Chaos at the OK GOP Convention in Norman, Police Called to Assist

The black eye this gives Republicans in Oklahoma makes you wonder what is going to happen in November.  A Romney person hits a Ron Paul person because he doesn't like the way he votes?  This beyond disgusting and frankly one more reason to wonder why I am a Republican.  This is not the Republican Party I grew up with but what I have seen out of the last two State Conventions I attended.  Refuse to waste my time going to another one.

This Convention was scheduled for Norman, OK, for the same weekend as The University of Oklahoma graduation ceremony Friday night and then all the colleges graduating on Saturday.  Once again the GOP didn't care about the people who were attending the graduation.  Not the first time it has happened.

To read this makes me totally disgusted with the status of the Republican Party in this State.  Figured it was going to be bad when I got an email from the Santorum Chair warning there was going to be problems.  When you have to call the police in to assist, the whole Party structure should be ashamed at the way they handed the convention.  Changing the rules in mid-stream and keeping people from voting doesn't seem very Republican to me but it seems like it is anything for Mitt Romney here now.  

Wasn't there -- more important things to do then sit through a shouting match that has been happening at the Conventions.  

Chaos at the convention, police called to assist
Posted on: 12:06 am, May 13, 2012, by La'Tasha Givens, updated on: 09:55am, May 13, 2012

Norman, Okla.– Contention at the convention, that’s how many Republicans described the Oklahoma State Convention Saturday. 

Republicans from almost every county gathered in Norman to vote on party issues. However, parliamentary procedure took a back seat to physical altercations.

Dozens of attendees told NewsChannel 4 police had to get involved when a Mitt Romney supporter believed to be almost 80-years-old punched a Ron Paul supporter in the head after they disagreed on a vote.

Kyle Minor spoke to us about being hit. “At the end of the day we got everything done. I don’t want to focus on the negative but I do appreciate the police assistance,” says Minor. 

Conference goers showed us video of the police defusing the situation. 

Viewers later tweeted to a reporter Minor may have been aggressive with the elderly man. Witnesses also say a woman was hit in the back by another woman. 

They say a water bottle and paper were thrown. 

Norman police could not be reached for comment as it was after hours. 

Attendees say there was a lot of disagreement throughout the day but things came to a halt when the lights were turned off and the conference room walls closed one group out. 

Former Vice Chair Cheryl Williams says, “This just breaks my heart. I want justice and peace among the party.” 

When our cameras arrived, supporters for Romney, Santorum, Gingrich and others were gone. Only Ron Paul supporters were left to talk about their concerns. 

However, some of the party officials we spoke to off camera say they believe things got heated and out of control because supporters of different candidates are so passionate about the upcoming election. 

But they also say, at the end of the day, they’re all Republicans and want see one of their own in the White House instead of President Obama. 

Source:  Channel 4 News

Chaos in Egypt Also Brings Out the Best in some Egyptian Communities in Cairo

Today for the first time the police have begun to return to some neighborhoods:

As the curfew began at 4 p.m. Sunday, police were seen returning to some neighborhoods and working in tandem with the army to try to restore a sense of security.—

Civilians took over to watch over their neighborhoods when the police were pulled from the streets. Roving bands of thugs were not only going after the Museums but individual residences in some of the best areas of Cairo. The people of Cairo turned out to protect their Museums against the thugs and now we learn they are also protecting their neighborhoods.

We are hoping this is the beginning of an orderly transition from the Murbarak regime but it is too early to say. Egypt faces a lot of chaos in the days ahead as various factions try to take over leadership. Our prayers are with the people of Egypt as they attempt to remove a dictator and keep from sliding into a fundamentalist country like Iran run by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Civilians watch over neighborhoods in Egypt chaos
Updated: Jan 30, 2011 - 11:10AM

AP CAIRO -When Egypt's police melted from the streets of Cairo this weekend, the people stepped in.

