(Rep. Kathy )Castor: Upcoming town hall meeting will be by phone (Tampa event turned into mayhem)

Source: TBO

TAMPA - As the national debate over health care reform becomes incandescent, members of Congress may be backing off from holding town hall discussions on the issue after several, including one in Tampa on Thursday, have dissolved into mayhem.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa plans a telephone town hall meeting Aug. 13 on the issue, and several other Florida Congress members will do the same.

...

The problems began when a crowd of around 500, many of them recruited to attend by interest groups both for and against the proposal, sought to enter the meeting room. The room, in the board's offices on East Palm Avenue, has a capacity of only about 250.Several hundred people, mostly opponents, wound up outside or packing a hallway leading into the meeting room. Some scuffled with members of the sponsoring groups who manned the doorway.

Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said the department was told a couple hundred people would show up and sent a squad of 10 to 15 officers, two marked cars, two supervisors and some undercover officers.

...

After trying to speak, Castor left at about 6:40 p.m., taking jeers as she left.

"They're hiding from their constituents. She works for us and needs to listen,'' said Karen Jaroch, a Tampa homemaker and organizer for the 9-12 Project, set up by TV commentator Glenn Beck, which had recruited its members to attend.

Read more: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/aug/06/071116/protests-passions-roiling-town-hall-meeting-health/news-breaking/

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Scratched, Randy Arthur stands outside a town hall meeting - his shirt torn in a scuffle.

I've never set one up myself, but I've listened in on a few and they seem to work quite well. It seems to me like it would be an effective way to circumvent the Republibrownshirts.

....have the meeting on the 6th or 10th floor of a building, screening attendees to see if they actually live in the district. Catch them at the elevator and stair well. Name tags required.

This will certainly cut down on the disruptions, and remains "intimate", and fair. It's not like Bush screening. The height eliminates outside protesters disrupting the meeting. It makes it easier to see who's in the meetings and the disruptors cannot "get away" so easily.


There are many organizing tools and clever ways to keep the meetings public and cut down on the mayhem.

closed door of the meeting and wondered if he was guarding the door or just first to try to get in?

Maybe Rove was right when he said that the Dems are soft on terror. We sure don't seem to be able to do anything about domestic terrorists.

did from the outset. No in-person event, just a phone call in. But he's also an idiot who believes the screed that "Obama's gonna kill the seniors!"