My friend Bonnie Bucqueroux, an excellent journalist in Lansing, went to a talk by David Horowitz at Michigan State University, during which he delivered his usual “Obama is a Marxist Muslim” talk, and asked him to address a contradiction in what he said. Horowitz then lost his cool and said he was going to confiscate her video camera. Here’s the video, right up until he grabbed her camera and shut it off in the process.
And here’s Bonnie’s explanation of what happened, including Horowitz knowing full well that she was recording it.
For the record, Horowitz knew damn well that I was videoing him and was happy to have me do so as long as he thought I was an adoring fan.
I arrived early and to scout where to shoot my video. His “official” videographer was there, and she and I conferred about find good camera locations. I went up to Horowitz and asked him if he knew where he would be speaking because I wanted to get good video. He said he didn’t know where he would be standing. Then I asked him whether I could lift the white screen in front of the blackboard or whether he would he need it for PowerPoint slides, and he indicated it would be fine for me to do so.
And as Bonnie points out on the video, Horowitz tells young people to tape their “Marxist” professors (everyone to the left of him is a Marxist in his twisted world), but that apparently doesn’t apply to him.
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fastlane
December 10, 2012 at 2:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Are assault charges being filed? If they are going to claim persecution, might as well help them out a bit, knowwhatI’msayin’?
Mr Ed
December 10, 2012 at 2:22 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I found it interesting that there was and armed police officer and a “fed” standing in the front of the room the whole time. I can understand having security at an event but putting them front and center would seem to limit free discussion of ideas.
d.c.wilson
December 10, 2012 at 2:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Video taping lectures and taking sentences out of context makes you a communists?
But only when you do it to David. When he or his minions do it, it’s in the service of a greater good.
weaver
December 10, 2012 at 2:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Why does he think he has any right to confiscate the camera in the first place?
Zugswang
December 10, 2012 at 2:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think perhaps one of my favorite moments involving Horowitz was a debate at Reed College with the school’s dean. At the end of the debate, a history professor made this comment after discussing some of the stuff he’d written back in the 70′s:
And what do you think Horowitz’ reply was? He accused him of being unfair, discriminatory, and biased.
It’s a truly bizarre sight; the man whose ego is almost palpable, but whose self-awareness is completely non-existent.
Michael Heath
December 10, 2012 at 2:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Mr. Ed writes:
I see it differently, as did the woman who David Horowitz accosted. Mr. Horowitz is a wingnut who attracts wingnuts. Since these wingnuts are by definition deranged, and there’s a chance some non-wingnuts would be in attendance that would threaten their epistemic bubble, law enforcement was a prudent choice in order to secure the safety of the non-wingnuts.
The lady accosted did solicit the help of the campus policeman standing by the door. He escorted her out of the room and building at her request given her perception the room was mostly Horowitz fans.
As an alumni of MSU, I always perceived the campus police as being both totally cool and there to protect and serve. That meant they overlooked a lot of student shenanigans rather than seeking out the opportunity to be fascists. That included their treatment of me when I was a part of a mob who stormed out of the Peanut Barrel bar to throw snowballs at cars going down Grand Blvd. after MSU beat U. of Michigan. This was when UM was led by “fat boy” Antoine Joubert, and MSU was led by the much-loved Scott Skiles. That’s snark on the Skiles reference who was as easy to love as Bill Laimbeer of the Pistons.
laurentweppe
December 10, 2012 at 2:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Tou know, with a litlle imagination and a lot of bad faith, he could try cherry pick quote from Arab-Socialist intellectuals, make it look like generic american liberalism, then tell his audience: “Seeeeeeeeee?”
.
What always baffles me with people like Horowitz is that even the little intellectual effort needed to make their claim appear superficialy coherent is above what they’re capable and/or willing to do.
raven
December 10, 2012 at 3:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This doesn’t sound remotely legal.
1. Taking people’s belongings is known as “theft” or “stealing”. It is a crime.
2. Assaulting people is also a crime. Even if they are a woman. I would have resisted enough to make it obvious that he was assaulting someone protecting their own property. And then filed charges.
Guy sounds like a real wacko.
abb3w
December 10, 2012 at 3:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Michigan law on recording is less than clear (perhaps especially to a non-lawyer like me). There appears to be a rule requiring all-party consent for recording, but other parts of the law suggest this might not apply when in public with no reasonable expectation of privacy — IE, when given a talk open to the general public.
That said, even if the recording was unlawful, it would not appear to give lawful grounds for assault, nor for the attempt to take the camera.
eric
December 10, 2012 at 4:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The quicker we add network-based recording to standard instruments, the better. We are within a generation of making such attempts at confiscation and control of information distribution utterly pointless. Yeah, police and demagogues will always try to take the cameras, if only to shut them off or to be vindictive. But even just knowing that they can’t prevent previously recorded speech and behavior from being distributed is likely to change that speech and behavior.
Pierce R. Butler
December 10, 2012 at 5:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Horowitz had cool?
Maybe back in his Ramparts days, if you stretch the term far enough…
John Hinkle
December 10, 2012 at 5:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What did he say, something like, “is that a tape?” or “are you taping me?”
