His Highness Shall Not be Disturbed by Reality

It's one thing to have a president that fires advisors who upset his Yertle-the-Turtle self-image by questioning his infallability. It's quite another to have a president who is so insecure or delusional or self-absorbed that peaceful demonstrators who oppose him are set upon by police with pepper spray guns and riot gear. From Crawford's Iconoclast:

JACKSONVILLE, Ore. — Crawford, Texas is no stranger to protests and public gatherings, having provided a backdrop for such events for nearly four years now. Local and area law enforcement agencies have gained experience in protecting the Western White House and its famous inhabitants, and have devised a methodology for arranging for peaceful protests out of the sight and hearing of the president.

But things got out of hand last week in Jacksonville, Ore., leaving some local residents there expressing fear of freely voicing their opinions.

Some residents of Jacksonville feel that their First Amendment rights were taken away as they witnessed an encounter that resulted in pepper balls fired into crowds of men, women, and children as an abrupt “sweep” of a sidewalk erupted into chaos as the presidential motorcade drove by last Thursday.
According to a news story in the Medford Mail Tribune, one man said he was shot in the back seven times with pepper balls (plastic paint balls filled with capsaicin). He said he saw a man get hit with a baton and fall to the ground. “With my back to the police — as I was picking him up — that’s when I was shot.”
Trish Bowcock, a resident of Jacksonville and a retired attorney who is formerly of Austin, Texas, was an eyewitness to the disturbance and penned her impressions of the scene from a personal standpoint. She has agreed to allow The Iconoclast to reprint her thoughts.

Mail Tribune staff members confirmed her contention that law enforcement concentrated on anti-Bush protestors, rather than pro-Bush demonstrators, and that the order to stop the protests came from the U.S. Secret Service. Mail Tribune coverage of the protest is available at http://www.mailtribune.com/.

Read Ms. Bowcock's eyewitness account here.

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