ThinkProgress: The Man Beaten And Choked At A Donald Trump Rally Tells His Story

[BootinUp]

When activist Mercutio Southall Jr. was curled up on the ground getting kicked, punched, and choked by Donald Trump supporters at a campaign rally in Birmingham, Alabama, he thought, “I can’t die today. I’ve got shit to do. I have little kids. Fuck these people.”

The single father of three, who was raised in the civil rights cradle of Selma, Alabama, told ThinkProgress that he had gone to Trump’s event with two friends in order to speak out against the frontrunner candidate’s “racist” rhetoric.

“The things that he’s been saying about black people, Latino people, immigrants, refugees — we felt it was very disrespectful,” he said. “This is a city where some of the biggest battles of the civil rights movement happened, where four little girls got bombed up, so we aren’t accepting of anything like that kind of talk down here. I mean, this man came to our city a couple of weeks before Christmas, saying we should not let in Middle Eastern refugees. If I’m not mistaken, I think Jesus was a Middle Eastern refugee. So we were not going to stand idly by and see the rise of the next Hitler. We knew we had to stand for something.”

Southall said immediately upon arrival at the event he felt unwelcome, as Trump supporters physically recoiled from him and his friends. “There was like a six feet space on either side of us,” he said. “The message was: this was not our town. This was not our place.”

Continued...

[Jarqui]

1. These words might come back to haunt them

Reporters also raised the incident with Robert Kiger, the leader of the pro-Trump super PAC “Citizens For Restoring USA.” Kiger told CNN that the Black Lives Matter movement is a “farce.”

“They don’t really have a cause they’re trying to bring to the forefront,” he said. “If they did, they’d go to Baltimore or Chicago.”

When the CNN anchor challenged him, saying, “So they don’t have the right to protest at a Trump rally?” Kiger responded: “No they don’t, really. Look, I wouldn’t go into a black church and start screaming ‘White Lives Matter.'”
...
They called me n*****, monkey, and they shouted ‘all lives matter’ while they were kicking and punching me.

[951-Riverside]

3. WTH Donald Chump said several times that he's self funded and doesn't take money from PACs

Facing scrutiny over ties between his campaign and a super PAC, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Friday announced he had disavowed several political action committees that claim to be raising money to support his candidacy and called on them to return donations.

He said other presidential candidates should do the same.

“I am self-funding my campaign and therefore I will not be controlled by the donors, special interests and lobbyists who have corrupted our politics and politicians for far too long,” Trump said in a statement.

http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2015/10/23/donald-trump-tells-trump-super-pacs-to-return-contributions/

Does this racist a-hole ever tell the truth?

[PatSeg]

8. He pretty much says

whatever pops into his head at the moment and he's not known for his honesty. He has been caught in so many lies, but his supporters don't care, so he just keeps on lying.

[billhicks76]

4. Press Charges

Racist scum.

[2pooped2pop]

5. can he sue trump for sicking his sicko people on him and

not stopping it once it began?

[L. Coyote]

9. Absolutely, and he will win millions.

No doubt, we will be hearing about this for some time to come as the lawsuit happens. Obstinate Trump won't settle, I bet.

[2pooped2pop]

10. fantastic

I hope it's drawn out with lots of attention.

[2pooped2pop]

11. did he have any serious injuries?

Not that I want him to have physical injuries but I would like his award to be huuuuggge!

[hopemountain]

13. "freedom of speech and guns"

only applies to white people, doncha' know? kiger sounds very white supremacist.

[grasswire]

2. does this man have a gofundme for legal support?

Southall is a patriot and a civil liberties champion.

[cheapdate]

14. +1

[sinkingfeeling]

6. The guy running the PAC admitted that it's a racist campaign. Here's what he said:

When the CNN anchor challenged him, saying, “So they don’t have the right to protest at a Trump rally?” Kiger responded: “No they don’t, really. Look, I wouldn’t go into a black church and start screaming ‘White Lives Matter.'”

[malaise]

16. Can't be clearer than that

Racism on steroids

[ljm2002]

7. Mercutio Southall Jr. is a very brave man...

...we've all wondered when/if BLM would disrupt a Republican and in particular Trump, and now a BLM person has done it and paid a pretty high price for it. That took a lot of guts.

I hope it continues to shed light on the sorry state of race relations today and of course, the terrible violence routinely inflicted on black people by law enforcement.

K&R

[nxylas]

15. It's very instructive to contrast Trump's reaction with that of the Democratic candidates

All the Dem candidates have made an effort to listen to BLM. Trump's brownshirts? Not so much.

[Sunlei]

12. I hope he sues the crap out of Trump and his 'gang of republicans'

And drag it out in the courts until after Trump wins the Republican primary.

[Vinca]

17. He should be telling his story to a judge as those who attacked him go on trial.

And those who incited them. If he wants publicity for his cause, this is it.