I would’ve said, why no, it’s a kaleidoscope. I like seeing a halo of sparkles around you.
Gvlgeologist, FCD
December 10, 2012 at 6:30 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
IANAL, but it strikes me as highly unlikely that even if it were illegal to record Mr. Horowitz, it is not up to him to confiscate the recording device. He is not a law enforcement agent. The most he could do is ask the law enforcers present to either stop the recording or eject the person. I don’t know, but would be surprised if the recording device could be “confiscated” unless it was to be used as evidence.
Sounds like Ms. Bucqueroux certainly could make a complaint about this.
democommie
December 10, 2012 at 6:40 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Horowitz is a fraud, that he’s a bully who would accost a young woman is not at all surprising. If Ms. Bucqueroux has occassion to repeat the attempt to get the bozo on videotape–and is not in violation of laws or user policy–in my area (north of Manhattan, geographically; south of Nashville, politically) tell her to let me know. She can run the video and I’ll just wait for the attack (which, knowing that bullies are also usually cowards, I wouldn’t expect to occur).
Hayden
December 10, 2012 at 7:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Here’s the takeaway. Bring a friend. Have one person run the video camera, and have the other ask the questions.
raven
December 10, 2012 at 8:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Have two people. One videotapes the proceedings.
The other has a small videocamera or even a cell phone camera concealed. Some of these videocameras are very small, palm size.
When Horowitz snaps his mooring, have person 2 videotape him assaulting person 1 and stealing their camera.
I’m tempted to suggest that person 1 bring 2 or 3 large, fierce looking guys with her. Then when Horowitz cracks…. Nah, while this would be amusing, it might end up starting a riot.
criticaldragon1177
December 10, 2012 at 9:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ed Brayton,
Horrowitz shows us once again, what an idiot he is. Not mention how stupid the whole idea is that Obama is a “secret Muslim” who wants to Implement sharia. I “loved” how he tried to explain away how Obama was killing terrorists while he secretly supported them and their goals he claims they have.
uzza
December 10, 2012 at 11:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I don’t understand why a cop watched a perp assault and rob a victim, right there in front of him, and did nothing.
Apparently I live in a dream world
timberwoof
December 11, 2012 at 1:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
She’s in the front row, pointing a camera on a tripod at him, tracking him as he walks back and forth for the whole talk. And he only gets upset about it after he’s been asked a difficult question? He appears to be desperately trying to be mistaken for a crackpot.
It would be a bad idea for him to try to bring a lawsuit. He complained that he gets quote-mined. Okay; show the whole video in court. Display his wonderful impersonation of a whacked-out right-wing nut for all to see. Be sure to mark the time at the start of the lecture and the time when he goes ballistic, and note the number of times he looks directly at the camera. “Is that a camera?” indeed.
raven
December 11, 2012 at 2:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh gee.
Is that how far gone Horowitz is these days.
My impression is that David Horowitz, who oddly enough I vaguely remember from the old days, wants to be rich, important, famous, with tons of followers, and famous.
He just completely lacks anything that could be called talent, character, or any other common virtues..
slc1
December 11, 2012 at 7:25 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s rather interesting to consider the transformation of former Trotskyites like Horowitz, Podhoretz, and Kristol pere from left wing nutcases into right wing nutcases. I guess they found that right wing nuttiness is more lucrative then left wing nuttiness.
jamessweet
December 11, 2012 at 7:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As a pedant, this kind of thing drives me absolutely batty — and just the same when it’s coming from the Left, though of course in the present political climate it is less endemic there. Everyone to the right of you is not necessarily a “fascist” or a “Randian”; these words mean specific things, things with more nuance than just “to the right of me”. Same with Marxism. Hell, you could be maximally left and be an anarcho-communist, which would most certainly make you Not-A-Marxist.
To put it another way: The extreme conservatism and the compulsive Othering bothers me enough, but what really grinds my gears is the sloppy use of terminology. Words have fucking agreed-upon meanings, let’s try and use them, mmm’kay?
eric
December 11, 2012 at 8:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
They’re intimately connected. Almost tautologically so. You ‘other’ someone by taking a term typically reserved for extremely unusual cases or which is used to denote extreme disapproval and apply it to them. That deviation from normal use of reference terminology is part of the ‘othering.’ If you try to ‘other’ someone while following normal rules of language use, they’re going to come out sounding human because normal rules of language use imply you refer to regular humans as regular humans.
Mr Ed
December 11, 2012 at 8:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Michael Heath
I went to Boston University under John Silber so I guess my views of campus police are a bit tainted.
slc1
December 11, 2012 at 9:07 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re Mr Ed @ #24
When I was an undergraduate at Berkeley a million years ago, the Berkeley police who were assigned to the campus were famous for their forbearance with student shenanigans.
baal
December 11, 2012 at 10:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The last words we hear her say are, “i’m leav-”.
I would have left right then as well. I was just half listening along until he siad that he was going to ‘confiscate’. His voice changed to one of intended violence or threat. I heard that tone and it drew my attention.
Ichthyic
December 11, 2012 at 3:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
reminds me of Ben Stein.