Stomping on the First Ammendment

While Paul Joseph Watson condemns the "thuggery" of the two men who shoved a MoveOn.org supporter to the ground during a Rand Paul rally, and admits they should be prosecuted, he also contends that the woman tried to assault Rand Paul. A video posted at Prison Planet shows Lauren Valle, in red hoodie and blonde wig, breaking ahead of the crowd surrounding his vehicle as it pulls to a stop. She was portraying a corporate executive as part of a satirical MoveOn.org campaign. In the video, Valle holds her Rand Paul sign very close to Paul's open passenger window before he exits the vehicle. This is when an actual Paul supporter grabs her and pulls her away from the vehicle.
Watson even states that Valle's actions were "clearly more aggressive" than the actions of the man who shoved her to the pavement and the man who jammed his foot into her shoulder to help prevent her from getting to her feet.

This is an attempted assault? Holding a sign up to someone's face? While I question Valle's judgement in getting so close to the vehicle, it doesn't look to me like she was threatening Paul, nor was she in any position to harm him. Both of her hands are on the sign.

Watson also wrote an article about an incident that occurred the same night, pointing to it as evidence that the "establishment media" selectively covered the night's events. It seems a woman with an injured foot was also stomped on by a supporter of Rand Paul's rival, Jack Conway. But I think there could be other explanations for why this other incident received little coverage:

- The woman's name is unknown.
- The alleged perpetrator's identity is unknown.
- The circumstances of the alleged stomping are unknown.
- Having your foot stepped on in a crowd could be an accident (though the woman is reportedly pressing charges).
- The encounter was apparently not recorded, as the assault on Valle was.

As further supposed evidence that the media turns a blind eye to leftist violence, Watson mentions that an Obamacare supporter had his finger bitten off by a MoveOn.org activist at a rally last year. This case is more complicated than that, however. First of all, Bill Rice punched the unidentified man in the face and knocked him to the ground. The man got up and the two struggled before Rice's finger was bitten. In other words, we're not talking about an unprovoked assault. Capt. Ross Bonfiglio, a public information officer with the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, said that while Rice was certainly a victim, he was also the "primary aggressor". Also, because the biter remains unidentified (he fled), there is no way of knowing for certain that he was a MoveOn.org supporter.
The mainstream media did not ignore Rice's story, either. He was interviewed by a sympathetic Neil Cavuto on CNN.

Thuggery is thuggery. It should be unconditionally condemned regardless of who perpetrates it, and it should not be exploited for political ends. Alex Jones routinely castigates law enforcement for thuggery, but when it comes to thugs connected with a political candidate who has been a guest on his show, the tune changes. Then the thuggery, while still deplorable, becomes acceptable - even justified.