I’ve received a few comments on my previous post about the Barret rally at which a US Marine protester was removed and arrested. The commenters are making a case that David Willoughby was cursing and presented a threat to the Mayor and former President Clinton, which the Milwaukee Police News documents as follows.
David B. Willoughby, 39, of West Allis, was issued a municipal citation for disorderly conduct when he refused to comply with Milwaukee Police orders to step back from his location where he was waving a large wooden pole with a sign mounted on it. Given his proximity to Mayor Tom Barrett and other dignitaries, officers believed he posed a threat with the large sign and was asked to move back.
I think this is basically a load of crap.
Let’s dissect this shall we.
President Clinton has Secret Service protection but they are never mentioned, anywhere. If Willoughby was any kind of real threat, they’d have not only been involved (and rightly so), the left wing press would have been tripping over themselves to tie this guy to their false narrative on the violent TEA Party and Scott Walker just days before the Recall Election. It would be on every major left wing Cable network 24/7 as they tried to save Barrett’s campaign to unseat Scott Walker. But while AP took the photo above, they have no story on the arrest, or any perceived threat Willoughby might have presented, and no mention in the local press either (*more below), and with local TV staffers signing recall petitions you’d think they’d be all over this?
So it didn’t happen that way. Pictures of the event show barricades defining minimum safe distance. One observer says Willoughby was at lest 30 feet away, with what looks like a three to four foot pole for his sign–you do the math. No media on the threatening Walker supporter? And I took some time to review most of the available video and what little other “news” reporting I can find, and all I can determine is that the Mayor’s police force asked a guy who was protesting loudly against their boss to move or leave, and when he failed to do so they removed him for ignoring them, and then made up a reason for it.
Of course there are other elements that are also not getting reported–which we could argue is non-bias in abstentia. There were reports of comments directed at David Willoughby by the Union supporters in the crowd.
“One man in the crowd said he would ‘take him out,’ and a woman told him ‘I’m a union thug and you’re ignorant as hell,” Buzzfeed added.
Thinking back to the original protests in Madison and elsewhere, with all those signs on sticks, and the violence, and threats and hey…projection.
If there is actual physical evidence to support claims of a potential threat that contradicts what we know about the event, the accusers, and how the media reports on Democrat opposition, no one is sharing. No one is sharing because there is nothing there to share.
[Update] Here is a link to an AP story on the event, no mention of Willoughby or the arrest.
*Local Milwaukee TV Web sites.
WISN ABC – Nothing
CBSNews 58 – Nothing
TMJ4 – Nothing
Fox Milwaukee (barely mentions it.)
One lone Walker supporter, 59-year-old David Willoughby, held a sign and shouted questions through President Clinton’s speech. He was eventually cited with disorderly conduct by Milwaukee police.
