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Scott Brown staffers do “Indian war whoop”, “tomahawk chop” – YouTube

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Scott Brown staffers do “Indian war whoop”, “tomahawk chop” – YouTube.

9/22/2012, nearby Eire Pub in Boston, at a rally for Scott Brown including former Mayor Ray Flynn. Some supporters of Elizabeth Warren were also gathered around with signs. Here you can see Brown’s staffers making “war whoops” and “tomahawk chops”, presumably in reference to Warren’s Cherokee heritage. Identified in video making the chop are Brown’s Constituent Service Counsel Jack Richard (camoflage shirt) and — we believe — Massachusetts GOP operative Brad Garrett Garnett, front and center with tan baseball cap and gray hoodie, leading the whoops and chops. (Garrett is known for having recently delivered a cake to Warren for the anniversary of the Occupy movement.)

(Also present, though apparently not participating in the whoops and chops, are Greg Casey, Deputy Chief of Staff, (black polo near end of video), Jerry McDermott, State Director, (blue fleece and shades on head), and Jennifer Franks, special assistant, (plaid shirt, beginning).

 

Now, for a campaign that has shown such piety, such respect for Native American ancestry that they simply couldn’t allow the blonde, white, “clearly not” Native American Ms. Warren to sully it … somehow that decency, restraint, and respect has not trickled down to the staff of our good senator.

Look at this production from the Massachusetts GOP:

 

I think Senator Brown has some explaining to do about the nice guy, respectful tone that he sets in his office, and on his campaign.

(And maybe we can put this whole preposterous issue to bed once and for all.)

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Comments

  1. is just the push I needed to sign up for a canvassing shift this weekend. “Don’t get mad, get even.”

  2. I could watch only a few seconds. That’s not hardball campaigning. That’s not rough-and-tumble heckling. I find it hard to see that as anything but racist bullying. I’d love to be wrong. I’d love to think better of the senator and his supporters.

    But the whooping and the chopping? That’s a bunch of schoolyard bully crap that hurts anyone else who happens to be NA. It’s cheap and mean. Come on, guys, this is Massachusetts. We’re known for witty heckling. You can’t do better than that?

  4. I have no doubt that the same Republicans who feel it is ok to publicly mock Elizabeth Warren with racist “war whoops” and tomahawk chops are the same Republicans who forward photoshopped graphics of our “Monkey-in-Chief” and tell n–ger jokes about the President.

    The main difference is that it is far more socially acceptable to slur our Native American population in public than it is to slur other backgrounds.

    You stay classy, Scott Brown Campaign.

  7. The bitter, angry tone of his staffers is reminiscent of the campaign that put guys in orange jumpsuits outside John Walsh’s house yelling at his 12-year old son, and broadcast ads implying that women would be raped in their cars if Deval Patrick was elected. The contemporary Massachusetts Republican Party — we are the 13 percent! — bares its fangs. No wonder they are so deeply unpopular.

  8. I could be wrong, but I thought I recognized our old friend Brad Marston in this video wearing what looks like a dark grey fleece with a red t-shirt underneath. Here he is at the beginning, participating in the “war whoop” (click for larger):

    Here’s a better look at the same guy (click for larger):

    Am I wrong? If so, my apologies to Brad.

  12. …and presented it as a story of equivalent controversies. Basically, “Brown staffers were caught…, but Warren also has questions to answer about…” Brown was quoted on camera while a statement from Warren was read. Brown said apologies might be in order, but, “the real issue is Warren using her heritage to blah, blah, blah”

  13. Kudoes to Lynne and others who have been to both BMG canvasses. Let’s pick a date and a place. We’ll get some votes and have some fun.

    Thoghts?

  14. ABC News

    Brown said today that, “I haven’t seen it. This is the first I’m hearing of it… I don’t know what you’re specifically referring to.”
    He added, however, “Certainly that’s not something I condone. It’s certainly something that if I am aware of it, I’ll tell that member to never do it again.”

    Are you kidding me. Don’t do it again is the response?

    “Scott Brown’s campaign is flailing and in trouble, and this is yet another sign of that. Scott Brown and his staff are launching outrageous and offensive personal attacks to distract from the issues that matter. The behavior of his staff is completely inappropriate, but the tone of the campaign is set by the candidate,” said Democratic party spokesman Matt House.

