Thursday, October 05, 2006

Fight video from Wauwatosa

One story I'm tracking since my days of slumming at the Bad blog "Pandagon" concerns an altercation that took place in an eatery in Wauwatosa, which is a suburb of Milwaukee.

The news reports have presented a number of different edits of the surveillance tape, which TV news people describe as a brawl started by a man who disagreed with another group who wanted gay marriage rights.
The man, whom I take to be an African-American, left the restaurant briefly, only to return for the purpose of throwing ketchup bottles and the like at certain other patrons.
He was reported to police and is wanted on a number of charges.

The TV news story seems at least slightly at odds with the surveillance video, since the suspect was sitting in his seat eating his meal when a woman walked close to confront him. Though voices may be heard on the video, I have yet to see an attempt to provide a transcript of what was said.
The suspect shoves the woman and stands up. As he stands, it becomes apparent that another figure was standing nearby. So, this man was eating at a counter alongside others, having an animated political discussion, and two people moved to stand around him.
This second person moves toward the suspect after he shoves the woman, and the suspect swings at him. That's all we get from this video angle*
Video from another angle shows a different part of the restaurant, which is confirmed by the row of tables along the wall opposite the countertop--there are no such tables in the earlier video clip.
Here's the latest edit.
The first sequence runs a little longer than the versions the television station released initially. It shows a group of three or four continuing to confront the suspect, in a rather intimidating manner, in my opinion. Not that he's playing Mr. Innocent. He did push the girl who walked close to confront him, and he did strike out at person who moved toward him afterward. However, it seems to be the sort of situation that would have been defused if the four had simply moved away from the suspect. He doesn't come after them. Rather, he reacts to their movements in his direction.

My favorite bit from the second clip is where a guy in a green shirt throws something at the suspect, turns around to look up at the surveillance camera, and then moves back out of range of the camera. Check him out in the lower left. Green shirt guy is a victim, not a suspect, from what I can tell.
I still haven't figured out exactly what's going in the middle of the picture. One person is restraining another, but the person being restrained seems to be inclined to go after green-shirt guy instead of the suspect.

Hey, hey! With the extra footage in the latest release, it appears that green-shirt guy was the origninal guy who gets punched in the earlier segment.

The new clip even shows green shirt guy throwing a chair at the suspect! None of this has received mention in the news reports. All of the reports paint the suspect as the sole aggressor.
It looks to me as though green shirt guy tried to whale on the suspect after the woman was shoved.

I have to find the first video, however, because it gave the impression that there was somebody else in the corner who got punched first.

I watched the original edit of the video here, I believe. It's been taken down.
Perhaps it was the stop-action nature of the video that led me to think that a figure had been in the corner from the start of the altercation. From the latest video, it seems clear that green shirt guy rose from the counter and came after the suspect, and later threw a chair at the suspect. I think the video offers some evidence that green shirt guy threw the first punch, also.

The news coverage on this is just strange given the video evidence.
I sent an e-mail to the television station inquiring about the video (hoping for a release of the whole thing, or a least a rough transcript of the conversation) but no response so far (it's been a week).

It is still the case that the only witness accounts aired with these clips come from the three who were seated near the suspect, arguing with him.

Could their side be a little biased?

*Update: The portion before the asterisk contains observations I made based on an earlier edit of the surveillance tape. That's why later descriptions contradict the earlier ones. As noted in latter portion of the post, the chopped nature of the tapes led to some incorrect conclusions.
One aspect I find suspicious: In the earliest edit, I could tell that green-shirt guy threw something, but even after watching it a few times I couldn't tell what he threw. In this newer version, it is clear that he threw a chair at the suspect from about 15 feet away.
None of the television news reports (from WISC) has taken the slightest note of violence directed against the suspect.

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