radical groups in its day. Today the radicalism and threats come from the conservatives.

[BillyClub]

10:53 AM on 08/17/2010

I don't agree with this tactic. It's wrong, cheapens the political debate and is counter productive.

[Drew Winter]

12:49 PM on 08/17/2010

To be complacent in a time of such violence is wrong, and cheapens the very real atrocities daily committed on behalf of the illegal US invasion.

Pies in the face have a long and effective history for raising awareness to crimes that cannot be achieved by academic discussion.

Restricting ourselves to "debate" is the privilege of people not suffering from this horrible occupation, and anyone with a shred of morality should be ready to jostle the government for its war crimes.

[Pleroma]

01:13 PM on 08/17/2010

You're entirely wrong on this point. A pie in the face is a quantum leap up from what passes for political discussion. Especially blather from Levin The Ghoul.

[gfirmin57]

10:30 AM on 08/17/2010

I'm no fan of Levin, but this sort of behavior is reprehensible.

[Osmona]

11:13 AM on 08/17/2010

Agreed.

[Pleroma]

01:15 PM on 08/17/2010

"This sort of behavior" brings the voting record of this War Pig to light. Ordinary protocols further the ordinary atrocities.

[Social Construct]

10:20 AM on 08/17/2010

Wish someone would throw pie in my face. Haven't been able to afford a good pie for a couple years now. I can taste it now, yum.

[Christy Sargent Anderson]

10:10 AM on 08/17/2010

Do you think maybe now, hel'll listen?

[MrsGrapevine]

02:23 PM on 08/17/2010

Nope! The pie was for publicity. That's it.

[Phillious]

03:51 PM on 08/17/2010

Exactly! I fail to see how that is bad.

[Phillious]

04:24 PM on 08/17/2010

I am also interested in hearing about all the activism you are involved with since you find it so easy to criticize another person. You must be doing a lot.

[angrymanspokane]

10:00 AM on 08/17/2010

A juvenile and pointless stunt, and it backfired.

[Social Construct]

10:24 AM on 08/17/2010

Juvenile? Yes. Pointless? I think not. Backfired? I agree.
A dislocated, fellow Sokanite.
P.S. How's things in the Inland Empire these days?

[Social Construct]

10:26 AM on 08/17/2010

*Spokanite.

[ScottV]

10:44 AM on 08/17/2010

It got on the news didn't it, Juvenile I agree with Pointless and Backfired it did not since we are commenting on it.

[mixpiklix]

09:39 AM on 08/17/2010

carl Levin has done a very good job for michigan and America. We will always have protesters and maybe that's as it should be as long as it's civil. protests and debates are our way, but wouldn't it be stupid if we pied everybody that we disagreed with .

[60andcounting]

12:38 PM on 08/17/2010

Beats the hell of out of shooting everyone we disagree with, I suppose.