Senator Cornyn physically assaulted me today
UPDATE @ 7:53 EST 10/21/09] Some quick and dirty research for the naysayers.
DC ST § 22-403 Whoever assaults another with intent to commit any other offense which may be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years.
§ 22-2801. Robbery.
Whoever by force or violence, whether against resistance or by sudden or stealthy seizure or snatching, or by putting in fear, shall take from the person or immediate actual possession of another anything of value, is guilty of robbery, and any person convicted thereof shall suffer imprisonment for not less than 2 years nor more than 15 years.§ 22-2802. Attempt to commit robbery.
Whoever attempts to commit robbery, as defined in § 22-2801, by an overt act, shall be imprisoned for not more than 3 years or be fined not more than $500, or both.There is no crime of battery in the District of Columbia.
Bottom line: if I cannot behave this way toward Senator Cornyn without putting myself at the mercy of the law, and if we live in a country of laws, not men, then he is no less liable for his behavior than I am and should be treated exactly the same way I should be expected to be treated if I tried to slap a camera out of his hand while he was taking pictures of me.
Certainly not a beat-down, or anything like it, but if I had behaved toward him the way he did to me, I woulda been spread-eagle on the floor with guns trained on me.
He got off the Hart Senate office building subway, just like any number of Senators before him. I pointed the flip cam at him and began walking with him, asking him about the Franken amendment. He tried to slap the camera out of my hand and then tried to grab it from me. Fortunately I was filming the whole time.
I’m wondering how to play it. It was clear that I didn’t want to be touched, and if I remember correctly, any unwanted touching constitutes assault. I’m making the video public and demanding an apology. Without one, I will file a criminal complaint against the Senator.
At bottom, the idea here is that celebrities have been sued for assaulting paparazzi. Unless somehow Senators are different and above the law, they have no right to put their unwelcome hands on another person. Like I said, if I had behaved similarly, there is no doubt that I would have been arrested.
Finally, there is the 4th Estate angle. Senator Cornyn obviously doesn’t have any respect whatsoever for the free press or 1st Amendment.
I would have punched you in the face. Its rude to stick a camera in someones face like that.
Mike Hunt
20 Oct 09 at 9:59 pm
I missed the assault that you speak of.
I guess I have to watch this again, but methinks you whine too much…
NuttyProf
20 Oct 09 at 10:28 pm
Rude? The guy’s an elected official, he gets cameras stuck in his face on a daily basis. He just doesn’t like cameras that come accompanied with unpleasant questions.
Attack Macaque
20 Oct 09 at 10:30 pm
Rude to stick a camera in someone’s face like that? How about the subject of the Franken amendment – gang rape. You’re worried about a little camera getting shoved at you. Imagine what that woman had shoved at her. PERSPECTIVE, PLEASE.
(ps – it’s battery, not assault)
Oh my
20 Oct 09 at 10:51 pm
WTF? This is assault? And you graduated law school from UVa?
You dumbass. First, go look up the definition of assault (fear of significant harm, etc.), and then go read a book about criminal law. Any prosecutor would just laugh at you. Sorry the obnoxious paparazzi was gently touched – that doesn’t mean you get to press charges.
And a civil suit? What damages have you had?
You’re an imbecile.
Brian
20 Oct 09 at 11:14 pm
even more so than celebrities, elected officials have to accept being videod, asked questions, confronted about their votes, in a civil manner of course, which is all you did. as for the angle, i think your take is good. take legal action if he doesn’t properly and publicly apologize. of course he didn’t want to comment on voting to allow haliburton immunity from prosecution of gang rape. for the love of god, what kind of soul less cowards are the 30 senators who voted against franken’s utterly unassailable amendment. it should have been unanimous. it was a roll call on basic human decency, which they voted against. it’s unacceptable, and they need to be shamed and voted out in 2010.
excellent work, btw.
Frank Lee
20 Oct 09 at 11:14 pm
Hunt, it’d be better for Sen. Cornyn to be polite and ask Mike. Republicans are too busy invading our privacy to be polite I guess.
Raj
20 Oct 09 at 11:16 pm
Please….if it was a Fox Nation camera, he would be glad to have a camera in his face.
Fun times Mike….just be careful around these nutcases.
sluggahjells
20 Oct 09 at 11:16 pm
I missed this assault too. But you got me here if that was your intention
Andrew
21 Oct 09 at 12:35 am
File the charges. Noone is above the law.
