Tuscon tea party leader Trent Humphries quoted at Glenn Beck’s website (link is wearing a condom; click at own risk) on James Fuller, the 63-year old shooting survivor arrested at a TV town hall for saying “you’re dead” to Humphries, who apparently lives with terminal irony deficiency:
“If pressing charges is the only way to make sure he gets the help he needs, we’ll probably do that,” Humphries said in a phone interview Sunday. “I‘m not saying this guy’s Jared Loughner, but I can‘t tell you for sure he’s not a danger to himself, me or the community.”
Fuller, shot in the knee during Jared Lee Loughner’s rampage a week ago, was
in the front row and apparently became upset when Humphries suggested that any conversations about gun control should be delayed until all the dead were buried, KGUN-TV in Tucson reported.
Fuller stood, turned and snapped a picture of Humphries, said Pima County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jason Ogan.
‘Then he yelled at him and said, ‘You’re dead,” Mr Ogan said.
It is not clear what Fuller’s aim was, but he may have been attempting to make a point about gun control – using his camera in lieu of a gun to demonstrate how quickly firearms can kill. (Daily Mail)
In the tea party universe, saying “you’re dead” is enough reason to arrest someone. But all the demagogues using violent imagery on radio and television and the internet have no connection to any incident of right-wing violence. See how that works?
I have no idea what Fuller was thinking; it’s possible he wasn’t thinking at all. If so, he’s a perfect example of how violence wins by making the rest of us lose our heads. The way forward is nonviolence — because every act of violence directed at the resister exposes the perpetrator, and the right simply cannot help itself.
