Wauwatosa brawl suspect pleads guilty

When I last updated this story, it was thought that Graham would plead guilty, and Wauwatosa police had declined the DA office's recommendation to fine one of the gay/transgendered brawl participants.

A man accused of being involved in a fight with two gay women and a man at a George Webb restaurant in Wauwatosa appeared in court Tuesday.

Jason Graham, 26, pleaded guilty to battery and felony bail jumping charges.
(WISN)

The story ends with reference to the the fact that Graham faces 10 years in prison. When I first read the story that seemed excessive to me--I hadn't noticed the second paragraph above. Jumping bail is just the sort of thing that will extend prison time.

Thus in addition to the first lesson of this incident (if you get into a disagreement with homosexuals or transgendered folk, do not strike or throw glass containers at them), we get another lesson: don't jump bail.

I probably won't update this story again. I'll just sum up the interesting aspects of the story.

The press did a terrible job reporting. Television news aired portions of interviews with the three "victims" (they were victims, but as the DA recommendations show, they weren't perfectly innocent) but not with other witnesses. The news services were given the surveillance tape, and oddly edited portions were shown to the public.

I can't fault the DAs for pressing the case against Graham, however. It appears he acted criminally when he re-entered the restaurant and threw dangerous objects at others.
I will fault, at least tentatively, the Wauwatosa police for not ticketing the transgendered person who threw a chair at Graham, and I fault the press for turning an almost absolutely blind eye to that aspect of the occurrence.

I'll also fault the members of the Wisconsin press who gave me the runaround and no answers when I tried to obtain an explanation for the editing of the surveillance video.

Note: I had misidentified Graham as "Randolph" in the next-to-last paragraph. That error, as well as a typographical error in the same paragraph, have now been corrected.

Wauwatosa brawl prosecution

The Wauwatosa (WI) brawl between a black male and a pair of whites, one a lesbian and the other a transgendered male has reached the prosecution phase, following the arrest of the suspect some time ago.
It took police awhile to find the guy because he used somebody else's car.

This news update vindicates portions of my earlier analysis, as I had noted that the transgendered chap lobbed a chair at the suspect from about 10 feet away at one point.

Man could plead guilty in George Webb's brawl

Wauwatosa - The suspect in last year's brawl at a George Webb's over homosexuality and gay marriage could plead guilty as early as next month.

Jason Graham of the 4800 block of N. Sherman Blvd. was arrested late last year on felony charges of battery and bail jumping in connection with the early morning brawl Sept. 24 at the Webb's at 6108 W. Blue Mound Road.

He is tentatively scheduled to plead guilty March 20, according to court records.

Graham, 26, is accused of assaulting two men - one gay, one transgender - when a discussion on gay marriage widened to include other patrons.

The Milwaukee County district attorney's office recommended that one of the assaulted men be ticketed for disorderly conduct, but no ticket had been filed as of Monday, said Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Kim Brooks. Wauwatosa police declined to ticket him.

(JS Online)

I wonder why they declined to ticket him? I don't mean that sarcastically or anything. He behaved very aggressively during the incident, moving very quickly to confront the suspect/protect the lesbian (however you wish to view it). Their combined behavior undoubtedly helped ignite the violence.
Quite possibly, the Wauwatosa police didn't want to deal with a negative publicity campaign by Gay/Lesbian groups in Wisconsin.

Come to think of it, this report differs from earlier reports. The persons assaulted were a lesbian and a transgendered person.
Was the bad reporting early or late? Or did the lesbian opt to become a guy and the other dude wasn't transgendered, as was reported early in the development of the story?

Why is bad journalism so commonplace?

MSM Distortion 101: Wauwatosa brawl suspect collared

I've been following (albeit not especially closely) a story about a brawl that took place in Wisconsin, apparently related to a gay marriage statute that was coming up for a vote up there.

In a series of posts (including this one), I pointed out the rather lousy job the media outlets have done in telling the story.

This news release just compounds that effect.

WAUWATOSA - Wauwatosa police arrested a man in connection with a brawl at a George Webb restaurant in September.

Police believe the 26-year-old Milwaukee man is responsible for starting the fight.

It all started when patrons were discussing the gay marriage amendment on November's ballot.

