I watched a live segment yesterday on the always entertaining Cenk Uygur's show on MSNBC and to be honest the guy and his producers really deserve to be called out on a couple of things.
Uygur was interviewing Nicole Sandler, the South Florida radio host who managed to get arrested on Tuesday evening at a town hall meeting held by truly frightening Republican Rep. Allen West, and during his introduction he did something that was really misleading. He showed a clip of Sandler shouting a question at West -- what some considered a serious disruption but what didn't seem like a huge deal -- and following a very minor amount of resulting chaos, the video cut to images of a Fort Lauderdale cop putting Sandler's hands behind her back and cuffing her. Both the visual and the verbal implication from Uygur's voice-over made it crystal clear: Sandler shouted some questions at West and was arrested just a couple of seconds after and presumably for it.
Unfortunately, that's not what happened.
Sandler has posted the extended video over at her website and what it shows is that as the officer was escorting her out of the room she was giving him crap the entire way. Getting upset with a cop isn't generally an arrestable offense, but it is if you also don't do what that cop tells you to -- and that's what happened. He very calmly asked her to keep moving, she slowed down then stopped, stuck her finger in his face and yelled at him to get his hands off her and -- surprise, you're under arrest.
Now, did Nicole Sandler deserve to be escorted off the premises to begin with? Maybe not. Should Allen West be forced to answer for the unbelievable horseshit he spews? Absolutely. Is it a crime to shout questions at a congressman at a public town hall meeting? If it were the jails would've been filled with terrified and pissed off Republican old people a couple of summers ago. But you don't get to react with shock when you don't do what a police officer tells you to and he hauls you off to jail for it. You want to make a political statement and purposely get yourself arrested, that's one thing, but don't pretend that some great injustice has occurred -- and that you never saw it coming -- because you didn't follow a cop's instructions and he did his job.
Incidentally, Sandler's defiant act apparently didn't stop at the arrest. She said during the interview that she was maced in jail; when Uygur indignantly asked why, she essentially came right out and admitted that she argued with the officers, questioned everything they told her to do, wouldn't immediately follow their instructions. Again, is this a reason for someone to get maced? I can't say since I didn't see exactly what happened -- but throughout the entire interview I just kept shaking my head and remembering the Chris Rock bit about how you react when a cop tells you to do something: "Yes sir!" Jesus, even if you had made the conscious decision to really stick it to Allen West at his town meeting, consequences be damned, once you're actually in police custody and you've made your point you have nothing to gain by continuing to be antagonistic toward the police. Just who do you think has the upper hand in that test of wills?
Look, I swear I'm not really trying to beat up on Nicole Sandler; shouting down Allen West is an unarguably good thing if only because it will give everyone a couple of seconds in which they won't have to listen to him. I'm actually more pissed at Uygur's complete and borderline unethical disregard for the truth -- for knowingly twisting events so that it all became "blue meat" for his and his audience's firmly held biases. That's the kind of crap Fox News pulls all the time and it shouldn't be acceptable -- even once in a while -- from those who constantly criticize Fox for it.
Oh yeah, one more thing -- both Cenk Uygur and the lower-third onscreen graphic kept insisting that Sandler had gone to "prison." No, she didn't. She went to jail -- there's a difference.
If Uygur's going to actually be allowed to play pro ball rather than being relegated only to the farm league, he'd better start taking his game a hell of a lot more seriously.
Judge for Yourself:
Here's the story as presented on Uygur's show last night:
And here's the extended video:
Follow Chez Pazienza on Twitter: www.twitter.com/chezpazienza
It looks like she was arrested for pointing at the cop and raising her voice.
The trouble is that these days, the Republican Party has become its own extremist fringe, which tolerates no effective dissent or opposition; and so, once Ms. Sandler attempted to ask her question, it was pre-ordained that she WOULD be ejected. On the other hand, there were different rules when organized tea party thugs disrupted and even shut down Democrats’ town meetings during the health care debate.
Such GOP behavior is no aberration. It’s part of a thread of intimidation that goes back years, whether it be William Rehnquist’s challenging African Americans at polling places in the 1960s, or organized intimidation by a well-dressed mob shutting down the vote count in Florida in the 2000 presidential election. Not content, having gained power in the House and in several states, they now try to codify it into law, as in restricting voter registration and union organizing.
