The Proggresive
Walker Guy Stabs Protester’s Balloon and Bloodies Himself
By Rebecca Kemble, July 25, 2011
Monday afternoon, as Governor Scott Walker was signing into law a bill that turns the legislative and Congressional redistricting process and any appeals to it upside-down, and as Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch was reassuring the public that Wisconsin has enough cash on hand to survive for three months in the event of a federal government default, Capitol Facilities Manager Ron Blair was tackling a more pressing problem: heart-shaped balloons.
Outside the doors of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Leslie Peterson was reaching down into her shopping bag to remove a heart-shaped balloon so that her friend could take a photo of her with it. As soon as she pulled it out, someone came up behind her and repeatedly stabbed the balloon with a blade. “I’m sick of fishing these off the ceiling,” said the man with the round glasses and handlebar moustache as he walked away.
Shaken up by the sneak attack on her property, Leslie asked the man for hisname and identification. He did not respond to her so she asked him again, saying that she was going to file an incident report with the Capitol Police. At that point, he allegedly grabbed her and slammed her up against the door of a women’s bathroom. “I saw blood all over him and me. I didn’t know if he still had the knife, or whether or not I had been stabbed,” said Leslie.
The man, who was later identified as Ron Blair, assistant director in the Wisconsin Department of Administration in charge of facilities management at the Capitol, then ran out of the Capitol and into a building across the street. He later told reporters that the blood all over the stairs and floor in front of the Supreme Court was from an earlier fall he had taken on the stairs. However, Leslie reports seeing blood only after he slashed the balloon.
Meanwhile, Leslie’s screams alerted others who were at the daily Solidarity Sing Along in the Rotunda to call for the police. She and those who witnessed the events were taken to the basement of the Capitol to give their statements. Leslie’s friend, Jenna Pope, had taken several photos of the events, and the camera was taken as evidence, as was the blood-splattered shopping bag containing the slashed balloon.
While Leslie was not stabbed, she was shaken up and sore from where she had been slammed up against the door. She wondered aloud if she should go to urgent care to get an HIV test since she had someone else’s blood on her arms, but an officer discouraged her from doing so saying it would be at least three months before HIV shows up in a blood test.
Over the past five months during a period of time when there have been tens of thousands of protesters in the building, there have been only two violent incidents reported in the Capitol. Both occurred during the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice-sponsored Solidarity Sing Along, and both were perpetrated by Capitol insiders: one by a former Republican state senator and one by a middle manager in the Walker Administration.
Capitol Police are investigating today’s incident, but Leslie, Jenna, and other members of the Solidarity Sing Along wonder whether justice will be served, given the political position of the assailant.
http://www.progressive.org/stabbing_WisconsinSupremeCourt.html
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