I think it's worth comparing an incident in Wisconsin, where teachers, students and union members protesting Walker's efforts to reign in the out of control Wisconsin budget surrounded and prevented a Republican Representative from even moving, to the incident in 2009 where a group of black US Congressmen decided to provoke an incident by deliberately walking through a group of conservative health care protestors. Remember that? The health care protestors were falsely accused at the time, by democrats and the mainstream media, of calling the black congressmen the N word and spitting on them.
Now here's a video of the Wisconsin incident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cx77K8e3WE
Notice how close some of the protestors came to Representative Grothman … literally sticking their cameras and their faces inches from his. Notice at 1:09 his way is blocked by a guy in a hat who aggressively lifts what appears to be a large a brief case. We lose sight of them for a few seconds, then again see him confronting Grothman at 1:12. He's still preventing Grothman from moving forward. Grothman then manages to walk around him, with him and everyone else following him. Starting at 2:09 in the video you can hear what appears to be a woman repeatedly yelling foul words at the Congressman. Over and over.
The behavior we see goes FAR beyond anything videos shows the black Congressmen experienced in Washington in 2009. Protestors there did nothing to prevent the Congressmen from walking through the crowd. And I don't recall foul language being thrown at the Black Congressmen (much less the N word).
At 2:43 you can see a democrat Congressman and his aides step in to rescue Grothman. Even so, both of them end up backed against the West Washington doors, with the crowd aggressively surrounding them. The democrat Congressman unsuccessful makes efforts to quiet the crowd. At 3:35 you can see a woman (perhaps an aide) and the democrat Congressman confronting a man holding a "Walker You're Fired" sign who has been waving it near Grothman's face. The democrat Congressman is so irritated that he finally grabs the sign from the man and you can see them having strong words.
You can see at this point that Grothman is indeed trapped by the crowd. It is so dense and so hostile that there was no way he could go anywhere. They have clearly interferred with him. At 4:43 the democrat Congressman is finally handed a bullhorn and begins to try and reason with the crowd. He tells the crowd he's knows they are angry and they answer "damn right". For the next several minutes he keep imploring the crowd to "keep this peaceful". Obviously even he was worried about the crowd's intent.
He and others ask the crowd to move back and they don't for several minutes. The only one who seems to be backing up is the cameraman. Finally, firefighters arrive and rescue Grothman.
Keep in mind that these are the same protestors who have refused to comply with police directives about leaving the Capital building.
And rather than make incendiary accusations about such treatment, here's Grossman's response:
http://www.wrn.com/2011/03/grothman-downplays-crowd-incident/
The West Bend Republican said he is not bothered by the protestors and he will go chit-chat with them to find out what they have to say.