When one side, far more than the other, goes in for anti-democratic (with a small d) behavior to get its own way, you play into its hands by trying to act oh, so reasonable, in nit-picking the work of journalists like Cenk Uygur who shed light in dark places.
It's like the honest man in the boat calling the swimmers cheaters as they fight off the attacking sharks--American pundits are something else..
I also saw that cop grab Nicole under her arms while she was waking out like he was try to "cop" a feel. I'd say something to if I was grabbed like that.
First, what were police doing ejecting one individual whose representative wanted only to talk, not take unscreened questions at a "town meeting"? Even if Ms. Sandler had meant to disrupt the meeting enough to silence Rep. West, the police moved in long before she could have done so. Is this the US or the Soviet Union – the side that breaks up its opponents’ meetings, as organized tea party bullies repeatedly did in 2009, ejects a lone constituent who wants to be heard?
Secondly, doesn’t it bother you how casually the prison – sorry, jail – guards degraded Ms. Sandler, to the point of macing her? No big deal, maybe she deserved it? Here’s what bothers me. For every Nicole Sandler with a public platform, how many anonymous people are subjected to much, much worse humiliation in our jails and prisons? How many of the majority of prisoners who aren't violent when they go in, emerge as anti-social or violent after being degraded when inside? From bits and pieces I have read over many years, I’m afraid that Ms. Sandler's experience may be a tiny tip of a huge iceberg. I’m not convinced that, out of the public’s gaze, our prisons and jails are any better than what Dickens might have described. Mr. Pazienza, THERE'S something worth-while for you to follow up.
And she was "giving [the arresting officer] crap the entire way" out, before she was arrested? Really? What crap?
I'd dissect the rest of this piece, but its really not worth it. Sounds like you didn't even bother to read the police report on her arrest in which the cop appears to have blatantly lied about why he arrested her. (Did you see her "push" him multiple times? How about once?)
It's true, Cenk did show the entire 7 and a half minute video during his 6 minute or so segment (about half of which was taken up with other town halls entirely), but to suggest he dishonestly edited the piece is laughable.
You, of course, are welcome to roll over to authoritarian abuse, as you recommend. I'll stand up for our Constitutional rights in the meantime -- whether you care to or not. I'll also verify and report accurately when doing so. Hope you'll consider same in the future.
As for her giving the cop a hard time, yes, actually, she did -- at least throughout the clip that was posted on her blog and yours. My initial reaction, as I said, is that I didn't see her do anything to deserve being told to leave. She was shouting questions. So? West should be able to take it. But once the cop was involved, that's when she needs to do what he says -- at least for the moment, because there's nothing to be gained by fighting back. Want to file a complaint later? Want to publicize it on-air and bring some heat down? Go for it. But you won't win putting up a fight against a cop and when you lose you can't say you have no idea why.
I honestly don't know whether the cop lied on the arrest report because not every second was caught on tape. I watched her shout, turn and get in his face, though. And if what she's saying about jail is true, that's unfortunate and wrong, but once again you don't ask for an apology; you pay careful attention and have at it later.
And please don't give me the Horatius at the Bridge-meets-William Kunstler martyr speech. If you want to take a stand and get arrested for your beliefs, that's admirable. But don't then complain about it.
But the rest of my points stand. And I didn't even make them all, as I noted. (Among others not mentioned, you blame her for "managing to get herself arrested" -- the way someone may have "managed to get themselves raped" or something.)
You said "she was giving him crap the entire way". And, again, I ask. "What crap?" You've got the video, so please feel free to be specific. And, once you are, please let me know which of those are arrestable offenses as you see them.
It's true we do not have the ENTIRE video of her being escorted out on the tapes so far published, but we do have the cops "probable cause affidavit" filed upon her arrest, which says: "as I attempted to escort her out she became physically aggressive with this ofc, pushing me several times. Def was finally placed under arrest."
So, did you see ANY "pushing" by her? Much less "several times"? We do have the several minutes (without cuts) leading up to her arrest on video. Why did you not point out that contradiction? Shall we presume, as you did in regard to Cenk, that this was "complete and borderline unethical disregard for the truth" and "knowingly twisting events"?
I could go on, but hitting word limit. So I'll let you respond. Thanks.