Rand Paul with his newly fired Bourbon County, KY coordinator and woman-stomper, Tim Profitt
By Rady Ananda
COTO Report, 10/27
UPDATE 10/28 4 am: Mike Pezzano emerged from silence and spoke with Fox 41, condemning the head stomping by Tim Profitt.
New info and more videos have emerged since the brutal stomping a Rand Paul protester received under the jackboot of yahoo, Tim Profitt, who pathologically sees himself as the victim. Mike Pezzano, who helped in wrestling 23-year-old Lauren Valle to the ground, disappeared until yesterday after his identity was broadcast on the web. Valle suffered a concussion which may prompt Lexington, Kentucky police to raise the charges from misdemeanor to felony assault. Tea Partiers ID’d Pezzano from a photo taken of him and posted to the web.
Media Czech at Barefoot & Progressive found this video by WKYT, and writes:
“Thought the disgusting violent coward who curbstomped a defenseless woman couldn’t get any more pathetic? Think again. Here’s Tim Profitt explaining that curbstomping a woman is ‘no big deal’, and that she should ‘apologize’ to HIM”:
Barbara Morrill at Daily Kos snagged the top photo of Profitt and wrote:
“You really can’t make this stuff up … Rand Paul’s now-former Bourbon County coordinator Tim Profitt, caught on tape Monday night stomping on the head of Lauren Valle, wants an apology. Profitt blames his back, the police, and of course Valle herself for getting her head between his foot and the curb.”
Also at Daily Kos, Jed Lewison reported that Rand Paul supporters are trying to suppress the head stomping video:
“Even as Rand Paul and his campaign tried to dismiss the seriousness of one of his campaign coordinators stomping on the head of a young woman outside Monday’s debate, describing it as ‘both’ sides ‘bumping’ into each other amidst ‘lights flashing,’ followers of the Paul campaign swarmed YouTube in an effort to suppress the spread of the curbstomping video…by claiming it violated YouTube’s community standards because it was too violent.
“As you can see here and here, YouTube users flagged video as being so violent that it should either be removed from the site or require users to register with the site before seeing it.”
Rand Paul fans posted their own video, too, as David Waldman noted: “This is the video that the pro-face stomping wingnuts are circulating as ‘evidence’ that a 23 year old woman with a sign posed the kind of threat that can only be dealt with by having fat guys with bad backs crush you:
“That video shows me that the actual security people contained any possible threat within two seconds, and that should have been the end of it. Where’s the video that tells us why the rest of the cowboys in the crowd needed to subdue her and stomp on her? She approached the car, and a professional-looking security operative moved her back. The rest of the video shows Paul walking unimpeded and undisturbed into the debate,” Waldman wrote.
Toasted Mike Pezzano?
Bob Layton snapped a shot of Mike Pezzano after the assault
But it gets creepier. Another assault suspect, Mike Pezzano, also grabbed her breast, said Yobie Benjamin at the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Kentucky police are considering charges against at least two more Rand Paul supporters caught on tape wrestling Lauren Valle to the ground while Tim Profitt stomped on her head.”
Former prosecutor Bob Layton, who runs the liberal blog, Blue Bluegrass, witnessed the assault. He described the events to COTO Report: “I saw him commit this attack, and followed him to get a photograph that could be used to identify him for criminal prosecution.”
Explaining that he was between six and ten feet from the action, “In case anyone is wondering why I didn’t stop it, it happened very quickly, and the attackers were pulled off her very quickly. By the time it occurred to me to physically attack the attackers, it was over. I didn’t even think to take any photograph until afterward, when I realized the attackers were trying to run away.”
On his own blog, he noted: “I can and will swear under oath that the person in the photo at the top of this post [above pic] is of the man that I saw chase the victim, grab her from behind, drag her to the ground and hold her while her head was stomped. What that person’s name is, I can’t confirm. But the other attacker is already charged with assault, and I believe this person should face the same charge.”
The SF Chronicle said that Lexington Police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts advised, “At this point, the investigation is still ongoing. We’re looking into other individuals who may have been involved in the assault and could get charged.”
UPDATE: On Thursday, the 28th, Michael Moore posted a commet on the matter, describing the third assailant as a Republican who “thrusts his foot in between her legs and presses down with all his weight to pin her to the curb.”
The Chronicle further reports: “Rand Paul volunteer Mike Pezzano is nowhere to be found and is presumed hiding or quietly trying to find a really good criminal defense lawyer….
“In the widely distributed video published by the Associated Press, Pezzano is seen tackling and pushing Valle down to the ground as he was grabbing her left breast. Look at 0.09 second frame.
“Grabbing Valle’s breast as she was being pushed down is significant as it can be grounds for sexual battery in addition to fourth degree assault,” Benjamin reported.
Far be it from me to judge what Pezzano did, given the poor quality of YouTube, but without sophisticated equipment it looks to me like the breast grab was sexually unintentional. Layton concurs. “I really don’t see any basis for a prosecution for any crimes involving any sexual component here. Assault 4 is serious enough though–it carries up to 12 months in jail.”
Mike Pezzano, by Gene Linzy Photography
Benjamin continues: “In the case of head stomper Tim Profitt, Valle’s resulting concussion also brings a strong possibility of an upgrade from fourth degree assault to felony assault.”
He also noted, “The fact that Profitt is an official coordinator of the Rand Paul campaign opens Paul to potential civil liabilities.”
I’m sure the Dems would like nothing better, but from my seat, it is more important that those assailants are punished to the fullest extent of the law, but only for the crimes they actually committed.
In Thuggery Is Not a Tea Party Problem or a Kentucky Problem. It’s a Paul Problem and a Union Problem, Tea Partier Lisa Graas urges everyone to keep a level head and not vote for the far right or for unions, which she sees as the far left:
“Sanity is in the middle of these two extremes. Coal unions have participated in some thuggery themselves over the years here in Kentucky. My own late father was a coal miner and I can assure you, the Paul camp isn’t any more thuggish than the coal unions were in my youth. I lived in fear for my father at times because of the union.
“America has become polarized. I’m protesting this Senate race because I cannot in good conscience vote for the Ayn Randians or the unionists. People are so caught up in personalities and agendas that they can’t recognize human dignity anymore, whether they are on the Left or the Right.”
Apparently unaware that the Two Party System creates and strengthens the polarity she bemoans, Graas then urges a Repub vote. Here we have a meeting of the minds between decent Tea Partiers and decent Lefties who condemn political thuggery. But the connection fades when it comes to voting. With all the attention Graas’ blog is getting from these events, we can only hope she and her cohorts will realize the both Dems and Repubs represent the elites, not the people. Next, maybe they’ll wake up to the fraud of electronic elections.
Then the masses can truly unite in common cause, and what a force we will be.
Practical Populism 