It was apparently not enough Gary Talis was attacked and punched by John Lovetro for making the mistake of asking the women of the Bush crime family a question about 9/11 truth and the illegal and immoral Iraq occupation.
Witness Dianne Lipson took this photo of John Lovetro, restrained after attacking We Are Change activist Gary "German" Talis.
Now, according to the neocon newspaper the New York Post, Talis was "arrested after he punched" the "wheelchair-bound girl whose parents had told him to shut up" for "heckling," i.e., asking questions of the Bush women.
As Jason Bermas noted on the Alex Jones Show today, Gary Talis is non-violent and not likely to attack or yell obscenities at a girl with cerebral palsy confined to a wheelchair. But this is precisely what the New York Post and a gaggle of neocon blogs and websites cl..
They [Talis and We Are Change activists] had been in the audience to hear the Bushes talk about their children's book, "Read All About It."
"He began yelling about Iraq and Iran at Jenna Bush. She was waving at the crowd. I told the guy, 'What are you doing? Shut up. This is about a child and books,' " said John Lovetro. "He was unperturbed. I said, 'Get out of here! You're being a moron!' "
The next thing he knew, Talis was allegedly punching Maureen - a fan of the first lady since meeting her in 2004.
"I heard my daughter hysterical yelling, 'He's hitting me!' " said Wendy Lovetro.
"He punched her on the shoulder blades, but that wasn't enough," she said.
"My husband pushed the wheelchair away from him and he reached beyond my husband and began pounding my daughter in the thigh."
The two men fought as the president's family drove off. Cops broke them up and busted Talis on charges of assault and resisting arrest.
Maureen was not seriously injured.
According to Gary Talis, Maureen Lovetro, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was used by her father as a weapon.
This account is at odds with a version presented by other witnesses. Dianne Lipson emailed the following account to Jones Report editor and journalist, Aaron Dykes:
The event was over but the Bush ladies were still in the venue, the 92nd Street Y. I was with Gary and another member of WAC. People were being told to wait behind a secret service agent or to cross the street. A small group of people were gathered behind the agent to catch a glimpse of the Bush ladies when they would be going from the building into a waiting black van.
Gary was exercising his free speech rights, talking to the crowd. The mood of the crowd was hostile toward Gary. Among the waiting crowd was a man in a blue jacket and a woman, obviously his wife, and their teenage daughters, one of whom was in a wheelchair. The man in the blue jacket was taking particular offense at what Gary was saying. He even made threatening gestures at Gary. At one point he cocked his fist at Gary, with an odd little half smile on his face, like he wanted trouble. Gary and the man had words. I was very surprised to see this man make threatening gestures at Gary while his family, including his daughter in the wheelchair, were right there.
The Bush ladies came out. Gary asked them how they felt knowing that people thought that Bush was responsible for 9/11. He had to shout, as the Bush ladies were some yards away.
Then it was all over, the van pulled out and people were walking away.
The man in the blue jacket was pushing his daughter's wheelchair. Instead of going straight up the street, he veered over to the side of the building to where Gary was. Next thing I know, he caught Gary in a corner of the building and was whaling on him, saying that Gary had touched his daughter. I know Gary, and he would never do something like that. Gary's instinct is to protect women and children.
He had Gary in the corner, and was punching him and punching him. If Gary managed to defend himself I did not see it. The man's wife was pleading with him to stop. The daughter in the wheelchair was in tears.
Then the police came and put Gary, not the man who assaulted him, but Gary, in handcuffs.
I went to the 19th precinct to make a statement. They told me to wait. The man who assaulted Gary was in the lobby area where I was, not back where Gary was in custody.A policeman photographed Gary's assailant several times, then let him go.
I did not see a mark on this man. Later I heard he had a split lip, but I did not see a mark on him. Gary, I heard, was bruised up. I am not surprised. The man punched Gary over and over again.
So I waited over 2 hours, only to be told that I could not make a statement. I still don't quite fully understand why.
From what I observed, the man who assaulted Gary was looking for a fight, and he actually exploited his physically challenged daughter, steering her wheelchair toward Gary, in order to fabricate an excuse to physically vent his anger.
Lipson's account is completely at odds with the version published in the New York Post, a well known venue for attacking truth and patriot movement activists.
Appearing on the Alex Jones Show, Dianne Lipson reiterated her account and told Jason Bermas she fears for Gary in the wake of the New York Post's hit piece.
Gary Talis also appeared on Jones' show. He emphatically stated he did not assault the handicapped girl. In fact, he said, John Lovetro used his daughter "as a weapon" against him, ramming the wheelchair into his kneecaps and accusing him of attacking the girl. Talis told Bermas he believes the attack was coordinated.
Now that the neocon media network and blogs have kicked into high gear, the larger, neocon-friendly corporate media will likely characterize Talis and We Are Change at large as violent and dangerous, exactly as Glenn Beck, Morning Joe, Geraldo Rivera, and Bill O'Reilly have suggested, sans any evidence whatsoever. Now they have "evidence" in the form of a skewered and biased report published in the New York Post and swiftly echoed by the likes of Michelle Malkin, the concentration camp apologist and neocon who routinely appears on Faux News.
Note: the author of the New York Post article is Philip Messing. His email is: philip.messing@nypost.com. Please write him and ask him to tell both sides of the story in the name of objective journalism. I know, this is the New York Post, after all. Remember to be polite and to the point.
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Update: As expected, Fox News wasted no time carrying the New York Post's slanderous article.
