A man has been charged with felonious assault for shooting a Donald Trump supporter during an argument over this year's presidential election, according to a new report.
And it's raising questions about how far those who oppose the GOP presidential candidate's campaign will go to stop him.
According to a story on the CBS' Pittsburgh station website, Darnell Hall, 45, was charged after he turned himself in to police.
Bond was set at $15,000 during his initial appearance in court for the shooting July 25 at Winston's Bar in Cleveland.
There was an argument there over the election. Police say when one man praised Trump, saying he would make a good president, Hall allegedly left the bar. Then Hall reportedly returned and fired at the 60-year-old, hitting him in the leg.
Hall's lawyer argued during the hearing that the bar owner tried to grab Hall's gun, and it was the grabbing that caused the gun to fire.
It's just one incident among many that already have developed, but they already are fulfilling a prediction just weeks ago from talk-radio giant Rush Limbaugh.
"I think," he said, "people are going to be shocked at the degree to which the left intends to intimidate people into reversing that result [of a Trump victory]. I think they're going to do everything they can to see to it that Trump never does get inaugurated."
Limbaugh said he doubted very much liberals would "sit idly by" and accept any election result that brings Trump to the White House.
Instead, he explained, they'd rather bring on "levels of violence that we have not seen."
He also said members of the media wouldn't likely condemn such violent displays. Rather, they'd press the American viewer to "understand" the angst of the protesters.
"The media," he said, "will tell us that we must dig deep and understand why this is happening."
Within about the last week or so:
- According to the Daily Mail, a "Hillary Clinton supporter" was arrested in Pittsburgh for attacking an elderly man. "Joshua Sturman, 23, walked over to a group of protesters holding Donald Trump signs … and attempted to light an American flag on fire," the report said. Then Sturman allegedly tackled one of the Trump supporters. Assault, disorderly conduct, causing or risking catastrophe and reckless endangerment charges were pending.
- That happened about the same time a homeowner in McKinney, Texas, found out how much Trump critics hate the idea of his winning. Kimberly Loyd reported multiple cases of vandalism after she posted signs in her yard supporting Trump, including one incident where her surveillance camera caught someone painting a swastika on one of her signs.
- And a woman was arrested for defacing property, a Trump sign, in Andover, Massachusetts, on Arthur Gonsalves' property with spray paint. Charges of defacing property and assault by means of a dangerous weapon, her vehicle, were pending against Susan Bryant, 57, of North Reading.
- In Staten Island, the New York Post said a Trump supporter found his front yard sign burning. "It's a shame this generation that is around now, these kids, feel it's fine to block my First Amendment speech – including almost setting my house on fire," said Sam Pirozzolo. "To them, that makes sense." Arson investigators were involved.
In the few weeks before these cases, Media Research Center TV reported one anti-Trump protester said he'd like to "cut off Donald Trump's head."
Protests also turned violent outside a San Jose, California, rally for the GOP nominee when demonstrators simply attacked Trump supporters.
"Protesters jumped on cars, pelted Trump supporters with eggs and water balloons, snatched signs and stole 'Make America Great' hats off supporters' heads before burning the hats and snapping selfies with the charred remains," a report said.
In Haymarket, Virginia, Trump signs again were vandalized. A family had put up a sign, and trespassers threw American flags on the ground, spray painted the sign and chucked eggs at it.
In May, vandalism and inciting a riot charges were filed in Orange County, California, against Luis Fernando Alarcon, who was caught during an anti-Trump demonstration that turned violent.
In April, WND reported a Trump rally in Costa Mesa, California, got rowdy.
A mob of "almost entirely Latino" individuals, many waving Mexican flags, prompted the arrests of at least 20.
"The Trump supporters were the peaceful people singing patriotic songs, festive and happy, while the protesters were very angry and high aggression," one rally attendee, Terry Krokosz, told Breitbart.
A Los Angeles Times reporter posted a photograph of a man with a bloodied face wearing a Trump shirt on Twitter. Journalist Matt Pearce tweeted, with the photo: "Trump supporter got hurt."
Salon said protesters should be wary, because their violence might turn more voters toward Trump.
Citing the violent 1968 Democratic Party convention in Chicago, the report said, "What happened next – if lessons can be learned from history – should give pause to those who might now, in 2016, deploy militant, confrontational 'democracy in the streets' tactics to challenge the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s candidacy at the convention or on the campaign trail.
"In 1968, some 89 million Americans had watched the convention and its attendant protests on television. They had seen the police brutally attack the demonstrators. During the worst of it, as television networks broadcast violence into Americans' homes, the demonstrators had chanted: 'The whole world is watching.' They had expected their fellow citizens to be repulsed by the police brutality and to be moved to join them in demanding greater democracy. They were wrong.
"Chicago Mayor Daley stated that he had received more than 135,000 letters supporting his use of police – and only 5,000 complaints. Public opinion polls verified his claim. Only 10 percent of white voters believed that the police had used too much force on the protesters, while 25 percent believed the police should have been tougher. On the other hand, 63 percent of African-Americans thought the police had been too violent."
The report noted the result that "white voters fled the Democratic Party."
Even if the party itself was not linked.
But this year, according to the Independent Journal Review, "an email dump courtesy of Wikileaks reveals the DNC interfering in the Republican nomination process by fueling protests at Trump events."
The report explained party officials themselves were linked to plans to create a protest that blocked traffic in San Francisco, and another in Indiana.
Back in March, the Washington Post reported a Tucson police officer was worried about "a full-fledged riot" coming from the anti-Trump protesters.
The solution, according to radio host Michael Savage?
"The Savage Nation" host told his audience recently he is sick and tired of leniency shown to left-wing activists. He said America could learn a lesson from Reagan by revisiting how he squashed the "People's Park" protests in the late '60s.
"He was a law-and-order candidate who stood up to the street garbage," said Savage. "There were no more riots in Berkeley after that. The professors shut their mouths and went back to their classrooms to molest the students. And the street protesters disappeared all of a sudden. The 'We shall overcome' crowd suddenly fled when there was a little reaction from the police."
He explained Berkeley students vowed to destroy school property in May 1969 if officials turned a plot of land into parking lot. Reagan deployed the California Highway patrol, police officers, and the U.S. National Guard to restore order. One student died and 128 others were admitted to the hospital during a declared state of emergency.
Behind-the-scenes footage of Reagan speaking with a college professor shows he had no interest in negotiating with lawbreakers.
"Those people told you for days in advance that if the university sought to go ahead with that construction they were going to physically destroy the university," Reagan said. "What is to negotiate? All of it began the first time some of you who know better, and are old enough to know better, let young people think that they have the right to choose the laws that they would obey as long as they were doing it in the name of social protest."
Savage went on to say there would be a "civil war" in the U.S. if officials continue to allow left-wing groups to flout the rule of law.
"Trump is extremely popular. The people are not going to be shut down. There are unarmed groups being formed to protect Trump rallies," said the radio host. "I warned you this would happen. I warned you there's going to be a counter-reaction to these street thugs. They think that they have the stage. They're wrong. They don't have the power in this country. They're a small group of people. ... They're going to provoke violence on the other side, and that is bad for America. It's very bad for America. That is what the left specializes in, which is violence and anarchy of this nature."
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