Patterico's Pontifications

5/14/2011

Video From the LSU Protest and the Application of the Heckler’s Veto

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 6:19 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

I blogged about this yesterday, noting that there was idiocy all around in the story, but I couldn’t find satisfactory video at the time.  Thanks to Allahpundit (with an pointer from Instapundit), we have the video showing pretty much the entire protest, counter-protest and in real time as the heckler’s veto was applied:

Personally I didn’t see evidence of bottles thrown at him as reported, but we are only seeing from one angle. And what is with the girl behind him?

Also here’s Fox News talking to an organizer of the counter protest:

Cody Wells, to his credit, agrees that they shouldn’t have thrown anything at the guy.  That makes him one of the smartest people in this whole stupid incident.  I’m not joking, he “gets it” when too many others do not. He loves this country, and loves the freedom we are founded on.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

37 Responses to “Video From the LSU Protest and the Application of the Heckler’s Veto”

  1. Put quite simply, Muslims and union members are showing us the way. Use the heckler’s veto, use the ‘at their home’ protest veto, use the (thanx, Islam) murderer’s veto.

    Maybe if the tea party started to sue the MSM for false accusations of racism and bigotry, we could start using the lawfare veto. (Or, just to make sure that they get the message, bomb a couple of CNN stations)

    That whole violence thing seems to work uncommon well for the Religion of Peace.

    Jack (f9fe53)

  2. Look if y’all wanna burn an american flag than we should be able to burn a mexican flag.

    DohBiden (15aa57)

  3. First, skumbag had to get “permission” to protest, then he failed to get the next “permission” in the form of a “burn permit” – and the vast swath of retarded morons we have now call it free speech…
    It’s government powers that be regulated speech, PERIOD – and in fact, it appears the burniest part was denied…
    FREE SPEECH MY *** (see how not free that was?)

    Let’s not forget the endless tax dollars that went into this, not just the LSU fed tax suction and state taxes suction, but the cost of the MOUNTS and HELMETS, the police car (pounded on I heard) – this “free speech” sure was regulated, TAXED, and DENIED, all across the board….

    So, I’m not impressed at all.
    I got it right, probably the ONLY ONE in the entire USA.

    SiliconDoc (7ba52b)

  4. Was it a university in California that expelled a student for burning a flag at a protest?

    It was a Hamas flag (IIRC).

    Have Blue (854a6e)

  5. have

    i would love to see a link for that.

    doh

    you have the constitutional right to burn a mexican flag.

    jack

    the scary thing is you might be right. they might be thinking “hey if muslims get their way by being violent over mere speech, let’s do it, too…”

    Aaron Worthing (73a7ea)

  6. Aaron – Tried looking for the incident I was recalling (I am supposed to be at the nursery picking out annuals to plant as I type this) and this is what I could quickly find.

    Ace used the term burning in his headline on this column “San Franscisco (sic) State University Rapped For Burning Flag” http://minx.cc/?post=215216

    The column links to an article at the NRO’s Corner by Andrew McCarthy. “Can You Desecrate the Flag in San Francisco? Not If It’s a Jihadist Flag.” http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/137428/can-you-desecrate-flag-san-francisco-not-if-its-jihadist-flag-andrew-c-mccarthy

    That article refers to the actual act of “desecration” as walking on or stepping on the Hamas flag. At another event shoes were thrown at a hanging Hamas flag. All of these events have resulted in complaints made to the University and at least threats of official sanction. (In these stories the threat of sanction was the disbanding of the sponsoring organization, not expulsion.) Will try to refine my search later. It does not help that the scenario (burning the Hamas flag) as been used as a Hypothetical in a lot of legal briefs on free speech and 1st Amendment issues.

    Have Blue (854a6e)

  7. Hypocrisy in San Franpsycho?

    I-i’am shocked…………..NOT.

    DohBiden (15aa57)

  8. And what if a gay person opposes gay marriage in San Fransisco?

    DohBiden (15aa57)

  9. Aaron Worthing asked:
    ‘And what is with the girl behind him?’

    One commentator in a thread at Gateway Pundit wrote that the woman wearing the American flag tanktop was Ben Haas’s girlfriend. Perhaps she was connected to him in some way (I haven’t watched the video).

    Best regards, Peter Warner.

    Peter Warner (e955ed)

  10. From his departmental website.

    Benjamin Haas
    Performance Studies, continental philosophy, post-humanism, tightrope walkers,
    poetics, film

    http://appl003.lsu.edu/artsci/cmstweb.nsf/$Content/cmst+graduate+students?OpenDocument

    Let’s put things in perspective. The guy’s a cretin, plain and simple, and he decided to play with fire. The water balloons are not a big deal.

    flurmfl (0da589)

  11. I can’t play the video (not technical issues, just where I am right now); does it say whether he had a local fire permit?

    See, I think that’s the answer to ‘flag burning’ as free speech. A flag sized fire is non-trivial. Even a smallish flag is the size of a bath towel (nobody seems to burn little flags on sticks). A bath towel sized piece of burning fabric could, if caught by the wind, be quite dangerous. So; want to burn a flag? Get a fire permit. Just like some areas do to the KKK over cross burnings. Don’t want to get a permit? Then, depending on local fire regs, either pay a largish fine or go to jail.

