Actual Political Brawls?
September 19, 2009 6:51 PM Subscribe
Could you give me an example of a group of average (American) people getting into a fight (an actual brawl) over politics?
I need an example to use in a paper, I've tried to find one using google but I keep getting "fights" that aren't actually fights.
Links to news articles are preferable.
Thanks!
I need an example to use in a paper, I've tried to find one using google but I keep getting "fights" that aren't actually fights.
Links to news articles are preferable.
Thanks!
All the anti-globalization protesters brawlng with cops in Seattle? Or bitter liberals tussling with cops at the 2004 Republican National Convention in NYC?
posted by dfriedman at 7:00 PM on September 19, 2009
posted by dfriedman at 7:00 PM on September 19, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks, but could you guys provide news links?
posted by kylej at 7:05 PM on September 19, 2009
posted by kylej at 7:05 PM on September 19, 2009
Are you only looking for recent examples?
posted by synecdoche at 7:14 PM on September 19, 2009
posted by synecdoche at 7:14 PM on September 19, 2009
The infamous Hard Hat Riot in NYC in 1970. Several hundred construction workers attacked a large group of students that had gathered near Wall Street to memorialize the victims of the Kent State shootings. The police pretty much did nothing.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 7:15 PM on September 19, 2009
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 7:15 PM on September 19, 2009
Have you asked a librarian at your college library? Seriously, they'll hep you for free. (Perhaps not at 10:16 on Saturday night, but someone might be able to hook you up.) News organizations have indexes, if you're looking for something outside the reach of Google News.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:17 PM on September 19, 2009
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:17 PM on September 19, 2009
Response by poster: Not in college, and I kind of need this asap. I'll keep that in mind for when I do go to college though!
posted by kylej at 7:21 PM on September 19, 2009
posted by kylej at 7:21 PM on September 19, 2009
Best answer: Google news (+punched +(republican OR democrat)) turns up:
Steineger Speaks Out About his Shiner (http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/19752)
Passerby's punch mars peaceful rally - http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1215186.html
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:25 PM on September 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
Steineger Speaks Out About his Shiner (http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/19752)
Passerby's punch mars peaceful rally - http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1215186.html
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:25 PM on September 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
In the future, check out the public library or your HS library too, assuming you have the latter. Seriously. This is what librarians do!
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:26 PM on September 19, 2009
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:26 PM on September 19, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks chesty_a_arthur!
I definitely will ask at a library in the future.
posted by kylej at 7:32 PM on September 19, 2009
I definitely will ask at a library in the future.
posted by kylej at 7:32 PM on September 19, 2009
Response by poster: If anyone's interested, it's a paper on moderation in America, inspired by Benjamin Franklins' list of 13 virtues.
posted by kylej at 7:38 PM on September 19, 2009
posted by kylej at 7:38 PM on September 19, 2009
one thing to consider:
i don't know exactly what point you're trying to make in your paper, but you should definitely take into consideration (and probably mention) the fact that you had difficulty finding an example.
I'm just saying to be careful not to imply that this occurrence is more common than it is.
posted by 256 at 8:01 PM on September 19, 2009
i don't know exactly what point you're trying to make in your paper, but you should definitely take into consideration (and probably mention) the fact that you had difficulty finding an example.
I'm just saying to be careful not to imply that this occurrence is more common than it is.
posted by 256 at 8:01 PM on September 19, 2009
Historical:
Anti-Catholic riots (I almost did an FPP on this), which included killings, threats to torch convents, etc. Anti-Irish riots were a subset of the anti-Catholic riots.
Anti-Chinese riots and lynchings in California.
The caning of Charles Sumner on the floor of the US Senate chamber (there was a recent deleted FPP about this).
Lynchings of blacks, burning of black towns. Police firehosing and setting dogs on civil rights marchers in the 1950s and '60s. The 1963 Birmingham Church bombing, which killed four girls. The assassination of Emmet Till, Medgar Evers, of ML King, etc.
Anti-busing riots.
Haymarket Square. Matewan, Italian Hall, and many other union busting incidents. Google "Pinkertons".
Palmer Raids. The 'Police riot" at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Assassination of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark by Chicago police.
