October 26, 2012

"I will not be bullied into voting for a gay man simply because I am gay."

Said Kyle Wood, a volunteer for Chad Lee (R), who is running against Mark Pocan (D), for the House seat in my district here in Wisconsin. It's the seat being vacated by Tammy Baldwin (D), who is running against Tommy Thompson (R), for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Herb Kohl (D).

Pocan (like Baldwin) is openly gay. Wood says a man — "white, 6 foot 2, with curly brown hair, a broad nose and a muscular build" — entered his home at 8 in the morning and beat him up, saying “You should have kept your (f------) mouth shut” and that he had been “warned.” Wood says the "warning" was graffiti on his car that said “house trained republican faggot,” “traitor,” and “ur like a jew 4 hitler.”

The police say they believe the injuries were "minor," but The Daily Caller report says Wood's "eyes were swollen shut by the beating, and he suffered a concussion along with neck and head lacerations." A photo at the Caller shows marks on Wood's neck made by what Wood terms "a ligature."

There you have it. Real or hoax? I don't know, but I remember Ashley Todd from the '08 election season.

UPDATE: Wood has recanted. More here.

49 comments:

mccullough said...

How many goons deliver a message beating at 8 am on a Wednesday morning?

Matt Sablan said...

I'm hesitant to believe it because there have been hoaxes lately.

Drago said...

I'm going to have see alot more before I even begin to believe this story.

It's possible it is true, but to me it's like the Brits say: "a little too on the nose".

Maybe I'm just cynical.

Shouting Thomas said...

Who knows? If it is a hoax, it will probably unravel quickly.

The graffiti on the car bit is eerily reminiscent of the Keri Dunn hoax.

Manufactured martyrdom is a staple of political PR.

Does look shady. Why would anybody be that interested in a "volunteer" in a political campaign?

Matt Sablan said...

On the other hand, there have been very vocal racist and homophobic elements on the left who direct their hatred at acceptable targets, namely prominent right-wing minorities. So, I can see why if I wanted to pull this hoax, I would pull the trigger on it. It just seems so plausible. It even hits the high points "bullying" "Hitler"; it just feels too perfectly constructed.

Bob Ellison said...

Hoax or not, should such a story influence one's vote?

Matt Sablan said...

I wouldn't let bad supporters change my vote, unless they were clearly inspired to get in people's faces.

Lyle said...

A young woman set herself on fire this week in Louisiana and blamed it on the KKK. She apparently did it herself though.

Sad, but I send her lots of love.

Carnifex said...

Maybe I am naive, but like the woman claiming the KKK attacked her in LA(the swamp, not the sewer), I'll listen to a reasonable story until it's discounted by the police.(and even then you have to wonder about the police). But you have to trust people to a little extent or society will breakdown even further, and that just optimal.

As an example, that congresscritter claimed people spit on him, and called him "nigger" when going to vote on Zerocare. I can see how that could happen, That no tape came to light to show the event he claimed happened is not believable. In today's society, every phone is a video recorder, plus all the regular MSM were there also, and they would LOVE to have tape of the Tea Party acting with racist. This is a proven fact because they tried to manufacture such tape, ie. the black man with the black rifle at the Zero rally. They edited the tape so you couldn't see he was black, and then went off on all the "racial hatred" of the Tea Partiers.

The whole problem with false flag operations is that they are a double whammy. They are either effective in their original application, thus sullying the name of the victim. And secondly, if found out, they waterdown any further claims of true incidents because the tar of a false flag flies over them from then on.

As a tactic, false flags are too efficient not to occur. But don't you love it when they catch someone doing it?

Carnifex said...

Ugh..."NOT optimal" sorry

LarryK said...

I know Kyle and, full disclosure, am working on Chad's campaign as well. I can understand the skepticism of some readers, it may seem a bit too random and sound fabricated. From my experience, though, Kyle is not a self-destructive individual, and he has suffered real injuries. I look forward to the outcomes of the investigations by the Madison police and the FBI.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The Daily Caller is not a friend... or something.

ndspinelli said...

Since this guy is a Republican the hate crime law cannot be invoked.

This does have a certain odor to it. I wouldn't put a team of detectives on it.

wyo sis said...

Sad things:
People actually hurt themselves while attempting to perpetrate a hoax.
People perpetrate hoaxes this politically inspired and heinous.
The first thing we think when we hear about politically inspired beatings is, this is a hoax.

The Drill SGT said...

I'm generally skeptical of all these 'hate crime' claims, however I ask myself:

1. if it were fake, and it may be, what is the huge motive? it's not as though there are a bunch of gays that were voting for the gay candidate, that are gonna go GOP Proud.

2. The Gay Rights guys have been very agressive in punishing public opponents in CA, MD, and elsewhere.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Semi-rough trade.

Anonymous said...

Why would you automatically assume it is a hoax?

ganderson said...

I was going to post, but the Drill Sgt and Wyo sis covered it for me

test said...

Suspect a hoax. If it were a militant leftist attack there would have been two or three attackers. Plus it would be more believable were it in a place where the attack could have been spontaneous.

test said...

The Drill SGT said...
1. if it were fake, and it may be, what is the huge motive? it's not as though there are a bunch of gays that were voting for the gay candidate, that are gonna go GOP Proud.


