In case you missed the video, check out what happened when Republican Congressman Steve Chabot's staff directed a Cincinnati police officer to seize cameras of private citizens during a Chabot Town Hall event in Avondale at a publicly owned building.
I feel sorry for the police officer, but he should know better, and should have questioned the validity of "security reasons" when two television station cameras are there.
Here is a tape of this from a third camera:
Here is more from the Enquirer's political blog. (If this was Steve Driehaus, this would have been front page news).
In other Chabot News, Steve Benen of Washington Monthly has a great story discussing an exchange, at I believe the same meeting above, where Chabot was advised that Federal Tax rates are the lowest they have been in 50 years.Chabot didn't believe it. He was told this by a voter, not likely one to vote for him, but a voter none-the-less. Benen gives Chabot-the-Ignorant the truth about Federal Tax rates. I understand that in the middle of a meeting, Chabot can't Google this, but as a member of Congress who is talking about tax policy, he should know this simple fact. What I fear is that he knows this, as do most Republican office holders, but he doesn't want any else to know this. They want people to think they pay far more taxes then ever before in hopes that the ignorant public will support cutting taxes, without a worry about how much their lives will change when they are asked to buy why they can't afford, assuming they want the same service the government provided. Republicans like Chabot want to destroy more government services for the public and will lie in order to do so. That's the modern GOP way.
You wouldn't have heard of this happening at a Driehaus event because it never would have happened at one; in fact, it DID not happen at a Driehaus townhall event. Anyone who attended the HCR town hall meeting in Walnut Hills saw all sorts of cameras running, including non-press tripod cameras. You can find their video all over the place on Youtube. In fact, you have film of Chabot's supporters disrupting the meeting, rudely shouting and interrupting the Congressman and other speakers throughout. I hope that these folks who had their cameras confiscated with take this up with our new police chief. His officers shouldn't be forced to be Steve Chabot's censors. You're correct that this put the Cincinnati officer in an untenable place.
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