French Quarter Fracas: Couple Attacked Leaving GOP Fundraiser

[Guest SUNTZU]

LOTS more at link below including videos and lots more updates...

Fox News has finally picked up the story. Megyn Kelly just did an interview with Allee Bautsch’s mother Della Berning, in which several pieces of information came out.

Ms. Berning did NOT want to discuss the political nature of the attack, though she de-emphasized rather than disputed the political angle. She did, however, confirm that from the time Brown and Bautsch left Brennan’s they were subjected to insults by a group of people who were lingering around, and as they turned the corner onto St. Louis Street and entered an area a little darker and more secluded than Royal Street where Brennan’s is, they were attacked.

She also said, without going into specifics of what was said, that “it was all about money.â€

Allee Bautsch has seven screws in her leg and five surgical scars. She didn’t just fall down, she was stomped on.

Ms. Berning also said something we’d like to emphasize. She didn’t want to talk about politics; she noted that what’s important is finding out who did this. That is what we’re most interested in as well. We think, based on all the research and reporting we’ve done, that the answer to this crime is to be found in the people who were protesting at that Brennan’s event, and we want to shine light on the organizers of that protest in an effort to force evidence to the surface.

This isn’t a left-right thing, at its core, unless members of an anarchist commune can be accurately described as members of the mainstream left in America. Frankly, we think anarcho-communists ought to be just as despised by Democrats as Republicans; white supremacist groups are, after all. If you think Republicans are worse company than people like the Iron Rail Gang, then you’re part of the problem.

UPDATE, 11:05 p.m.: A frequent reader and usually reliable source to the Hayride passes along a possible explanation of how the attack happened (and this substantially fits with what we’ve been told by a couple of other people we’ve talked to on background):

You might be interested in a comment that showed up under the Times-Picayune’s last article which contained that photo of the crime scene. A commenter who calls himself lernedlesson and who is usually in the know posted that he heard from a co-worker who knows Joe Brown and has talked to him since the incident. Brown confirmed that it was a political attack and that he thought the culprits had been at the protest. There were five of them, and when they started trash-talking to the couple he told her to run for the car. She was attacked by one of them and the other four went after him.

Sure enough, we went to the Times-Picayune story and found this:

Posted by lernedlesson

April 15, 2010, 9:38PM

Yes, there is more to this story. A co-worker, who went to college with the boyfriend, was relating what he was told when he talked to him. It WAS political, as the attackers were recognized as protesters at the fund-raising event, and there were 5 attackers, not 3. The couple realized they were being stalked after being berated for their political affliations and support of Jindal. The bf told the gf to run for their car; 4 of the attackers lit into the bf, beating him to the point of concussion; and the last tracked down the gf. She broke her leg when he bashed her to the ground.

We would prefer to have more on this, and the principals involved aren’t talking so far. Can’t blame them. As said above, however, the basic points of this account do seem to square with what we’ve had on this story, with the exception of the troublesome business of the Sarah Palin pins our first source gave us. The fact that this one purports to have come from Joe Brown, while our first source represented an account from Allee Bautsch, is a little bit helpful.

Take this for what it’s worth.

UPDATE, 5:10 p.m.: From one of our readers, a New Orleans-area attorney who had posted a link to this article on Gov. Bobby Jindal’s Facebook page last night, comes a rather interesting phone message (watch the profanity on the back end)…

The Call

A lot to unpack here, but let’s just say the caller seems to be either quite forceful in his speculation or possessed with some knowledge of the attack. Our reader decided to call us at the same time he notified the police.

UPDATE, 3:30 p.m.: Hooray! The Times-Picayune has noticed the story again:

There have been no news updates since New Orleans police issued a press release Tuesday asking for the public’s help in finding suspects who participated in a French Quarter fight Friday that led to the injury of a campaign aide to Gov. Bobby Jindal, as well as the aide’s boyfriend. But someone identifying himself as Jack A. Neal, has published a photo on the governor’s Facebook page showing the couple talking with police shortly after the attack.

The Picayune goes on to say…virtually nothing other than what they’ve already reported. And no byline is given for their article. Given the hard-hitting investigative journalism involved in reading Facebook pages and government news releases while ignoring the wealth of research and story leads the New Media has been producing for them since Monday, that’s not much of a surprise.

UPDATE, 1:40 p.m.: Via Pat Dollard.com, there is now confirmation via the New Orleans Police Department that the attack was, in fact, political:

I just had a very interesting and somewhat confusing conversation with New Orleans Police Department Public Information Officer Bob Young.

