Michigan Tea Party calls security on seniors attempting to enter event with Rep. Justin Amash

The great state of Michigan is making national news again. This time it’s for keeping senior citizens out of a town hall event with their elected representative in Congress.

The following report comes from ThinkProgress:

As the backlash against the GOP’s plan to end Medicare grows, so does the attempt to block reporters from covering it. As ThinkProgress has reported, several Republicans are clamping down on citizen journalists at their events. But this weekend, the Tea Party of West Michigan took this to the next level.

At the Prince Conference Center at Calvin College in Grand Rapids Saturday evening, the Tea Party group hosted a fireside chat with Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) for Tea Party supporters. The event was not open to the public, though numerous senior citizens were told the event was a town hall and were turned away at the door. A few seniors gathered outside on the sidewalk to discuss the various issues they had hoped to discuss with Amash, including their disapproval of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) Medicare privatization plan. While seniors spoke with ThinkProgress and a reporter from the Michigan Messenger, organizers from the Tea Party group called campus security, summoning eight officers to force six seniors and two reporters off the premises…

Here’s some video:

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13 Comments

  1. DefNot
    Posted May 24, 2011 at 1:53 am | Permalink

    “There’s always been a little green behind the red, white and blue,” he said to cheers in Dublin.
    I didn’t really like Obama much until this trip to Ireland. He is a decent guy.
    The rest are crooks.

  2. Knox
    Posted May 24, 2011 at 6:40 am | Permalink

    No offense to the elderly, but fuck ’em. They’re the ones that created the Tea Party. It’s hard for me to work up any empathy for them now that their favorite entitlement programs are on the chopping block.

    And, yes, I understand that there are a lot of good seniors out there who didn’t vote Republican in the last election. It felt good to vent though.

  3. Edward
    Posted May 24, 2011 at 8:24 am | Permalink

    The Republicans are fucked once the senior citizens start waking up.

  4. Kim
    Posted May 24, 2011 at 9:36 am | Permalink

    The Washington Examiner calls Amash a “small government heartthrob”:

    Amash was endorsed by that famous advocate of government agency-slashing, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tex., and he recently keynoted the national convention of the Republican Liberty Caucus, the GOP libertarian pressure group. He told Time magazine that he counted free market economists F.A. Hayek and Frédéric Bastiat as his “political inspiration.”

    I guess just because you believe in “small government” doesn’t mean don’t employ “large security forces” when you feel as though you’re under attack.

    http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/opinion-zone/2011/03/republican-libertarians-fave-rep-justin-amash-r-mi-explains-his-present-v#ixzz1NHRvLAgG

  5. Glen S.
    Posted May 24, 2011 at 11:39 am | Permalink

    Perhaps the heavy security presence for this event shouldn’t be that surprising.

    From a 2002 Calvin College news release:

    “Calvin will hold a dedication service for the Prince Conference Center and the DeVos Communcation Center on October 25-26. The two new buildings are being funded by the two largest gifts in the history of Calvin College. Both the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation and the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation committed $10 million to the projects for a total of $20 million.”

    Some of you may recall that Edgar and Elsa Prince’s soon, Eric, was the founder and sole owner of XE Services LLC (formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide) before stepping down in 2010, and moving to the United Arab Emirates, where he has been contracted to create a private mercenary army for the oil-rich state.

  6. Mr. X
    Posted May 24, 2011 at 1:33 pm | Permalink

    Good catch, Glen. I wasn’t aware of the Prince connection. With that said, though, I don’t think those security guys in the video were Blackwater mercenaries.

  7. cmadler
    Posted May 24, 2011 at 2:12 pm | Permalink

    Ditto Knox.

    Besides, is it really so outrageous that people walking in off the street were turned away from a closed, private event?

  8. Mike Shecket
    Posted May 25, 2011 at 1:37 am | Permalink

    Would you say the same thing if Tea Party people tried to get into a private event with John Dingell? Should elected officials not be allowed to talk to people in private?

  9. Luber
    Posted May 25, 2011 at 4:19 am | Permalink

    Elected officials should not be allowed to talk at all.
    That is how they get into trouble.

  10. TaterSalad
    Posted May 25, 2011 at 2:20 pm | Permalink

    Charges will be filed this coming week with the F.B.I. against Barack Obama:
    http://floydreports.com/dr-jerome-corsi-is-turnin

  11. wetdolphinmissile
    Posted May 25, 2011 at 4:04 pm | Permalink

    OMG, cmadler and “ditto Knox” not everyone over 50 is a tea bagger. In fucking fact we are the ones that didn’t trust anyone under 30. So fuck off with your ignorant ageist comments.
    There… I too feel better now I vented.
    Go ahead, be divided and ignorant, the better to get over on all of us.

  12. Brandon
    Posted May 25, 2011 at 6:34 pm | Permalink

    Oh man, if the GOP loses the old people, it’s game over! Might as well call the election for Obama about now…

  13. TaterSalad
    Posted May 26, 2011 at 4:46 pm | Permalink

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