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Eyewitness Tells Of Finger-Biting At Health Rally

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An anti-reform protester's blood stains a California sidewalk after a pro-reformer bit his finger off.

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I just got off the phone with Karoli Kuns, a blogger in Camarillo, CA, who attended the health reform rally last night where a pro-reform demonstrator bit off the finger of an aggressive 65-year-old anti-reformer.

Earlier, we were a little unclear about who did what to who, but Kuns has helped clarify things.

On one side of a big intersection outside of a shopping mall in Thousand Oaks, CA, were between 150 and 200 pro-reform demonstrators at a well-publicized MoveOn rally. Across the street were no more than a dozen anti-reform protesters who arrived just before the MoveOn rally began. Four were holding hands in silent prayer. Another wore a tea party t-shirt. Some held signs with slogans like "No Obamacare." All but one were relatively restrained.

The exception was a tall 65-year-old man in an orange shirt who Kuns said "was displaying what I would consider to be intimidating behavior." He first picked on a pro-reform woman more than a foot shorter than him, stretching his arms out and shooing her away as he advanced on her and she backpedaled.

"It appeared to me that he was saying, basically, get on your own side of the street now," Kuns said. "He was chasing her."

Next on the anti-reformer's harassment list was a pro-reformer who appeared to be in his late 30s or early 40s, was stocky, and several inches shorter than the 65-year-old. Though Kuns isn't sure how the pro-reformer ended up on the anti side of the street, she saw the two men face to face, exchanging words.

Then the anti-reformer in the orange shirt "punches him straight up in the face, right between the eyes." The smaller pro-reformer's glasses and hat flew off, and he fell into the street.

"I don't know who started it wordwise," Kuns said, "but I can tell you for sure that the guy who threw the first punch was the anti guy. And can he punch hard! He knocked this guy down into the street."

The pro-reformer got up. The anti-reformer tried to block him from standing on the curb. A short scuffle ensued, and it was unclear to Kuns who was doing what to whom. The anti-reformers surrounding the fighting men stayed back. When the fight ended, the pro-reformer crossed the street and announced to the MoveOn rally that he'd bitten the man's finger off.

"He was certainly not swaggering," Kuns said, referencing earlier reports saying he had been. "He was pissed and he was shaking."

"He was angry. His demeanor was what you'd expect from somebody who'd just been hit hard. He was defensive."

Sheriffs deputies soon arrived. Kuns isn't sure where the finger biter took off to, but did see the bitten man walk in the direction of a hospital a couple blocks away. The AP has since reported that a hospital spokeswoman said the anti-reformer lost half his finger, though doctors reattached it and sent him home last night. "She says he had Medicare," the story states.

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15 comments

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September 3, 2009 1:14 PM   

Gee, I hope he had insurance.

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September 3, 2009 1:22 PM    in reply to JohnDoe

"She says he had Medicare," the story states.

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September 3, 2009 6:56 PM    in reply to Schmed

Then what's he worried about? It's not like the gov't is going to put its hands on Medicare . . .

Otherwise, the legal definition of "assault" is:

Putting another IN FEAR of battery/bodily harm. Assault, in itself, is a crime.

Does it surprise that a bully would first threaten a person smaller than he, preferably a woman?

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September 3, 2009 1:33 PM   

Yargh. Ugly.

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September 3, 2009 1:36 PM   

Kinda gives new meaning to the phrase, "Gave him the finger!"

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September 3, 2009 1:39 PM   

the best part of this story? the anti-health-reformer - the one who had his finger bitten off and then reattached by doctors - was on medicare. seniors on medicare protesting against medicare then being treated by medicare.

america is performance art.

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September 3, 2009 1:39 PM    in reply to Petey05

i think i speak for all of us when i saw "god damn america."

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September 3, 2009 1:44 PM    in reply to Petey05

You don't. What?

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September 3, 2009 6:59 PM    in reply to Rionn Fears Malechem

He's simply presuming the hypothetical "God" is a fact-based theory.

And there are those who would point to the Bushit criminal enterprise, and the destruction they imposed on the country, and assert that the country has already been damned by that hypothetical.

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September 3, 2009 1:58 PM   

I would have preferred if the pro-health care guy hit the wingnut with a double leg, locked on a kimura, and made him tap -- but I will definitely accept this outcome.

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September 3, 2009 4:12 PM    in reply to Skybolt

Always room for improvement.

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September 3, 2009 3:20 PM   

It's a good thing it didn't happen in Arizona with all those guns around.

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D

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September 3, 2009 6:31 PM   

A totally different version of this story is in a Ventura paper. One,
the man's finger could not be re-attached. Two, no hospital employee
would reveal personal information as that is in direct violation of
HIPPA. Those two things make me question the validity of this story.

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September 4, 2009 9:45 AM   

Well, whatever turns out to be the truth, I hope that the health care reform movement is solely decided by what happened and by who was the true aggressor.

*rolls eyes*

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September 4, 2009 2:40 PM   

I want to make a couple of clarifications here, and I will be doing so on my blog too.

After talking with Ben and after meeting with the detectives yesterday, it became clear to me (and them) that while I had the sequence right, I had the victim wrong. I've published my pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drumsnwhistles/sets/72157622107378901/ . The sequence is correct, and has been corroborated by Mr. Rice (though he is incorrect about the man who bit him rushing him. That didn't happen. The man did defend the woman with flyers).

Bottom line here: I saw a tall man in a yellow shirt, a man in a black shirt and a man in a khaki shirt all involved in this altercation, and remembered the yellow shirt over the khaki. It was a mistake I wish I hadn't made, but I did, and I own that. However, it doesn't take away from the truth of the sequence or the fact that the man who bit was defending himself.

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