Presidential Election Aftermath: What Now / What Next?

They're saying Bernie winning Michigan after being down by nearly 20 points, is the biggest upset in Primary history

 

I'll just leave this here

 

Wow... Weird but probably true honestly. I think there's a distinct chance Trump wins this thing...

I have no idea how people are still voting for him out there. Just as big as the Sanders news is that Trump continues to freaking win despite everything. HOW? How is he doing this??

 

Could it be a different Osama Bin Laden? What an unfortunate name...

 

Just a joke. Not a real person.

 

Bernie absolutly wrecked Hillary in tonight's debate.

At the beginning, the audience was pretty devided, but by the end, they gave Bernie a standing ovation! He demolished her in this debate.

 

So, protester at a Trump rally getting lead out by the police. Guy in the audience sucker punches him.... in front of the cops... and the police tackle the guy that got hit? W...T...F???!!



Thankfully, the one that hit him has been found and charged with assault, but what's wrong with this scene where the guy that assaults him doesn't get arrested on the spot?

 

If I had to guess: the dude who got sucker punched was alright and when he stood up he was raring to go at the attacker. The cops intervened by keeping the protester away which resulted in a little scrum.

The guy who threw the punch I'm sure was taken away as well.

I didn't think the cops handled that too poorly. Maybe a little roughing up of the suckerpuncher is in order, but the puncher looked kinda like an old man. Maybe he didn't really pose much of a threat? Even the protester's friend didn't throw a retaliatory punch so I'm thinking the attacker was someone that didn't look like a threat.

 

The cops just calmly walked past the guy that threw the punch though. You just saw an assault, you are a police officer, and you just walk past?

Could the cops have gone back to arrest the guy? Maybe, but why would the cops just walk past doing nothing?

Then tackling the guy that just got punched while doing nothing to the one that punched him? Come on?

 

Did you see the tackle? What it looks like to me:
- old guy punches kid in white shirt
- white shirt goes down
- white shirt scrambles back up and attempts to go after old guy
- the cops try to wrap up the kid and keep him away. the kid is trashing (again reasonably because he just got punched) and in the scrum, everyone goes down including the cops. Keep in mind they don't arrest the kid, they just help him up and they all walk off.
- in that cut of the video they pan away from the old man, who's to say that they didn't escort him right off as well?

I know what you're looking for: you want the old man to be immediately arrested and taken away in handcuffs. That's reasonable and I agree with that. He just assaulted a person. I can't hear them so I don't know if the kid said or did anything that could be construed as trying to incite a crowd, so I don't know about charges being filed, but certainly the old man should be escorted out as well. However, I don't see anything wrong with the way the kid was escorted out. The "tackle" resulted in the kid trying to get back and attack the old man which is a reasonable response, but it's the escorting officer's job to keep that from happening which they did. The cops BEHIND those cops should have taken the old man out.

Also keep in mind at stadium events like this, you usually stagger it when two parties are fighting. I don't know if you've ever been to a Dodger game, but there's an incident like this almost every time I go. What happens is:
- the party that's being ATTACKED is lead out first for their safety to get away from the attacking group.
- police/security stay back near the ATTACKING party to keep an eye on them.
- then once the first group is clear and out of the way, they'll come back for the second group.

That is the safest and most peaceful way to diffuse situations like that. Again: the old man is surely in trouble. He gets taken away in due time, but the first priority is to get the kids out of there asap not only for their safety but to keep the crowd calmer as well.

 

Everything you're saying would be what you would reasonably think would happen, but that's not what happened:

"WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - A man is facing criminal charges after police say he assaulted a protester being removed from a rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in North Carolina, local television station WRAL reported on Thursday. (Video:reut.rs/1pbdauH)

John McGraw, 78, of Linden, North Carolina, has been charged with assault and battery and disorderly conduct, the news station said on its website. The incident on Wednesday night in Fayetteville was caught on video by bystanders.

Sheriff's officials could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday.

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office earlier told the Wall Street Journal it was investigating why officers arrested the protester but not the man who punched him in the face.

Rakeem Jones, the man who was hit, told the Washington Post that the blow caught him off guard.

"After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I’m on the ground getting escorted out," Jones told the newspaper.

Trump's campaign rallies are boisterous in tone, with the New York billionaire often pausing in his addresses to scold protesters and ask security officers to take them away. At a rally last month in Nevada, he said of a protester, "I'd like to punch him in the face."

The real estate magnate is the front-runner to be his party's presidential nominee for the general election on Nov. 8."

Here's another angle of the assault:

 

Again I don't know why the cops didn't arrest the second guy on the spot and escort him out afterwards. I agree with you on that notion.

The kid's take on what happened just doesn't hold up to what I'm seeing on screen. If he's punched and then magically ends up on the ground under the cops, then why is he being held and lifted into the air before that? I think it's more likely he sees it that way because he was understandably emotional and irate after being attacked. The event ends up in a blur and you end up being on the ground shocked and confused because you reacted to being punched. I understand where he's coming from, but I can see in the video he's not punched and then tackled without warning. He gets up and tries to respond whether that's with violence or not, it's the cops' job between the kid and the old man to intervene at that point.

Again: the old man should have been arrested shortly after and since I can't see the rest of the incident in that video clip, it's what I assumed happened. Why they didn't doesn't make sense to me. There were at least two cops in position there to make the right move. The other ones did their job well keeping that kid who was attacked safe and away from causing himself or anyone else physical harm.

Him being arrested could have absolutely nothing to do with being punched though. What does the report say he was arrested for? Just reading the body language he could be arrested for incitement or disturbing the peace which is reasonable since he was in a crowd gesturing about. Ironic that he'd get arrested for a disturbing the peace at a Trump rally, but still something I could see reasonably. I doubt his arrest had anything to do with the attack though and the old man was later arrested FOR the attack so justice is served if a bit late I guess.

 

You're misunderstanding what I'm mad at.

I'm not mad that the kid gets tackled, I'm mad that the sheriffs tackled the kid that didn't hit anyone, while doing nothing to the old man that attacked him.

The combination is unjust.

Arresting him later, after a s*** storm of media get's out there and they know there will be consequences doesn't rectify the matter.

 

I mean it does kind of, but only if those officers who didn't arrest him immediately are charged with something. I'm with you on that one. I think those officers should have absolutely arrested that old man. His age shouldn't have anything to do with his punishment.

I think this is the wrong thread for this discussion though.

 

True