Jim
21 Oct 09 at 1:12 am
I have no idea what the actual definition of assault is, but it would strike me as pretty bizarre if it were legal to go around trying to snatch other people’s cameras.
If it’s not assault then it must at least be attempted robbery.
Ami Ganguli
21 Oct 09 at 5:14 am
“I would have punched you in the face. Its rude to stick a camera in someones face like that.”
Funny how Mike Hunt pretends to be concerned about manners, but thinks that punching someone for aiming a camera at you is somehow ok.
Cornyn was the rude one here. He ran for public office so it’s part of his job to have cameras pointed at him and questions asked of him.
For those saying no assault, in many countries assault includes not only violence, but any physical contact with another person without their consent. Not sure about the US. You should check it out.
Joseph
21 Oct 09 at 6:01 am
Brian –
You said “WTF? This is assault?” Followed by this: “First, go look up the definition of assault…”
Okay, here it is, from Webster’s: “1 a : a violent physical or verbal attack; 2 a : a threat or attempt to inflict offensive physical contact or bodily harm on a person (as by lifting a fist in a threatening manner) that puts the person in immediate danger of or in apprehension of such harm or contact.”
Please note that there is no reference to “significant harm” and furthermore, assault does not require physical contact, only the threat of physical contact. So what Senator Cornyn is actually guilty of is assault and battery because he actually hit Mike and his camera.
“You’re an imbecile.”
Glass houses my friend, glass houses.
democracy_inaction
21 Oct 09 at 6:23 am
Hi Mike,
More money coming. Thanks again! Im guessing you took my advice and stopped moderating. We’ll see when I save this.
Dont even worry about the fat lazy trolls, in whose comments one finds a sense of fear and frustration. Fear because someone (you) is ACTING instead of COMPLAINING. Frustration because their best hope in the world of returning the republic back 100 years to the days of Jim Crow segregation are fat greasy stupid white men like Cornyn.
The trolls are impotent, but their contributions become a permanent record of our times and foster even greater admiration for your.
They also serve as proof, our education system has failed us and they demonstrate the admonitions of so many founding fathers that the survival of our Constitutional Democracy DEPENDS on an informed people.
DO NOT STOP!
Cliff
21 Oct 09 at 7:12 am
SWEEEEEET!!!!!!! No more moderation! Bring it on you PUNKS!!!
Money talks and you can’t stop THAT with Nothin!
Here’s another $25 thanks to the Asshole named Brian above
See Mike, TROLLS EQUAL MONEY!!!
Cliff
21 Oct 09 at 7:17 am
Cornyn is a U.S. Senator and he took an oath to answer to the people of this country. I’m going to stop there before this comment sounds like it came from Glenn Beck, but that point needs to be stressed.
He saw the camera in your hand, acknowledged the camera verbally then with his hands. He went from 0 to 60 in five seconds. You were asking about an ANTI-RAPE BILL that deals with PRIVATE CONTRACTORS FUNDED WITH TAXPAYER MONEY.
It was fine for two brats to illegally go from state to state, using hidden video to entrap a few workers of a COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION who HELPS the DISENFRANCHISED? It’s fine for the GOP to leave mass-amounts of underprivileged Americans high and dry because they registered people to vote Democrat?? And CORNYN gets testy with YOU because HE supports federally funded gang-rape?
Sue him. I saw the assault. Hell, I’ll be your witness.
Lauren
21 Oct 09 at 8:25 am
If you really care about liberal causes, go give your money to Protect Maine Equality or to liberal candidates. You’re throwing your money away sending it to this clown. Sticking a camera in a Senator’s face and then crying “assault” when he pushes it away isn’t some public service, it’s a desperate cry for attention, and sending him money only encourages him to act like more of an ass. And that only makes the left look bad, while managing to make rape-enabling GOP Senators look sympathetic.
dougjay
21 Oct 09 at 9:08 am
I guess we see by the posts who are the republicans here. NO ONE has the right to slap at and try to take something away from a person who IS NOT EVEN TOUCHING THEM. Be he an average citizen, a celeb, a sport figure OR A HALF-BUTT POLITICAN WHO THINKS HE IS ABOVE THE LAW.
I wouldn’t even ask for an apology…he has the video to show he is right sue the guy FOR A DOLLAR just to get it out in to the public that his crumbbum from Texas thinks he is IT.