Generally the motive is to increase your profile among in-group supporters. All of a sudden everyone knows your name when you used to be a faceless drone with politics the same as everyone else and no differentiating standing or accomplishments.

MadisonMan said...

I believe it occurred, but will not be surprised when I learn it didn't.

The suspicious elements: The time of the attack (8 AM) and the description of the assailant (which could be 100s of people, even, almost, me).

I agree with his message though: he shouldn't "have" to vote for a gay man just because he is gay.

Known Unknown said...

I blame the creators of The New Normal.

Do they have any parole violations?

Big Mike said...

@MadMan, very well said, sir.

David said...

One vote for hoax here.

Christopher said...

I'll follow this with interest--I was waiting for Althouse to post about it. There have been scores of hoaxes on the left and there's no reason this couldn't take place on the right. However, there is sort of a special rage on the gay left aimed at gay conservatives. So we'll see.

Dante said...

Here is the opportunity to scream about this for weeks about the injustice! Then when it turns out to be a hoax, it can quietly disappear from the press.

Oh, Wait. The guy is an "R"; those rules don't count.

Dante said...

Actually, of course this reminds me of the black singer (actress?) who came out for Romney. Bad move. At least she wasn't beaten up.

ricpic said...

Homos and Nazis, perfect together.

Mark Nielsen said...

This could be both hoax and non-hoax. It's conceivable that Wood was really attacked as he said and really believes the attacker was trying to intimidate him politically, but that the attacker was in fact framing a false-flag to make Pocan supporters look bad.

A crime was committed no matter which permutation of motivations matches reality. I hope someone gets to the bottom of it.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Wasn't there another beating of a republican in Wisconsin? I think something about a yard sign?

So I don't know if these are true, hoax or copycat. It should be thoroughly investigated.

Matt Sablan said...

Actually, yes, there was another attack, also in Wisconsin.

What's the matter with Wisconsin?

Mary Beth said...

Another comment with the same spam links to an Arabic language chat site. I hope this isn't the end of the non-captcha commenting.

edutcher said...

We'll see, but, if real, this is a very encouraging trend.

ricpic said...

Homos and Nazis, perfect together.

If you're talking SA, distinction without difference.

Bob Boyd said...

Its not easy being green...

edutcher said...

Let me amend that, since I realize it didn't come out quite right.

I was talking about him being an independent, rather than group, thinker, not that he was beaten.

No excuse for that.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Thanks Sablan that was the story I was thinking about. a lot of craziness happens around an election. I don't understand why people get this way.

I refuse to put a Romney sticker on my truck because it would cause my truck to get damaged. I know I'm a pussy but I can't afford to fix my truck if it got damaged.

Geoff Matthews said...

I've let the Occupy Wall Street types influence my vote. Not in the way they'd like, but then I don't want them to be anywhere near the levers of power.

Ann Althouse said...

Please address the use of the word "ligature."

Especially Mitchell.

Ann Althouse said...

If an intruder put something around your neck and started trying to strangle you, assuming you were able to survive and tell the tale, would you call what was put around your neck a "ligature"? I think that's a telling word.

Ann Althouse said...

"Another comment with the same spam links to an Arabic language chat site. I hope this isn't the end of the non-captcha commenting."

There's been very little spam, actually. I'm not thinking of putting the captchas back. It would need to be quite a bit worse.

Prolixus said...

The word ligature is frequently used on shows like CSI and Law & Order. If the victim watches these sorts of programs then it shouldn't be surprising that he'd know the word.

Anonymous said...

The use of the word ligature may have been the reporters interpretation of the incident rather than a direct quote from the victim.

Anonymous said...

Oops sorry, the Daily Caller article expresses it as a direct quote.

Revenant said...

If I had to guess I would guess "hoax". We'll see.

Nathan Alexander said...

I noticed that ligature was a little awkward, too.

But does using ligature make it more likely or less likely to be a hoax?

If I wanted to make a hoax of being attacked, I don't see that I'm more likely to use the word "ligature". In fact, I'd be more likely to say "rope or cord or something" because that would sound more normal.

What I'm thinking is that every time he told the police that the assailant put cord of some type around his neck, the police responded with, "a ligature?".
After repeating the story a few times (as I'm sure they would have him do to find inconsistencies and changing stories), he adopted the same wording.

The thing that has me leaning toward this being real is that concussions are serious business. It is very impossible to hit someone hard enough to give them a concussion without also significantly risking killing them.

Scratching a "B" into your own face is minor pain, heals easily/quickly. Having someone hit you hard enough to concuss you is seriously dangerous.

Chip S. said...

would you call what was put around your neck a "ligature"? I think that's a telling word.

Isn't is likely that the cops used this word when they interviewed him? Like this:

Victim: He tried to strangle me with something.

Cop: What did he use?

Victim: I'm not sure. Some kind of cord or rope or something.

Cop: Well then, a ligature of some sort.

Victim: Yeah. A ligature.

Abdul Abulbul Amir said...

This is a new potential member of Pink Pistols.

Sigivald said...

It does have a whiff of "too good to check".

But it's not remotely implausible either (as Mr. Sablan says).

Await further information, I say.

Anonymous said...

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