The man got upset and started throwing chairs, ketchup bottles and anything else he could get his hands on.
(TMJ4)

There's one part that's actually an improvement. This story acknowledges that there was a fight ("responsible for starting the fight"), at least at first.
The latter portion makes the other participants out merely as victims, even though at least one of the supposed victims threw a chair about 10 feet through the air at the suspect.
I wrote the television station that received the surveillance tape evidence, asking for an explanation of the way they edited the tape for its on-air presentation. I received a couple of courteous replies that contained no useful information.

The suspect did not go from the discussion to throwing things directly, as implied by the above account. Instead, he was sitting eating his meal when one of the victims approached him in his seat. Though the video had sound, I haven't been able to make out what was said at that point (that's one of the things I asked the TV news editors about--why no transcript?

I just found a version of the story from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. More distortion.

Wauwatosa police were called to the George Webb Restaurant at 6108 W. Blue Mound Road early Sunday on a report of a fight over homosexuality and Wisconsin's upcoming referendum on gay marriage.

According to witnesses, three friends - a lesbian, a gay man and a transgendered man - were discussing the marriage referendum with patrons nearby when others joined in. As the topic turned to homosexuality and became more heated, they said, one man left his seat in the corner of the diner and began arguing with the three before punching the lesbian and transgendered man, and then threatening to shoot up the restaurant.

They said the attacker left the restaurant, then came back - though without a gun - and started throwing glass ketchup and sugar containers.
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sept 29, 2006, "Hate charge sought in diner fracas;
Man punched lesbian and transgendered man involved in discussion of marriage referendum" by Annysa Johnson)

... obtained through Lexis Nexis.
The part about the man leaving "his seat in the corner of the diner ... before punching the lesbian and transgendered man" is very misleading.
The suspect apparently left his original seat to join the three "victims" at the restaurant counter area. He is seated there when Jorryn, the lesbian, leaves her seat in order to confront the suspect. She comes within easy arm's reach of the suspect, and he pushes her backward.
In my judgment, she takes a dive when she falls backward. It doesn't look to me as though the push should have sent her to the ground unless she were drunk (which is possible, I suppose).

That's not a punch by any stretch of the imagination. I should mention that the suspect does rise from his seat as he pushes Jorryn. He stands his ground as he is confronted by all three of the victims, who have now left their seats to confront the suspect (one remains in the background, certainly).

It is at this point that the suspect delivers a punch at the other "victim" but the person is not completely in the picture at that point, so it's hard to say what happened, exactly. The film clips I've seen are choppy enough that it's even possible that the supposed victim threw the first punch.

Again, the video clips had sound, so using the whole of the evidence should give a fairly clear picture of what happened--but the press in Wisconsin have done an incredibly poor job of giving people an accurate picture of what happened.

Using the taped evidence, it should at least be possible to provide a version that doesn't contain obvious distortions.

Wauwatosa brawl update

I've located the original video that aired on TMJ4 in Wisconsin.

Those of you who have followed my comments on this story know that my recollection of the original video suggested that somebody had been in the corner behind the black suspect.

After seeing a later video, I changed that assessment, supposing instead that the original video had been edited so that it was harder to tell that one of the people seated to the suspect's right had left his seat and moved around to the suspect's right.

Here's the original video.

Once the scene starts in which the suspect is shown seated at the corner of the counter, watch the man to the suspect's right in the green shirt.
After the suspect shoves "Jorryn," green shirt guy disappears from the scene via the magic of video editing. It is "green shirt guy" that ends up to the right of the suspect as he faces Jorryn.

The nutty thing about this is that the video later aired on the same television station tells the same story without that edit. In the later version, it is easy to see that "green shirt guy" moves to confront the suspect.
I suggested in an earlier post that the second video seems to suggest that green shirt guy threw the first punch. I want to make clear that it remains hard to tell since the video appears to skimp on the frames-per-second.

I've contacted the station to inquire into the rationale for the edits and to inquire about the video itself, as to whether or not the full tape will be released as a newsworthy item. As of today, I've had a couple of tentative replies but nothing that addresses the particulars that I have asked about regarding the video or the editing process.

I stick with my initial assessment that the video will not support a hate-crimes charge against the suspect.

I wonder how the witness testimony stacked up against the full video.

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.