Systematic killings of Native Americans: Chivington's Massacre "..mothers and fathers [saw their] young children having their sex organs cut away. U.S. soldiers mutilated [the] women, cutting away their breasts and removing all other sex organs. After the Massacre, soldiers displayed the women's severed body parts on their hats....".
Anti-Mormon violence, Mormon destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor, the lynching of Joseph Smith, the Mountain Meadow Massacre, the US Army's occupation of Utah.
I could go on, but it's getting late.
posted by orthogonality at 8:11 PM on September 19, 2009
Anti-Catholic riots (I almost did an FPP on this), which included killings, threats to torch convents, etc. Anti-Irish riots were a subset of the anti-Catholic riots.
Anti-Chinese riots and lynchings in California.
The caning of Charles Sumner on the floor of the US Senate chamber (there was a recent deleted FPP about this).
Lynchings of blacks, burning of black towns. Police firehosing and setting dogs on civil rights marchers in the 1950s and '60s. The 1963 Birmingham Church bombing, which killed four girls. The assassination of Emmet Till, Medgar Evers, of ML King, etc.
Anti-busing riots.
Haymarket Square. Matewan, Italian Hall, and many other union busting incidents. Google "Pinkertons".
Palmer Raids. The 'Police riot" at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Assassination of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark by Chicago police.
Systematic killings of Native Americans: Chivington's Massacre "..mothers and fathers [saw their] young children having their sex organs cut away. U.S. soldiers mutilated [the] women, cutting away their breasts and removing all other sex organs. After the Massacre, soldiers displayed the women's severed body parts on their hats....".
Anti-Mormon violence, Mormon destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor, the lynching of Joseph Smith, the Mountain Meadow Massacre, the US Army's occupation of Utah.
I could go on, but it's getting late.
posted by orthogonality at 8:11 PM on September 19, 2009
Jesus, how could I forget:
Bloody Kansas, John Brown, Nat Turner.
Rioting an violence by and against stormtroopers of the German-American Bund.
The lynching of Leo Frank.
posted by orthogonality at 8:19 PM on September 19, 2009
Bloody Kansas, John Brown, Nat Turner.
Rioting an violence by and against stormtroopers of the German-American Bund.
The lynching of Leo Frank.
posted by orthogonality at 8:19 PM on September 19, 2009
Boston Tea Party.
posted by orthogonality at 8:21 PM on September 19, 2009
posted by orthogonality at 8:21 PM on September 19, 2009
There was the guy who got part of his finger bitten off at a health care rally, but it wasn't so much a brawl. A MoveOn.org dude bit off the anti-reform dude's fingertip.
One detail often left out is that the anti-reform dude was punching the MoveOn guy in the face repeatedly after being verbally insulted (which the punchee denies), at one point punched him directly in the mouth, and, in the words of the anti-reform dude, "My hand went right into his mouth, and when I took it out, my finger was gone." So, that might make it more likely for the fight side of the ledger.
posted by Ash3000 at 8:22 PM on September 19, 2009
One detail often left out is that the anti-reform dude was punching the MoveOn guy in the face repeatedly after being verbally insulted (which the punchee denies), at one point punched him directly in the mouth, and, in the words of the anti-reform dude, "My hand went right into his mouth, and when I took it out, my finger was gone." So, that might make it more likely for the fight side of the ledger.
posted by Ash3000 at 8:22 PM on September 19, 2009
For what it's worth, I saw two guys duke it out in a bar last October over "socialized medicine". No, really.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 9:07 PM on September 19, 2009
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 9:07 PM on September 19, 2009
Excerpted and condensed without permission from "Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution" by Diane McWhorter, pp 127-128:
posted by BitterOldPunk at 4:01 AM on September 20, 2009 [2 favorites]
On September 6, the day Eisenhower signed the toothless Civil Rights Act of 1957, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, his wife Ruby and their daughters Pat and Frederika ("Ricky") drove up to the redbrick citadel of white secondary education, Phillips High School with the intention of enrolling the two girls. Despite what was happening in Little Rock, Ricky Shuttlesworth had every expectation of matriculating at Phillips. Then she spied the greeting committee that had responded to the $19 worth of telegrams her father had sent to the various white institutions, following the Gandhian mandate to keep the authorities informed. Besides the TV crews and a negligible police presence were twenty or so civilian white men.That's one of the milder anecdotes. And that's just one man, one family, one school. We live in a violent country. I recommend the book. Won the Pulitzer.
