OK, I'm tired of this Larry Cirignano silliness. Yet it seems the anti-gay/anti-marriage-equality hack is incapable of honor. He had his lawyer back in Worcester court yesterday, asking that the judge dismiss the most serious charge — civil rights violations — but not assault and battery.
If you have the stomach for it, you can search for his name in this blog and get your fill. The recap of his last court appearance, with a couple of links, is here.
Double Tip: I'd doff my toupee twice if I wore one. I've been bike commuting and didn't pick up Bay Windows yesterday or even have time to check its site. However, John over at Live, Love, and Learn alerted me with his post. The original reporting from BW is here.
Cirignano's lawyer apparently tried to convince Worcester District Court Judge David Ricciardone that if his client really did what many saw him do — shove a pro-marriage-equality protester face down on the pavement — it really isn't a civil right violation. Funny that the victim and police and DA figure that if you are using physical force to prevent free speech, that's what the civil rights laws forbid.
Hmm, adulthood and responsibility can be such burdens. Even if Cirginano's family never taught him how to behave, he may have to obey the same laws that the rest of us do.
This matches up nicely with the anti-marriage-equality demonstrator who physically assaulted a pro-equality guy by coming around a police barricade to slap him after her side lost the June 14th ConCon vote. Bud over at MassResistanceWatch has info and the right attitude on this.
In both cases, the attackers held that they are innocent. Cirignano claims against victim and witness testimony and the physical evidence that it never happened. Then he suggests that if it did happen, so what? The slapper, Diane Steele, tries the he-made-me defense, the one favored by spouse and child beaters.
Yesterday, Ricciardone did not laugh out loud or dismiss the Cirignano claim out of hand. He took the motion under advisement and will announce his ruling on Friday, July 13th.
Here's hoping that both of these clowns have to accept that they can't act out their political emotions into physical violence.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, Bay Windows, Live, Love, and Learn
6 comments:
I thank you for including a link to my site while covering this, and I have done the same.
One thing that escaped me is that Cirignano tried to say "so what" to the pushing. Could you tell us what else you have heard about this? I have no information about it, and if he is as arrogant as he sounds, so much more reason to make him pay for it.
I have citations here scattered about. The gist from Bay Windows, Pie and Coffee, and Telegram stories is that he started saying that he led Ms. Loy from in front of the podium. He says that his shove was merely guiding her and that he had a portfolio in his hand and was in no position to shove her to the ground. His so-what attitude is that, as he only "guided" her, it was never a shove, so he can't be punished for it.
In addition, the images before the event clearly show that rather than being in front of the speakers, she was across the courtyard next to the anti-marriage-equality demonstrators. Cirignano would have had to walk from the dais area across the open space to come behind her.
When I find the links to these, I'll put another comment here. I'm between things and can't get to them.
He never specifically said, "So what?" Rather, he said that he did touch her but somehow expects people to believe it was not the battery that it turned out to be. There's a big fat so what, from Larry. Yeah, he kind of pushed her and she sort of fell down, but he's not guilty of anything.
Its interesting to see the same exact defense people used for Cirignano now being used for Diane Steele. Somehow we GLBT people are able to find just the right person, say and do just the right things in order to trick them into breaking the law. It no longer matters in their mind that it is the law, they had it coming, right?
We have had so many decades of this. Wingers just don't stop doing it. I think of big cases, like Oliver North in the Reagan presidency selling drugs to buy guns in the Iran-Contra affair; he said it was justified because he believed in the cause. Far more mundanely, that Parker character in Lexington staged a sit-in and occupied a school; then he claimed the school officials made him do it, so he was blameless and shouldn't be punished. We'd had Cirignano and Steele, both claiming that their victims were at fault, not them.
The cultural meme that covers all these is now a cliché but a worthy catchphrase — If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.. Book 'em, Dano.
Believe me, moire people will be gettingg slapped
Especially the one's asking for it.
Sarah Loy asked for it and got it.
You want the violence.
Loy was begging for the violence.
She knew exactly what she was doing.
And Diane Steele - thank you for that slap. Theloser who got in her face was looking for it.
That slap was a huge sigh of relief for traditional marriage supporters.\
Just one slap made everyone feel better. If we can just shut one loser up at a time.
Well, there you have it, from the electrons of anonymous. I could not have concocted such a clear example of this kind of emotion-drive expression.
Blame the victim. Accelerate frustration in to physical violence. Claim the attacked made the attacker flip out.
Of course that shows a poverty of intellect, morality and breeding. Yet, isn't it amazing there are people who can try to justify abusive, irrational behavior?
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