5 charged in election-day tire slashings

[agitpropagent9]

Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann announced this morning that five of the seven men arrested in the election-day slashing of Republican vehicles' tires - including the sons of two prominent Milwaukee Democratic politicians - have been charged with felonies and will appear in court this afternoon.

The five who were charged with felony criminal damage to property for slashing 40 tires on 25 vehicles are:

* Michael Pratt, 32, of the 400 block of N. 16th St., Milwaukee. Pratt is the son of former acting mayor Marvin Pratt.

* Sowande A. Omokunde, 25, of the 4000 block of N. 19th Place, Milwaukee. Omokunde is the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore.

* Lewis G. Caldwell, 28, of the 2900 block of N. Summit Ave., Milwaukee.

* Lavelle Mohammad, 35, of the 4700 block of W. Lloyd St., Milwaukee.

* Justin Howell, 20, of the 2400 block of N. Olive St., Racine.

The vans had been rented by the state Republican Party to transport voters to the polls on election day Nov. 2.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan05/295825.asp

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. If they did it...

And are convicted, they are jerkoffs, to a man.

[spotbird]

3. Yes they are.

The one things Democrats have to learn is the rules apply to them, and they will get caught.

It isn't fair that the Republicans get away with this crap, but it is wrong from either side.

[JNelson6563]

2. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

That was very stupid.

:spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank:

Spankings all around.

Julie

[makhno]

27. Stupid to get caught [nt]

[traco]

37. Stupid to do the deed!

Why should we lower ourselves to their level. We should try to show an example and take the high road!

[deutsey]

4. Yet another example of why Democrats should stop trying to emulate

Republican tactics.

:evilgrin:

[spotbird]

13. Amen.

The Democrats are prosecuted.

[KurtNYC]

5. GOP activist abuses own children - Parlock

Phil Parlock, that guy whose kid was so upset by having her Bush-Cheney sign torn? Some posters at Democratic Underground (we know, we know), dug up a story from 2000 that suggests Parlock has some kind of weird fetish for putting a cute girl on someone's shoulders and then somehow arranging for her Bush-Cheney sign to be taken away.

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/white-house/democrats-hate-children-but-so-does-phil-parlock-021497.php

[THUNDER HANDS]

6. a felony for slashing a tire?

seems a little harsh to me

[histohoney]

9. normally

I'd be with you on that but most of these people were not kids. The 20 year old, I'd cut a deal with but the others were WAY old enough to know better. 32-35 please!

[sweetladybug]

26. But, our pResident was still just a kid and was a drunk and did

childish things until he was in his 40's and he's overlooked for his adult mistakes Hell he's still overlooked for every mistake he makes now, all of his mistakes are some one else's fault. But still, I think if these guys did this they should be punished and the same goes for the con man residing the whitehouse

[Renew Deal]

15. I think the election fraud portion is what they're getting nailed on.

Stupid thing to do.

[agitpropagent9]

20. indeed

[MADem]

16. 40 tires, on 25 vehicles

I don't know how they determine a felony offense, but it could be the number of offenses combined with the monetary damages....that's a pretty hefty chunk of change--40 tires!!

It will probably get reduced, but they should be punished for it and be required to make restitution. They should apologize, too.

Our greatest strength is that we are NOT like them--we don't have that "anything to win" attitude. We like winning, who doesn't, but we like winning fair and square. They don't mind cheating to win, but we're better than that.

I'm with those who don't go for this kind of behavior at all.

[Xithras]

24. $4,000 to $6,000 in damage

I didn't see anything on the type of van, but a commercial quality LT tire for a 15 passenger van costs $100 to $150. If they slashed 40 tires, that's $4000 to $6000 in damage. If these were heavy duty passenger vans or minibusses, that amount could be much higher.

The limits vary, most states have clauses that reclassify vandalism as a felony if the damage amount climbs beyond a certain point. Here in California I believe that the limit is $1,000, but it's probably different in Minnesota. The fact that they're being charged with a felony indicates to me that they did cross that line, wherever it is.

[Warpy]

7. They aint making kids any smarter

Seriously, stuff like this is beyond stupid and childish. I hope they are punished for it.

I would also hope the will is there to convict the GOP scum who do the same things, and worse, but I realize I'm just dreaming.

[seriousstan]

29. Not when "kids" are 35 an 32 years old.

According to my math these morans could have 15 year old REAL kids.