Mr. Young confirmed to me that the New Orleans police had indeed taken statements from both of the victims, Jindal aide Allee Bautsch and her boyfriend, Joe [brown]. He confirmed that in those statements, the victims reported that their assailants had indeed hurled “insults†at them, and the “insults†were, and I quote, “of a political natureâ€. Describing the entire attack, he went on to say “it was of a political natureâ€. I then repeated what he told me, and he confirmed it as accurate. I had a witness on the call, Mark Harvey of the Snooper Report, who can confirm this. However, for reasons I’m not clear about, when I pressed him again later, he began to backtrack a bit, perhaps with some cya in regard to his superiors, and he said that he was not authorized to give an official statement about the contents of the “insultsâ€, and for the record, it had not officially been made clear to him what the contents of those “insults†were. He ended up going from “yes, it was of a political nature†to “I’m not sureâ€. Mark, an established blogger, was as baffled as I.

My read on this: he caught himself talking out of school in a relaxed opening with me, and then backtracked before he got his ass in trouble.

He then informed me that the lead detective on the case was one Detective Nick Gernin, a crack officer, one of the very best in the 8th Division, the Division assigned to cover the French Quarter. Detective Gernin had told him yesterday that he had “a couple of hours†of surveillance tapes to review last night. Mr. Young told me that the Detective wasn’t in the office yet, but that as soon as he was, he would get a report from him as to the contents of those tapes, and he would call me with whatever their was to report about them.

Mr. Young also told me that there was no other new information to report on the case at this time, and that there were no named suspects on anybody’s mind or list, yet.

Do we now finally get actual mainstream media attention on this case, or are we going to have to watch the story continue to be ignored?

UPDATE, 10:21 a.m.: Jack A. Neal has posted a follow-up on Gov. Bobby Jindal’s facebook page:

I was in New Orleans this past weekend. I ventured out into the French Quarter Friday evening (4/9/2010 ), and had dined at the Royal House Oyster Bar, on Royal Street. Of course, the sound of sirens and clamor is hardly unusual in the French Quarter. I generally have my camera with me wherever I go, and that night was no exception. Obviously, New Orleans after-dark can be a photographer’s smorgasbord.

I heard sirens immediately prior to leaving the establishment, and saw New Orleans police officers running towards an area located within a block adjacent to the oyster bar. I followed, and managed to grab one photo of the pair being attended to by a police officer before that police officer politely (no sarcasm intended ) asked me to move on. He explained that he was “trying to get this lady some medical attentionâ€, and that he didn’t need to deal with a photographer at the moment. As I said, the officer was polite, and appropriately professionally attentive, so I moved on.

As relates to this matter, I have no political agenda. I can’t say with certainty even that this is the same couple or incident, but I strongly suspect it. The photo may not be particularly revelatory, but rather, simply illustrative. As you will see from the photo, there don’t appear to be any Palin pins evident. Of course, that hardly diminishes the brutality of the event, nor the hypocrisy of the MSM. I think it’s safe to assume there would have been a rush to judgment were the circumstances different.

The French Quarter Fracas: Information Solidifies (Updated, 12:40 p.m) | The Hayride

[eapking]

Dang that was long. Anyway...

This will of course be ignored by the liberal media since it's not about some right-wing nuts doing the assaulting, but rather some of "their own" doing the gang-banging.

This story will not see the light of day beyond Fox.

[Guest SUNTZU]

This story is being ignored here. I think you're right about main stream.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Anarcho-communist. Interesting word.

This kind of stuff is happening everywhere else and just the poor Dem victims seem to be getting all the attention.

[eapking]

Oh, and the designation of "hate crime" needs to be done away with. The race, religion, or gender of the victim is irrelevant. The criminals just need to be locked away for a damn long time. That seems to be a problem nowadays for some reason that just escapes me.

Same thing for the bonus time for committing a crime with a gun. As if being killed with a knife if somewhat more acceptable.

Both of these are bad solutions to an easily fixed (IMO) problem. Lock them up and throw away the keys. There is no rehabilitation in jail. They just learn how to become better criminals.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

This story is being ignored here. I think you're right about main stream.

Probably more covered up than just ignored. It shows media bias when you

compare what MSM report, and what Bill Clinton said about Tea Partiers

being on the verge of seditious activity. It's like they are setting the stage for something bad.

The same people who(allegedly) hate crime are some of the ones who commit hate crimes.

Edited April 21, 2010 by 6.8 AR

[Mark@Sea]

Why, it's all just a matter of perspective. Don't you know those 5 protestors who found it necessary to beat a young man senseless and throw a young woman down and stomp her were just proactively defending themselves from vicious Republican policies that might force them into manual labor?

And those TEA party jerks, don't they realize the Obama has implemented policies ensuring that 19 to 22 percent of working class Americans have seen their income tax burden drastically reduced?

/sarc

Yeah, easy to see that there is a storm coming.

[Guest Tygarys]

just proactively defending themselves from vicious Republican policies that might force them into manual labor?

Having lived in the NO area, I would not be surprised if that really was the reason...