    That this treatment puts the flag burners on all fours with the KKK, which is where they belong, is an extra bonus at no added expense.

    C. S. P. Schofield (8b1968)

  12. Water is a civil rights violation.

    Progressive Liberals just care about themselves and their ego.

    DohBiden (15aa57)

  13. I am a little concerned about this whole issue. Shouting down dissent is not my idea of political discourse. How many videos have we seen and condemned because muslims or unionistas, or liberals have shown up at conservative (Stein and others) and prevented their free speach. I don’t think providing the news media with a screed of, “Those conservatives are just as bad or worse than the people protesting at their events.” You know they will. They find violence where it isn’t, so you can bet they will find it when it actually occurs.

    TimothyJ (89e3a3)

  14. it’s funny that there
    are buncha horse’s asses
    one wear beard, glasses

    ColonelHaiku (16b296)

  15. I’m not in broad brush agreement on how people throwing water balloons at this clown, makes him look like the smartest guy in the room.
    It was his right to burn whatever he wanted with the (near future)exception of a Koran and hey, have at it but it is high fricking time that other people who are disgusted with this display of Anti-American stupidity and displayed their anger in the way of balloons filled with water.
    I say, don’t take this kind of junk anymore, bombs away and if it makes you look like Einstein then so what, they aren’t tossing balloons for you, they are tossing balloons at you, for themselves.

    justavoter (b003e1)

  16. Can the scrotum lickers like Kman explain how Osama was a right winger who supported the kyoto protocol?

    DohBiden (15aa57)

  17. Aren’t there any black/Asian/Hispanic students at LSU. As far as I can tell, everyone in the crowd is white. Well, actually I know there is at least one hispanic, as one Mr. Esclava , joint Columbian/US citizen, has been detained for burning the University’s flag.

    Of course the would-be flag burner is white too, as its his little sidekick. I’m pretty sure that Mr. Benjamin Haas is, however, Jewish. I give him great credit for physical courage, though he wisely (and eagerly) took the po-po’s advice to be evacuated for his own safety. Good on the university po-po too!

    stari_momak (d5f987)

  18. To my mind there is a big difference between speech in a public place, as this was, and a private speech where the speaker has planned and obtained a venue in advance for a specific purpose. I would be more inclined to decry the “hecklers veto” if this was an instance of the latter.

    Throwing the water balloons was just wrong.

    Makewi (749f5a)

  19. That was uncomfortable to watch. People seem so unaccustomed to correct behavior in a civil society that they don’t even realize how improper the heckler’s veto is.

    Of course the MSM has badly fallen down on the job by not criticizing the Left’s frequent past use of the heckler’s veto. Of course we expect that from the MSM since they are the allies and enablers of the American Left. I wonder how the MSM will react to the LSU incident?

    One thing I do expect is the Soros propaganda outfits and the left wing blogosphere which mindlessly regurgitate that propaganda to attack the LSU incident with claims of hypocrisy, since the right side of the blogosphere has attacked the Left’s use of the heckler’s veto. Of course how often has the Left ever criticized their own use of the veto? Yet all over the Right I see wincing over the LSU incident.

    Brad (d9a8d4)

  20. LSU has a storied history as a the “Ole War Skule”. It was originally a military school and the old site of the university near the state capitol are called the Pentagon Barracks. We all sing the National Anthem at football games. We are a very patriotic group.

    This moron was going to protest by burning a flag because his friend tore down and American flag at the LSU War Memorial and burned it because he was po’d that Osama Bin Laden had resumed room temperature at the hands of a Navy Seal.

    No they shouldn’t have thrown water balloons at him but hey, it was pretty harmless. I can’t find any witness that saw bottles being thrown. My suggestion to Mr. Esclava and Mr. Hass is to get out of BR and move to some place like Berkley.

    Roux (f7bb81)

  21. Throwing the water balloons was wrong

    But they had the right to do so.

    BTW

    DohBiden (15aa57)

  22. Video timeline

    2:02 Hass begins to speak

    2:20 Water-balloons begin to fly, one hitting hippie-chick in the back

    2:40 Police order Haas to leave the area for his own safety and escort him away from the crowd

    Brad (d9a8d4)

  23. kids these days with their water balloons and their patriotism

    happyfeet (3c92a1)

  24. OK, in an ideal world, where common sense limitations are placed on all protesters, the kids who threw water balloons would be arrested for assault. We are, as a society, entirely too goddamned fond of throwing things ‘in protest’, and it really needs to stop.

    On the other hand, in that ideal world, twit-face would have been required to apply for a fire permit, and to take serious (and onerous) safety precautions to keep the fire from spreading or the burning flag from blowing into somebody’s face. We are also, as a society, entirely to goddamned fond of setting fire to things ‘in protest’. Nobody pays much attention to the fact, but the night before the National Guard was sent onto Kent State campus, the protesters had set fire to a building (R.O.T.C., natch) and interfered with firefighters on the scene. In short, they had shown that they were stupid enough and dangerous enough to set a building sized fire and to try to keep firemen from stopping its spread. They had to be closed down, pronto, before they managed (with the most innocent intentions, to be sure) in torching the entire town.