Marge
21 Oct 09 at 9:40 am
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Reddit by shallah: Further info at this link:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/20/795416/-John-Cornyn-physically-assaults-me
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This week, over at TheCrookedDope.com, I’ve been interviewing every Republican Senato…
uberVU - social comments
21 Oct 09 at 10:06 am
You people just can’t play nice, can you? You get all kinds of uppity when you don’t get your way. Grow up, you think skinned weenie. My guess is that if you approached him in a reasonable manner instead of sticking the camera in his face, which you obviously did from the angle, you would have gotten an answer to your question.
boris
21 Oct 09 at 10:40 am
Good thing it wasn’t me I would have smashed his face in i cant stand that jerk he gets my goat as much as the clown from AZ well both of them from AZ Looks like the repubklans are fielding a regular circus these days.
BILL L
21 Oct 09 at 2:46 pm
Who is Mike Stark, and why is he so desperate for attention?
Andrew
21 Oct 09 at 2:57 pm
Goddamnit, America will be in a lot better shape once we realize that cops and politicians are ABOVE the law and in no way subject to it. Once America realizes that, we might *actually* get angry enough to fucking DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. As long as you suffer the illusion that you will receive equal protection, and therefore that cops and politicians are held to equal standards, you will suffer from the belief that somehow THEY will change the law to make themselves subject to it.
Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES will actors WITHIN the machine work to change the machine to their own detriment. Disabuse yourself of the notion that you have equal protection, and you might just get angry enough to demand equal protection.
Chaos Motor
21 Oct 09 at 3:00 pm
Right on, Chaos Motor!
Equal protection is an illusion like so much else in this country. The law protects the moneyed and the rest of us can f-off. As George Carlin used to say, “It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it”.
This is assault and battery and you’ve got video evidence. Why not document the way the legal system totally fails to protect normal citizens from the elite as you watch our legal and law enforcement systems bend over backwards to protect a super rich Senator from having to obey the law?
As for the mouth-breathing authoritarian followers who keep telling you to buck up and take it, they’re certainly advocating a bent over posture for US citizens aren’t they?
Markov
21 Oct 09 at 6:23 pm
Senator Corny showed his disdain for the riff-raff. Pity, I thought our “social betters” were supposed to be more refined and polite. BTW Mike Hunt is not his real name. Say his name three times fast and you will “get” the puerile joke behind it.
Keep on keepin’ on, Mr. Stark.
Pris
21 Oct 09 at 8:19 pm
[...] Mike Stark is kicking ass and taking [...]
Thursday Morning News Roundup « Mercury Rising 鳯女
22 Oct 09 at 12:55 am
“Funny how Mike Hunt pretends to be concerned about manners, but thinks that punching someone for aiming a camera at you is somehow ok.”
Irony. A person lecturing us about rudeness has chosen the pen name “Mike Hunt.” Mike Hunt! Get it? say it fast and it sounds nasty! Boy, that would be a real knee-slapper if I was in the fourth grade. I suppose we should be grateful that this annoying scold isn’t chiding us about manners under the name “I. Fukkem Young.”
But enough about that jerk-off. Mike Stark: great work. Awesome! So inspiring to watch your vids. Keep it up!
My favorite part is at the end when you say, “Don’t touch me,” and the cop says, “You can touch him. That’s fine.” Say what? The cop should at least get censured for that.
ignatov
22 Oct 09 at 11:57 am
democracy_inaction-
You should go to court, file a civil suit based on Webster’s dictionary definition of assault, and see what happens.
To be fair, if I were not a lawyer, I would have done the same thing you did. But when it comes to legal charges, there are specific statutes that must apply to the conduct.
The difference between an assault statute and a battery statute is that assault generally requires fear of serious harm, or danger. Battery is any unwanted touching – so if you bump into someone on the metro, you have technically committed battery.
As Mike notes in this post, there is no battery statute in DC – only assault. He curiously didn’t put the statute for assault up there, only related statutes.
This is not even taking into account the most important part of the criminal justice system – prosecutorial discretion (why everytime you bump into someone on the metro, you’re not arrested for battery).
-A lawyer
Brian
22 Oct 09 at 5:30 pm
Cornyn can learn a few things about treating a reporter with propriety from Senator Alan Grayson. See how Mr. Grayson handles a similar situation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L1U7qXWa-c
One can only hope Cornyn one day gets the favor returned.
Berlioz
29 Oct 09 at 4:35 am
What assault? All I see is a rude person holding a camera in someone’s face and the Senator asking security for assistance. You are a fool – this country has plenty of serious problems and you are trying to stir up some petty advertising. Stop now says your grandmother.
Sandy Smith
31 Oct 09 at 10:23 am