Police issue arrest warrant in Wiesel attack

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 2/16/7 | Marisa Lagos

[SmithL]

Eric Hunt of N.J. allegedly assaulted author, Nobel winner -

SAN FRANCISCO -- Police have secured an arrest warrant for the man accused of attacking renowned Holocaust author and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel in San Francisco earlier this month.

Eric Hunt, 22, of Sussex County, N.J., allegedly tried to force Wiesel out of an elevator and into a hotel room at the Argent Hotel on Feb. 1.

Wiesel, 78, was not hurt in the assault, but decided to immediately leave San Francisco and the interfaith conference he was in town for.

A $500,000 arrest warrant was issued for Hunt today for attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery and commission of a hate crime, San Francisco police said.

Police said Hunt's identity was determined after officers investigated a vehicle inside the hotel garage.

[SmithL]

They moved pretty quickly, especially considering how Hunt has been bragging about this, ever since the 1st of February.

[SmithL]

If you come to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair, . . .

[Theresawithanh]

Wow, they sure did move fast! I was thinking that the guy didn't use his real name when he posted that he was the guy that did it.

[D.P.Roberts]

A 22-year-old tried to force a 78-year-old somewhere and failed? Is he some SF sissy or something?

[SmithL]

A 22-year-old tried to force a 78-year-old somewhere and failed? Is he some SF sissy or something?

It's a New Jersey sissy, with San Francisco values.

[Kevmo]

Darn, I thought this was going to be a thread about tootyfruityrudybots bashing Duncan Hunter.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

If you get a parking ticket in SF, they will repossess your car and house within thirty seconds. If a hetero is attacked, expect ten inches of cobwebs to grow on your forehead before anybody opens the case file.

[volunbeer]

okay.....

where did he post this?

I know nothing about this.

[randog]

where did he post this?

Some nazi/holocaust denier forum.

[volunbeer]

Not the brightest bulb in the universe is he?

[Enduring Freedom]

san francisco has a police dept?

with guns?

they must look fabulous!

[OCCASparky]

And they look a lot like this guy:

[randog]

Luckily for Wiesel, he isn't.

BTW, love your tagline.

[Enduring Freedom]

handcuffs!

batons!

dark glasses!

[wideminded]

I'm very sorry that Wiesel was attacked and I'm sure that he and his family suffered enormously during the holocaust. Nevertheless, I have always had the feeling that his constantly pained expression was at least partly an act.

[Theresawithanh]

You can find it here, toward the end of the article:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1782199/posts

[Theresawithanh]

Here is the exact sentence: In a posting Tuesday on the anti-Zionist Web site ZioPedia, a writer using the name Eric Hunt takes credit for the attack: “After ensuring no women would be traumatized by what I had to do (I had been trailing Wiesel for weeks), I stopped the elevator at the sixth floor. I pulled Wiesel out of the elevator. I said I wanted to interview him.

[SuzyQue]

What an odd thing to say. Is this just a feeling on your part, or do you have some reason to back this up with?

[wideminded]

What an odd thing to say. Is this just a feeling on your part, or do you have some reason to back this up with?

It's mainly an intuitive feeling based on the numerous times I have seen Wiesel speaking on TV. In comparing him with other holocaust survivors who suffered through equal horrors but don't feel the need to project an image that they are still suffering at this very moment, I wonder if he would carry the same pained, shell-shocked expression if he were not a public figure.

Apparently I am not the only one to feel this way because in reading about Wiesel last night I saw that Christopher Hitchens once wrote: "Is there a more contemptible poseur and windbag than Elie Wiesel?". Granted, this was when Hitchens was writing for The Nation.

IIRC during the Clinton administration Wiesel gave a speech in which he called on the president to intervene in Kosovo. At the time I agreed that something probably needed to be done by the US there to avert the types of incidents that had occurred in the Bosnian War. Nevertheless for some reason I found Wiesel's pose as the embodiment of moral authority to be suspect.