To the child's disbelief, her father stepped out of the car. The men lunged at Shuttlesworth, baring brass knuckles, wooden clubs, and chains. Scampering west along the sidewalk, he was repeatedly knocked down. Someone pulled his coat up over his head so that he couldn't lower his arms.
"We've got this son of a bitch now," a man yelled. "Let's kill him," the crowd screamed. From a white female cheering section came advice to "kill the motherfucking nigger and it'll all be over." Men began smashing the windows of the car. One opened a door and took a chain to the Reverend J.S. Phifer, the Movement vice president who had driven the Shuttlesworths to the school (against his better judgment). Phifer swung what he called "a nonviolent right hook."
The attack had been going on for several minutes, as reporters noted, before "half a dozen motor scouts and four patrol cars moved as if by prearranged plan" to the scene. A cop grabbed Phifer's attacker. Ruby Shuttlesworth tried to get out of the back seat and, fending off an assailant with her pocketbook, was stabbed in the hip. Phifer stepped on the gas and began to nose through the mob. Shuttlesworth, who had been dazed by a strike from a chain, stumbled into the front seat as Phifer sped away. He remained preternaturally composed. As they sped toward University Hospital he instructed Phifer,"Don't run the stop sign."
At the hospital police dispersed what the Birmingham News described as "curious groups" of a hundred white people who had gathered outside his hospital room. Shuttlesworth was x-rayed from stem to stern and was found to have only minor kidney damage. The doctor ordered more tests of his skull, wondering that there were no fractures. "You must have a hard skull," he said.
"Doctor," Shuttlesworth replied, "the Lord knew I was in a hard town so He gave me a hard head."
Against doctor's orders, Shuttlesworth checked out of the hospital and addressed his followers from the pulpit at a downtown rally later that same night.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 4:01 AM on September 20, 2009 [2 favorites]
In the British 2001 election, someone threw an egg at deputy prime minister (and 210 lbs former boxer) John Prescott. The Register described the result as "the most hilarious event - possibly of the year".
posted by Mike1024 at 8:29 AM on September 20, 2009
posted by Mike1024 at 8:29 AM on September 20, 2009
There were certainly a few brawls during the Toledo "War".
posted by CrunchyFrog at 10:04 AM on September 20, 2009
posted by CrunchyFrog at 10:04 AM on September 20, 2009
Off the top of my head...
+ The Battle In Seattle, 2007 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Organization_Ministerial_Conference_of_1999_protest_activity
+The TSP Riot, 1988 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tompkins_Square_Park_Police_Riot_(1988) (There's an excellent first-hand account of this in the book War In The Neighborhood, as well as numerous other first-hand accounts of similar riots and confrontations over politics, especially as related to housing and class tension.)
+Not American, but last year there was a confrontation/brawl between some anarchist punks and some neo-nazi types in Calgary, Alberta, over, um, race-related issues, predictably. The link I had to the article about it in the Calgary Sun has disappeared, but if you google "Calgary anti-racists vs. Aryan Guard" you should find something pretty quickly.
posted by ellehumour at 11:58 AM on September 20, 2009
+ The Battle In Seattle, 2007 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Organization_Ministerial_Conference_of_1999_protest_activity
+The TSP Riot, 1988 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tompkins_Square_Park_Police_Riot_(1988) (There's an excellent first-hand account of this in the book War In The Neighborhood, as well as numerous other first-hand accounts of similar riots and confrontations over politics, especially as related to housing and class tension.)
+Not American, but last year there was a confrontation/brawl between some anarchist punks and some neo-nazi types in Calgary, Alberta, over, um, race-related issues, predictably. The link I had to the article about it in the Calgary Sun has disappeared, but if you google "Calgary anti-racists vs. Aryan Guard" you should find something pretty quickly.
posted by ellehumour at 11:58 AM on September 20, 2009
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posted by ishotjr at 6:53 PM on September 19, 2009