I just got off the phone with David Brian Brown, the St. Louis, Mo., lawyer who has appeared with Kenneth Gladney, the black man who claims he was beaten up by a bunch of Service Employees International Union members outside a town hall meeting in St. Louis. Gladney says he was just there innocently selling Gadsden flags — those flags with the coiled snake that say “Don’t Tread On Me” and became symbols of the recent GOP Tea Party protests.
Here’s the video [
that shows the alleged attack — and Gladney (the one in the grey polo shirt) walking around casually after the incident, claiming that an SEIU member attacked him. Meanwhile, as Daily Kos diarist KevinNYC points out in his play-by-play of the event, there’s a big white guy in a white polo shirt yelling — “they attacked him!” The guy on the video looks strikingly like his lawyer, David Brown, who now says he was a witness to the event, so he can’t officially represent Gladney.
When I asked Brown, who was in a car with Gladney on their way to see Brown’s brother, who is going to be Gladney’s official lawyer, Brown said that there’s been lots of misinformation floating around online about this case.
For one, Brown said, contrary to recent reports like this one from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Gladney wasn’t laid off and has health insurance. “He’s just unemployed,” says Brown, and “has insurance through his wife.”
Although Brown initially identified Gladney as “a friend,” when I asked him what line of work Gladney is in, he had to go ask Gladney about that before he could report back to me that about a year ago, Gladney worked for an optical store. Brown said he thinks Gladney’s wife is a social worker, but he’s really not sure.
Meanwhile, though Gladney appears to be just fine in the video right after he was supposedly beaten up, he showed up the next day at a tea party event in a wheelchair. At the event, Bill Hennessy, the organizer of the St. Louis tea parties, asked the crowd to donate money to Gladney to help him pay for his injuries, despite the fact that he now says he has insurance. When I asked Brown about this, he said: “Well, who doesn’t need a donation? If people want to give him a donation because he’s injured and unemployed, that’s up to them.” Brown said Gladney has raised about $1,100 in donations so far.
Brown also told me that Gladney is not a conservative activist. He was just selling the 18th-century patriotic resistance flags to try to make some extra money. Brown said Gladney plans to sue both the individuals he says attacked him and the SEIU, since the “attackers” were wearing union T-shirts and “unions have a 100-year history of intimidation.”
On the Fox News Channel’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on Friday, Gladney said he’s “in some pain” but “I’m okay, I’m still kind of shaken up, just kind of upset about the whole thing.”
Brown said he doesn’t yet have the medical report of his client’s alleged injuries, but that his lawyer brother, Andrew Beeny, will be getting a copy for the lawsuit. Brown said he didn’t know whether his brother would release the report to the public. http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/20665460.aspx
This Week's Bumper Crop of Ass Clowns By Chad Garrison in Ass Clown of the Week Friday, Aug. 21 2009 @ 11:23AM
So many Ass Clowns this week. So little time.
You know how to play: Vote for the local newsmaker you think made the biggest idiot of themselves this week. And the nominees...
1. Kenneth Gladney: Gladney is the man whose attorney David Brown says was selling flags at a health care forum last month when he was beat up by union members. (View a video of Gladney's purported beating here.) [
After walking away from the scuffle, Gladney showed up two days later in a wheelchair at a Tea Party protest where the Post-Dispatch reported that Gladney had no health insurance and accepted donations from the crowd to pay his medical bills. (Brown says Gladney actually has health insurance through his wife and states that the P-D printed a correction to this effect -- though none could be easily found online or through a Nexis database search.) Anyway, Gladney again made news this week when he attended a press conference outside the local NAACP office in which a group of black conservatives demanded to know why the agency hasn't launched a racism investigation into the union members (one of whom, like Gladney, happens to be African-American!) who Gladney says beat him up. The press conference ended with a thud, however, when the NAACP said it would review the matter and then chided Gladney and his cohorts for holding a press conference instead of first asking the agency to investigate the incident.* http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2009/08/this_weeks_bumper_crop_of_ass_clowns.php
Sen Coburn Tells Women Crying Over Health Care "Govt Is Not The Answer"
News1News August 24, 2009
Republican Senator Tom Coburn Tells Women Crying About Her Health Care Coverage At Town Hall: "Government Is Not The Answer" - 08/24/09
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Senator Tom Coburn Offers Heath Care to Uninsured : Thousands Apply For Help
Health Care problem? Call Docter Tom Coburn (918) 581-7651
by Walid
(Tulsa, Oklahoma) Ucs News: Republican Senator of Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, has vowed to personally help his suffering constituents. Following a health care town hall meeting in which Coburn offered to help those in need his office has been flooded with requests for assistance. The Coburn Healthcare plan was launched after a tearful encounter with a troubled Tulsa resident. "Senator Coburn, we need help," she said. "My husband has traumatic brain injury. His health insurance will not cover him to eat and drink. And what I need to know is, are you going to help him, where he can eat and drink? We left the nursing home, and they told us we were on our own."
Based on her description of the situation, an insurance company is rationing care. It is denying him the assistance that he apparently needs to live, a decision made and confirmed by insurance company bureaucrats and lawyers, not by the man's doctor.
Coburn shocked by the testimony fumbled for words. As the woman continued to cry, Coburn told her that his office would try to assist her individually. But, he added, "the idea that the government is the solution to our problems is an inaccurate, a very inaccurate statement but I will help you and anyone else in Oklahoma that needs help. Please call me I will Help"
For help with heath care problems please contact Senator Tom Coburn http://coburn.senate.gov Or call his office (918) 581-7651 Or visit Tom's Office 1800 S Baltimore Ave # 800 Tulsa, OK 74119-5238
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