CHARGES WERE FILED TODAY IN THE KENNETH GLADNEY CASE!!
—6 Are Charged in Town Hall Disturbance and Beatings!
They were charged with “misdemeanor” violations for smashing a black man on the cement and calling him n*****.
The Post Dispatch just broke the news:
Six people arrested in August outside a raucous town hall meeting in south St. Louis County have been charged with misdemeanor ordinance violations.
The six, including a Post-Dispatch reporter, had attended a demonstration outside an Aug. 6 forum called by U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis, at Bernard Middle School in Mehlville to discuss health care reform.
The charges were filed Tuesday by the St. Louis County counselor’s office, which prosecutes misdemeanor ordinance violations in unincorporated areas. All are to appear in court Jan. 21.
The maximum penalty upon conviction would be one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Some bloggers have been writing for months about the lag between the arrests at the politically-charged event and the filing of charges.
County Counselor Patricia Redington insisted it had nothing to do with politics, influence or pressure from any official.
“These charges are like the 90,000 other charges we file each year,” she said.
Post-Dispatch reporter Jake Wagman, 30, of University City, was charged with interfering with a police officer. The charges allege that he failed to obey repeated commands “to leave the site of an ongoing disturbance.”
Elston McCowan, 47, of St. Louis, and Perry Molens, 50, of De Soto, each were charged with assaulting a person and interfering with police. They are accused of scuffling with and injuring Kenneth Gladney, a demonstrator with the Tea Party, a group generally opposed to Democrats’ universal health care proposals.
By the way… Gladney was not a protester. He was selling merchandise at the event.
Kenneth Gladney was beaten and stomped on by SEIU thugs outside of the Russ Carnahan town hall meeting in August:
Dana Loesch has more on the charges.
24th State says the violent thugs were also HCAN volunteers.
Post-Dispatch writer Jake Wagman just tweeted the news that he was charged:
So do you think Jesse and Al will get involved now?
…Me either.
Happy Thanksgiving.
** This was cross posted at Big Government.
More… Michelle added this:
I love how they waited til late Wednesday before Thanksgiving. So typical, hoping it will all be forgotten by Monday. They don’t know us very well, do they!
UPDATE: John at Power Line adds:
It occurs to me that if these union thugs had been Navy SEALS apprehending a terrorist mass murderer of Americans, rather than agents of the Democratic Party trying to suppress expression of a political view with which the Democratic Party disagrees, they would have been treated far more harshly. Why do you think that is?
UPDATE: Drudge is reporting on the health care town hall beatings tonight.
UPDATE: Kevin Gladney’s brother Keith said tonight, “The charges should have been more serious.”
