The New Hampshire Republican Party held its annual meeting in Concord two weeks ago. That was probably a mistake, but the State House is there, so I can guess why they’d think it would be safe. Concord is a city filled with lefties and a few Libertarians, but it is not like there weren’t a bunch of armed citizens present inside at the event.
But they were all indoors.
While they were in their biannual “meeting” (discussing party business), some deranged proglodyte keyed a bunch of cars in the parking lot. Vehicles were reportedly tagged based not on a shadow of a penumbra but Republican-supporting bumper stickers or cars with State Rep. plates. You know, obvious GOP types. I hear there were a few there (snark!).
That sounds like an actual hate crime to me. Tony Schinella at Patch has the best reporting so far.
Lawrence Anthony Dunlap, 37, of South Spring Street in Concord, was arrested on Friday on 11 felony counts of criminal mischief. He was charged after a nearly two week investigation into close to a dozen vehicles that were keyed and damaged around Concord High School during the New Hampshire GOP convention at the school. The party rented the Christa McAuliffe Auditorium and the Main Street corridor for the function. In the early afternoon, when attendees began to leave, many with political license plates, including state representative registrations and political stickers, called police after seeing their vehicles damages.
Soms investigating by City Police, a warrant, and a search of Dunlap’s Residence later “yielded firearms, a manifesto, suicide notes, and a bag containing zip ties, masks, and gloves.” Isn’t this standard junk drawer fare for the average Concord Democrat? Maybe not firearms, but this is the Live Free or Die State, and the Constitution is silent on the right to carry gloves and zip ties, while suicide notes are clearly an act of free speech. I do have to ask. Were the Dunlap scribblings early drafts for shuffling off his own mortal coil, or was he pretending to be Xerox and making copies for others?
That might look bad. A local progressive who was outside (party meeting) was found in possession of abduction paraphernalia and firearms. Imagine the rising din were the report to suggest the opposite. They hated Obama (even Democrats hate Biden) and keyed Democrat cars. Found in possession of abduction material. That’d be a hate crime. The National media would pick that up, “discover” he was Christian for five seconds, and link him to everyone with name recognition in the GOP.
We’d have CNN and MSNBC holding panels and sticking microphones and cameras into politicians’ faces, many of whom would sputter pablum-filled apologies and denounce the dude.
That’s not what happened. The story got covered locally by Patch and NH Journal (and now here), but the only “corporate coverage” of the suspect and the arrest was a paltry 105 or so words from the local ABC affiliate (WMUR) with no mention of a partisan or (even potential) politically driven animus.
I guess that’s what the corporate media meant by unity.