    We allow ‘Protesters’ entirely to much leeway. They should be prevented, by force if necessary, from endangering their fellow citizens ….. and mostly they aren’t.

    C. S. P. Schofield (8b1968)

  25. It’s not the correct flag anyway. It doesn’t have 56 or 57 stars.

    Just in case: *That’s sarcasm, son, I sayyy sarcasm.

    * I do a crappy Foghorn Leghorn..

    JP (508ef3)

  26. CSP

    no, he had no burn permit, and he didn’t even try to burn anything as a result.

    Aaron Worthing (73a7ea)

  27. Not all ‘heckler’s vetoes’ are equal. I’d have to go back and check out incidents when the Westboro Baptist Church people were heckled and see if today’s heckler decriers were equally saddened.

    Is it wrong to heckle the KKK at one of their parades? You gotta be consistant or else you expose your sympathies.

    j curtis (60320c)

  28. If he wanted to burn the flag, he should have wrapped himself in it first.

    AD-RtR/OS! (3ddda9)

  29. The water baloons were just a preventative measure to ensure than the area was too wet for a fire to become a danger to any one/thing.
    Smokey the Ranger would approve!

    AD-RtR/OS! (3ddda9)

  30. A thought;

    If you exercise your Free Speech Rights in a reserved space (a hall, a designated outdoor space, etc), you have some reasonable expectation of “ownership” of the venue. If you are simply going to start spouting off in public space, even if you announce it in advance, I would say you have less reasonable expectation of “ownership”.

    In the former case the heckler’s veto infringes on your rights. In the latter case I would say it was a toss-up on whether they were infringing on your rights of your were infringing on their right to NOT HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOU.

    Moral of the story; get specific permission for a specified location beforehand, and let people know so they can be elsewhere.

    Anyone know if any of this applies to our pet hippie here?

    C. S. P. Schofield (8b1968)

  31. Happyfeet these day with his hootchie shaming and patriotism 😀

    DohBiden (15aa57)

  32. #11 ” A bath towel sized piece of burning fabric could, if caught by the wind, be quite dangerous. So; want to burn a flag? Get a fire permit.”

    So, shortly ago, we used to all rake our leaves to the curb and light them on fire – twice a year – the entire city did.
    Today, our insane populace whines a burning flag is a fire hazard – and declares get a permit – as if that somehow makes the burning flag suddenly “safe” in the little thinkers meind khamph…
    Surely the blowing hard will shriek the fire truck shows up since it knows where the potential destruction will be and at what hour… a great “free speech” tax n spend INSANE LOONFEST I’m sure for all the busy body morons we now have in our pathological PC social order freak show.

    WE BURN THE GIANT PILES OF LEAVES AT THE CURBS IN AMERICA. THIS IS OBVIOUSLY NOT AMERICA ANY MORE.

    Have a nice day geniuses.

    SiliconDoc (7ba52b)

  33. SiliconDoc; I’m not quaking in fear of flaming flags, but there IS that one picture (which the MSM ignored, go figure) of some Islamic Twit burning the American Flag in celebration on 9/12/2001, who got wrapped in burning cloth by a passing gust.

    Fire isn’t just a symbolic statement, it’s a natural force that sensible people keep under control. I have yet to see a flag burner who I considered had the sense to pour pee out of a boot. Instead of passing an Amendment to the Constitution – which is taking these nits entirely too seriously – I advocate using existing fire safety laws to hem them in. It should pass Constitutional muster; if I recall correctly the Supreme Court ruled that this was a fine way to discourage KKK cross burnings.

    The Nannies have hemmed us in with all KINDS of safety regs. I see no reason why we shouldn’t make some rational use of them until we can get them repealed. And if it annoys the kind of Liberal Intellectual Radical Progressive twerp who is usually all for more laws, GREAT!

    C. S. P. Schofield (8b1968)

  34. CSP – let the muzzie burn – and it’s not “us” hemming them in – it’s the INSANE control freaks who already have.
    Your point is noted, but it’s not like YOU or anyone else has to do anything about it – no activism required, the loon laws are already in place- EVERYWHERE.
    If you fired up a bar-b-que grill they cuff you and stuff you too.

    SiliconDoc (7ba52b)

  35. And what is with the girl behind him?

    He could find only one “goddess”. Winning!

    PatriotRider (dd3155)

  36. SD, someone has to file a complaint before the authorities will take action.
    Will you be that “someone”?

    AD-RtR/OS! (e9ee01)

  37. SiliconDoc; I’m not quaking in fear of flaming flags, but there IS that one picture (which the MSM ignored, go figure) of some Islamic Twit burning the American Flag in celebration on 9/12/2001, who got wrapped in burning cloth by a passing gust.

    Colonel got the marshmellows if you got the Hershey Bars.

    all kidding aside
    that fiery incident
    had smell of justice

    ColonelHaiku (37fe8d)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0976 secs.