Posted on 03/04/2011 5:14:16 AM PST by Loyal Buckeye
The volatility surrounding the collective-bargaining debate spilled into the night Wednesday when police were called to a German Village restaurant after a group verbally accosted a gathering of Senate Republicans.
After the vote on Senate Bill 5, seven Republican senators, including President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, grabbed dinner at the Easy Street Cafe. As the lawmakers neared the end of their meal, a group of five to 10 union supporters angry about the passage of the bill hours before burst into the restaurant and began shouting.
The commotion eventually led to pushing and shoving with the restaurant staff and owner, before police arrived to calm the situation as a police helicopter hovered overhead. No senators were involved in the physical altercations, and no charges have been filed.
"It could have (gotten physical)," said Sen. Frank LaRose, 31, a Fairlawn Republican who served as a Green Beret. "The group was agitated and they were shoving the owner, and he had nothing to do with this."
LaRose said it didn't take special intelligence training to notice that while the lawmakers were eating, a woman walked past the window several times, poked her head in the door and got on her cell phone.
"It was planned," LaRose said. "They gathered as a group and waited until they had about 10 people before they caused a disturbance."
When the group burst into the restaurant, the woman, Monica Moran, deputy director of public affairs for SEIU District 1199, raised her hands in the air, yelled "Can I have your attention?" and then shouted "something nasty," LaRose said. Soon after, the rest of the group of men and women joined in with a chant.
"They stormed through my dining room," said George Stefanidis, owner of the Easy Street Cafe. "I told them they had to leave, and they wouldn't."
Stefanidis said he called 911 when the protesters refused to leave. LaRose said there was pushing and shoving with the restaurant staff. Meanwhile, someone on the outside slapped an anti-Senate Bill 5 sign on the window near where Niehaus was sitting.
"I understand their argument, but they should do that some other place," Stefanidis said. "It just ruined the whole night."
He said about 70 people were in the restaurant, at 197 Thurman Ave., at the time.
Witnesses said Stefanidis and his staff held the group back from the senators.
"I was tempted to help, but us getting involved would have escalated it, not de-escalated it. We decided to stay quiet," LaRose said.
Moran, who is married to a top researcher at the Ohio Republican Party, was unapologetic.
"It is unfortunate that rather than focus on the adverse impact that this legislation will have on hard-working, middle-class Ohioans, there are those who would choose to focus on a conversation I had with Senate Republicans," she said in a written statement to The Dispatch.
"The moment of discomfort Senate Republicans may have felt as a result of my expressing my opinion pales in comparison to the extreme discomfort and financial hardships that public employees will endure as a result of SB5."
Sens. Kevin Bacon of Minerva Park, Keith Faber of Celina, Larry Obhof Jr. of Montville Township, Chris Widener of Springfield and Gayle Manning of North Ridgeville also were at the restaurant. All but Manning voted in favor of Senate Bill 5.
What was it the left said about “civil discourse?”
I wonder if the owner could have the thugs arrested for trespassing, and then sue them for loss of revenue.
time to BREAK, these thugs....and teach them some civility.
Climate of hate.
Union supporters??? Ten to one they were union MEMBERS.
why were no charges filed....
...did the cops think of these thugs as their ‘peeps’
Brownshirts - - Omama style.
I heard about 10 minutes of Ed Schultz’s show yesterday when a caller called in about the Merchant Restaurant in Madison supposedly asking the Gov to leave two or three weeks ago because other patrons were being loud about him being there.
Ed snickered and laughed and expressed joy on the air at the Wisconsin governor being harassed by union stalkers.
But don’t expect to win the media war. NBC/ABC/CBS will run it as “Small group of protestors beaten to pulp by Tea Party”.
Known as "Flying Squads"
turned out, that never happened. The bar admitted it.
But that won't stop someone like Shultz and his miniscule, moronic audience from repeating it.
Ending collusive bargaining is driving the colluders crazy.
“Ending collusive bargaining is driving the colluders crazy.”
And it’s all the more reason why it has to go....
Government cannot and should not be controlled by unions.
If it didn’t matter, they wouldn’t be squealing like pigs. The louder they squeal, the more determined we must be to end the practice.
Exactly. I’m so tired of it. Minority groups everywhere seem to be able to dicate to the rest of calm, sane, rational, taxpaying society. We are huge in number — why do we continue to allow ourselves to be browbeaten, by liberals, union members, homosexuals, muslims, etc. ...WHY? There are way more of us!!
When is the silent majority just going to wake up and put and END to all this nonsense??
Interesting....because all the “protest” has made me FAR more determined than ever.
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