That’s Not Finger Food! Pro-Reformer Bites Off 65-Year-Old’s Pinky At Health Rally

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A KTLA report from a health care rally near Los Angeles last night may not include gun-toting protesters, but it does describe another sort of weapon: teeth. As in, a pro-reform protester used his teeth to bite off the finger of an anti-reformer.

According to KTLA, a group of anti-health care reform protesters set up across the street from about 100 pro-reform demonstrators at a MoveOn.org-sponsored rally. Apparently, a pro-reformer walking through the anti-reform group to join the rest of his gang got into an altercation with a 65-year-old man who was on the anti-health care team.

What happened next is not entirely clear. The initial report from KTLA, citing an unnamed witness, said the man who got his finger bitten off was walking through the anti-reform group to get to the pro-reform side and punched someone from the anti-reform side, who responded by biting off the pro-reformer’s pinky.

But blogging at DrumsNWhistles, Karoli, who says she was at the rally, said it was the anti-reformer who punched the pro-reformer: “He punched him in the face, knocked him to the ground” The pro-reformer got up, and there was a scuffle. When it broke up, the pro-reformer crossed the street and joined his compatriots.

Karoli writes: “When he gets to our side, he tells a story in one sentence: ‘He punched me hard, straight in the face, so I bit his finger off.'”

KTLA has also updated its report, citing Karoli.

Either way, Karoli warns: “Don’t be fooled by reports ginning up sympathy for that 65-year old guy or worse yet, reports characterizing him as a senior citizen. He was aggressive and ready to mix it up.”

KTLA also says “the man took his finger and walked to Los Robles hospital for treatment.”

Late Update: Eric Ingemunson at RedCounty has more details from the rally. After speaking to several eyewitnesses, Ingemunson says the finger-biter apparently went nose-to-nose with the anti-reformer “and sneered, ‘You’re an idiot.'”

At that point, I’m told the victim either swung at or pushed his assailant’s face away with an open hand, and his finger entered his mouth.

“It was a defensive strike,” said Scott Bush, who witnessed the altercation. He said the assailant approached him in an unpredictable and threatening manner.

The MoveOn.org protester then allegedly bit off the finger up to the first knuckle, and spat it into the street where it was recovered by Bush.

“I picked it up and it had a piece of gravel stuck on it,” he said. Bush rushed it to the hospital.

The pro-reformer then reportedly split the scene by “swaggering” before Sheriffs deputies could find him.

Photos of the protest and a blurry shot of the swaggering suspect at the bottom of Ingemunson’s post.

Latest News
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: