Monday, November 01, 2004

Thug Watch: Election 2004

I've decided to create this post as a sort of central information clearing-house regarding right-wing thuggery against Kerry supporters in this election. It's basically a fresh update of my original post about right-wing thuggery.

Over the next few days, I'll keep it updated with fresh reports. As I add more posts, I'll create a link under the orca in the upper left of the blog for easy access to it.

I briefly considered including left-wing violence toward Busheviks. Certainly, there have been some disturbing instances of this. But I haven't seen a consistent pattern emerge, as we are seeing on the right; and besides, the right seems to be tracking their own side's cases (with admittedly mixed results), so I'll leave that chore to them.

I'm not tracking voter fraud (unless violence is involved) or sign theft (likewise). Thus the list is restricted to actual violence, threats or intimidation, or behavior that exceeds the normal bounds of partisanship. I've broken these down by categories:
Attacks on campaign headquarters

Sacramento, California

Lawrence, Kansas

Toledo, Ohio

Barberton, Ohio

Boone, North Carolina

Galveston County, Texas

Lafayette, Lousiana

State College, Pennsylvania

Grand Rapids, Mich.


Bush supporters intimidate/assault Kerry supporters/war protesters

Washington, D.C.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Salt Lake City, Utah

Austin, Texas

Harrisburg, Pa.

Columbus, Ohio

Lafayette, California

Vero Beach, Florida

West Boynton, Florida

Portland, Oregon

Colmar, Pennsylvania

Greenwood, Colorado

Temecula, California

Fresno, California

San Francisco, California


Police mistreat anti-Bush protesters

New York City

Jacksonville, Oregon

Hamilton, New Jersey


Kerry supporters' homes/cars vandalized

Washington, D.C.

San Jose, California

Seattle

Ann Arbor, Mich.


Threatening Kerry supporters' employment

Decatur, Alabama

Logan, Utah

As always, I'm looking for reader contributions. I realize my criteria are fairly rigorous -- there are, of course, various kinds of nastiness that don't really fit these descriptions.

But I think it's important not to overstate the case, and to keep focused on actual cases of violence and intimidation that might be criminal or, in the case of threatening people's employment, just condemnation-worthy behavior.

If anyone wants to help me flesh it out, please feel free to send published incidents to my e-mail (dneiwert@hotmail.com), or post them in the comments thread.

SIGNIFICANT UPDATE: Due to popular demand, I have decided to create a second list using similar criteria for left-wing thuggery. I'm also adding two essentially neutral categories.

With that in mind, you can have all your right-wing friends send me any cases that need adding to this list:

Attacks on campaign headquarters

Flagstaff, Arizona

Nashville, Tenn.


Kerry supporters intimidate/assault Bush supporters/war supporters

Sarasota, Florida

St. Paul, Minnesota


Bush supporters' homes/cars vandalized

Milwaukee, Wisconsin


Threatening Bush supporters' employment


Police mistreat anti-Kerry protesters

____

[Neutral Categories]


Mutual violence/threats

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Various Florida locales


Police mistreat voters/observers/journalists

Miami, Florida


Once again, the criteria for all entries is that they report incidents of violence or intimidation that fall within the above categories. They do not include sign thefts and voting fraud reports.

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