Civilians armed with knives, axes, golf clubs, firebombs, metal bars and makeshift spears watched over many neighborhoods in the sprawling capital of 18 million this weekend, defending their families and homes against widespread looting and lawlessness.

The thugs had exploited the chaos created by the largest anti-government protests in decades and the military failed to fill the vacuum left by police.

On Saturday, the army sent out an appeal for citizens to help.

"The military encourages neighborhood youth to defend their property and their honor," it said in a statement.

On Sunday, joint teams of civilians and military were patrolling, some with guard dogs.

Mohammed Gafaar, a 34-year old salesman in the Nasr City area, said his neighborhood watch organized soon after the night curfew went into force at 4 p.m. They did it at the behest of residents, who appealed for protection of their property, sending out the call from the local mosque.

"I feel betrayed by the police," said Gaafar, who had carried rocks, a stick and a firebomb in a soda bottle. "They have to be tried for the protesters they killed and for their treason. They left the country to be looted. I am angry at the regime."

Akram al-Sharif, a 33-year old Cairo resident who lives in one of the affluent compounds in the city's west at the edge of the desert, said locals hired twenty bedouins with guns, and organized into groups to protect the five gates of the compound.

"I am happy this is happening. There was solidarity," he said. But he criticized the military for failing to protect private property.

The troubles began after days of protests calling for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak reached a crescendo Friday, when tens of thousands poured into the streets after noon prayers in the city's 3,000 mosques. The protests quickly spiraled into clashes with riot police, who fired countless canisters of tear gas, rubber bullets and waters cannons and beat the demonstrators with sticks.

By Friday night, protesters had set fire to the ruling party headquarters along the Nile in central Cairo and the first reports of looting emerged — people making off with electric fans and televisions from the burning complex. Mubarak ordered the military into the streets for the first time to try to control the escalating turmoil.

On Saturday, the tens of thousands of police who normally patrol the streets vanished. Security officials, asked why they disappeared, said that remained unclear. But the police, who are hated by many, may have been seen as just fanning the flames.

Throughout the day, shops and malls were ransacked and burned, and residents of affluent neighborhoods began reporting burglaries by gangs of thugs roaming the streets with knives and guns. By mid-afternoon, shopowners and residents were boarding up their stores and houses.

Gangs of armed men attacked jails, sending thousands of inmates into the unpoliced streets.

As night fell, the neighborhood watches took up where the police left off.

In the affluent neighborhood of Zamalek, where many foreigners live and embassies are located, groups of young men, some as large as 40 people, set up barricades on every street entrance to the island in the middle of the Nile.

In other neighborhoods, residents wore arm bands to identify each other and prevent infiltrators from coming into their midst. In Zamalek, a handwritten announcement hanging on a street window asked people to register their names for neighborhood defense committees.

Watch groups armed themselves with a makeshift arsenal of shovels, baseball bats, whips, and the occasional shotgun. Young men organized themselves into shifts, and locals brought tea and other snacks.

Neighborhood guardians set up metal barricades and stopped cars, questioning them about their destinations and street addresses and sometimes searching them. With many roads blocked, drivers went the wrong way on largely empty one-way streets to get around.

Long after midnight, gunshots rang out on a scenic street along the Nile, near the Indian embassy and the Algerian ambassador's residence. One youth said the neighborhood watch confronted the passengers of a car, one with a firearm, and persuaded them to leave.

Residents said they were filled with pride to see Egyptians looking out for each other in a society where many, if not most, struggle just to subsist.

Gaafar, the salesman, had returned from Dubai to take part in the protests. He said he feels sad at how things turned out, but believes it won't deter people from continuing to protest.

"This has brought out the best in people," he said. "There were people who were much younger than me who have never come across gunfire before... They looked scared. But they were still standing. Everyone was so brave."

Associated Press reporter Sarah El Deeb contributed to this report from Cairo.

Source: AP via AOL News