[Pirate Smile]

8. Dumbasses!

[gumby]

10. I'll care about tires being slashed when.......

The Anthrax Killer is found,
Bush's election fraud is exposed,
Condosleazyliar (and the rest of them) is held accountable for her horrendous lies that cost thousands of lives,
The truth about 9/11 is known.

The list goes on, but I'm no longer interested in "legal relativism."

[fasttense]

11. Let's see.....

Maybe now that they caught these awful criminals they can concentrate on the ones who broke into Democratic headquarters in Ohio just days before the election. Or how about those incompetent fools who distributed the voting machines in Ohio? Isn't there something called dereliction of duty? Or maybe we could arrest Gonzales (spelling?) for his sanctioning and explicit authorization of the use of torture in Iraq and Gitmo. I thought there was a law against torture, in addition to a law against destruction of private property and malicious mischief?

Well I'm just glad we can finally get these criminals behind bars. Now on to the other criminals.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lerkfish]

14. Meanwhile, back in the REAL world, vote fraud goes largely unnoticed.

[slackmaster]

21. Crimes committed with the intent of altering outcome of an election

Attempting to disenfranchise people who are likely to vote a particular way sounds like "vote fraud" to me.

[Psephos]

17. If you do the crime, be prepared to do the time n/t

[sniffa]

18. i hope they get the chair!!!

they sooooo obviousLy did it!

It says the men were caught after a security guard in the Republican Party headquarters parking lot saw the vandalism and wrote down the license-plate numbers of a fleeing car.

parLocky indeed

[Kathy in Cambridge]

19. I thought it was Parlockery

but even if it wasn't, they shouldn't have stooped to Republican tactics.

[SharonRB]

22. How about the tires that were slashed

in Ohio in Greene County? I assume that since it's the Democrats whose tires were slashed, nothing will happen to the slashers, right?

[slackmaster]

23. Having something happen to the slashers requires that the get caught

n/t

[Township75]

25. What Fucking LOSERS!!! 25-35 years old, get a life!

they must still live with Mom and Dad too.

I can understand this type of action at 20, but 25-35 is just pathetic. If they are guilty I hope they get some severe punishment for their actions.

[Judi Lynn]

28. This is so sad. I took the most unusual name for a search

and discovered the very first entry under that name was Free Republic.

Looks like the right-wing jerko##s have had a field day with this story:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Sowande+A.+Omokunde&btnG=Google+Search

Simply pathetic. As if the right-wing doesn't have a world of heavy duty sins to explain.

No one was hurt, votes were not stolen. Odd story to share with Democrats, I'm sure.

[Rose Siding]

30. I hope the bastards do time for this

They are criminals. I'm furious that dems would do this- every bit as much and maybe more than if they were repubs.

[Acryliccalico]

31. Sounds like something that

the early PATRIOTS would have done if there would have been cars.:kick: THIS IS A BATTLE. Get real! This is no joke we are fighting for everything. We should stop condemning them and start looking at them as they really are. They are the ones who have the GUTS to break the law in order to help save our country.:grr:

[agitpropagent9]

32. ah but there's the rub

so you're not against attempted voter suppression, destruction of private property, etc. per se...

you're just against it when the other side does it.

[fortyfeetunder]

33. and we can't stoop down to their level...

what a double standard!

[seriousstan]

43. If you aspire to lower yourself , knock yourself out. When will you be

killing kittens?

[fortyfeetunder]

45. I forgot to turn sarcasm on...

the point is, after all the voting suppression in Ohio and Florida, preventing people from voting and few have actually challenged it, and per the Voting Rights act, last time I checked, suppression is illegal. No one who did it got caught.

Now the tire slashing was illegal too. But someone got caught.

This is the double standard I am talking about!

[Turley]

38. You can't be serious?

You can't condemn the other side for voter suppression and then advocate it for your own side. That's ridiculous.

We don't need losers like that in our party. If you agree with their tactics, we don't need you.

