St. Louis County town hall disruption: "These tea baggers are dangerous"

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/5420430FDF2036F08625760B00136BBC?OpenDocument



MEHLVILLE -- St. Louis County police arrested six people, including a Post-Dispatch reporter, during a demonstration Thursday evening outside a forum on aging called by U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis.

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Members of the local Tea Party Coalition, a movement that has emerged to counter Obama's policies, had urged their members to attend Carnahan's forum, which in turn spurred Democrats to establish a strong presence.

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Spitz works as a teaching assistant with kids who have emotional problems and behavioral disorders. She said she has never been arrested before. She said she came to the forum Thursday because "I wanted to see what it was all about." But protesters inside kept shouting down speakers, she said, and it was hard to hear anything.

At the forum, Spitz admits she was tossed out because she had been taking photographers of angry protesters as they tried to drown out the speakers. On her way out, a man "grabbed my arm and my camera and tried to break my camera." She told a policeman about it, and he replied: "I'm done." She took a picture of the officer and his badge, and "that made them all very angry," she said. "Too bad because they refused to help me."

As she was walking to her car, she saw the man on the ground. She recognized him as a local minister. She took his picture, to the chagrin of police officers, then was arrested as she walked away, she said. She claims she was maced even after her hands were cuffed behind her back. She said the mace made her sick. "It's very painful," she said. "I was crying, hyperventilating."

Spitz said she won't be returning to any such meetings anytime soon.

"These tea baggers are dangerous," she said. "I'm not going to any more town hall meetings until these people calm down."