[Skittles]

34. cannot agree with vandalism

I believe it is very cowardly

[oldlady]

35. first offenses for most

Michael Pratt, 32, has a criminal record that includes hazing, battery, obstructing an officer and traffic stops

Sowande Omokunde, 25, first arrest

Lewis Caldwell, 28, drunk driving arrest

Lavelle Mohoammad, 35, first arrest

Justin Howell, 20, speeding ticket

all have been charged with Felony I offenses for criminal damage to property over $2500 dollars.

what a bummer---

(Wisconsin has open Circuit Court records online)

peace

[Judi Lynn]

36. Here's a great article on a Cuban "exile" political figure in Miami

who called his son during a church service to come slash the tires of a fellow church member who had driven his van there with campaign signs on it for a Democratic candidate, Jay Love.

He also threatened to beat him up right after church. This is truly worth pondering:



Art Buonamia spent $1144
on new tires after his were slashed
in a church parking lot.

But Buonamia could not accept having the church's altar seized to make political speeches against the United States. “The priest was hiding in the sanctuary at the time,” he recalls. “I asked him later why he would allow them to take over the altar like that. I said they shouldn't be allowed to do that. And he said, “There isn't anything I can do about it.' Which is true. He is afraid of them.”

The speakers were exhorting church members to march over to Elian's house to demonstrate. “If people didn't see you jumping up and down against the United States government, then it was perceived that you were against them personally,” he says. On his way out of the church that day, he told the priest, Father Timothy Hopkins, he wasn't coming back.
(snip)

Soon after arriving, Marisa Buonamia was accosted inside the church by Eladio Armesto-Garcia, a former Republican state representative, who served in Tallahassee from 1992 until 1994. He told her to move the RV immediately. She refused. “I told him: “This is a democracy,'” recalls Marisa, who hails from Panama. Next Armesto-Garcia confronted Buonamia.

“He was very agitated,” Buonamia remembers. “He starts screaming at me in Spanish that Jay Love is a homosexual and that I'm supporting homosexuals and that I have to get my RV out of there. I told him it is not important to me what he thinks. I'm here to go to Mass, and I asked him to leave me alone. He then screamed at me in church that he was going to beat the shit out of me when Mass was over.”

Armesto-Garcia is a member of the Christian Coalition and chairman of a group called Take Back Miami-Dade, whose goal is to repeal the so-called gay-rights ordinance passed by the county commission two years ago. The ordinance, which is designed to protect individuals from discrimination based on sexual orientation, was enacted through the efforts of the nonprofit SAVE Dade political-action committee.
(snip/...)

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2000-09-21/defede.html

[Cooley Hurd]

39. I'd expect malicious, childish crap from repugs...

...but not from Democrats. We're (usually) much too smart to engage in such tactics. Slashing tires is not a viable way to protest. Letting the air out of their tires is a different story, however...;)

[brainshrub]

44. How about a white stripe of chalk on the tire and a note on the windshield

"I could have slashed your tires, but unlike the Bush Administration I don't believe in returning violence-for-violence.
If slashing your tires would have made you belligerent toward me, imagine how the Iraqis feel toward us right now."

Now that's creative, peaceful and gets a positive message across. If busted, no serious fines and no Kodak moment for the Freepers.

Liberals are light-years more creative than the conservatives. We should use our strengths instead of mimicking the brutish behavior of Republicans.

[EFerrari]

40. Apparently, this story isn't completely accurate

Those vans weren't for ferrying voters, they were for volunteers, for poll watchers. You know, those nice people who go to the polls and intimidate Dems all day?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x303409

[Judi Lynn]

47. Thanks for that article. Very interesting.

I remember when the Republicans announced they'd be present at voting places and would feel free to challenge any voter they believed needed it! I could NOT believe a democratic system would allow Republicans to literally intimidate voters physically in districts they presumed to be heavily Democratic.

(As if it hadn't been enough calling voters with bogus information about where and when to vote, and leaving bogus info. in fliers in the neighborhoods, etc., etc.)

This has been going on forever, it seems. People have to steel themselves in some quarters to be ready for psychological confrontation, intimidation, and bullying just to be get their votes registered.

They've operated with total immunity, too. Can't imagine what it would take at this late date to turn them back, either. Maybe one can hope for divine intervention.


Not all that divine!

[dusty64]

41. I'm not condoning this, but

compared to the widespread fraud and voter suppression practiced by the rethugs this seems like a local story. Funny how this is getting MASSIVE attention versus what the rethugs are practicing isn't it, that damn "liberal" media.

[brainshrub]

42. What a bunch of stupid wankers.

[ernstbass]

46. Good thing I didn't act on my impulse to do the same!