    • From the Globe.

      Still, he struck a defiant tone when asked if he would apologize for his staffers’ behavior.

      “The apologies that need to be made and the offensiveness here is the fact that professor Warren took advantage of a claim, to be somebody – a Native American — and using that for an advantage, a tactical advantage,” Brown said.

      WOW.

      • this is a story on to itself.

        Scott Brown is quoted saying that public displays of racism is not what we should consider offensive. Hey Scott, I would imagine some Native Americans might have a different feeling.

        Brown needs to be called out on his remarks….!

      • than the actual fact that his staffers did it in the first place.

        He is a serious jerk, and by refusing to take accountability for his staff and apologize for them, certainly cares nothing for Native Americans.

    • If there are no consequences for their behavior, then Scott Brown is condoning it.
      He has enabled, encouraged and participated in this crap – and without a doubt condones it.

  15. Watch the video carefully. The Brown staffers are close to the Warren supporters, and they are clearly taunting them with racist gestures. That’s disgraceful.

    But, wait. These are employees of Scott Brown’s senate staff. That means that they are paid by OUR tax dollars. And, why are Brown’s federal employees participating in Brown’s campaign event?

  16. His comment to WCVB: “The apologies that need to be made and the offensiveness here is the fact that Professor Warren took advantage of being somebody, a Native American, using that for a tactical advantage.” (In other words: It’s Warren who needs to be sorry)

    SERIOUSLY?! The racism on display here from our Senator and his staff is downright appalling, and I can’t believe that this has been allowed to continue. His comment during the debate that “AS YOU CAN SEE” Warren is white? If we were talking about ANY other ethnic or racial group, it would be a no brainer. Why do we treat Native Americans any differently? It’s 2012 Scott Brown, I just hope that the voters in Massachusetts are better than Brown seems to think they are.

  17. If Sen. Brown’s Constituent Service Counsel Jack Richard was at this event, which appears to be during the work day, was he taking vacation time? As a public employee, he should be performing his job, not campaigning.

  18. Would someone please tell me why the shameful Mass. GOP Cherokee ad is not a violation of the pact between Brown and Warren, which banned unauthorized ads purchased outside of the campaign. If it is a violation, shouldn’t Brown’s campaign pay to a named charity 1/2 the cost of the ad within three days? And shouldn’t that violation become a campaign issue?

    • embedded in Charley’s post is a web-only video, so it does not violate the People’s Pledge. It has not been broadcast.

  20. There are three significant groupings of Cherokee. In Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians. They are both descendants of the Southeastern-originating Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, of Western North Carolina (and likely parts of SC, GA, and TN).

    In any case, any Cherokee heritage of Elizabeth Warren almost certainly comes from one of the two Oklahoma Cherokee tribes, not the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. So why did the GOP go interview members of a tribe from which Elizabeth Warren, if she has Native American heritage, almost certainly didn’t come? Why wouldn’t they go to Oklahoma and interview the Cherokee there? I have a few theories:
    1. They wanted to go to “Cherokee, STATEX” because the optics are better.
    2. North Carolina Cherokee “look more Injun” than Oklahoma Cherokee.
    3. North Carolina Cherokee are culturally more closed off to White Man’s society than Oklahoma Cherokee, and therefore it’s easier to get the kinds of soundbites they got.

    I have no idea if (2) and/or (3) are correct — just flailing here. Still, I have a friend in my town, a girl from Oklahoma. Total white bread. Turns out that she (too?) has Cherokee heritage. Nobody in these parts would *ever* guess that.

    • Because REthuglicans don’t care about the truth, only in holding onto power at all costs. ALL COSTS.

  22. Good on yer.

    I just watched this for the first time after reading about it all day.

    I was not expecting the random “Yankees Suck” chant. Perhaps these Brown supporters are unaware that it is not 2007.

      • In my defense, I grew up in Connecticut, with two older brothers who were both Red Sox fans – what else would an 8 yer old boy do with a situation like that?

          • But I was a Giants fan for years, starting in the early seventies when Tarkenton was QB. I moved here in 1993, along with Bill Parcells and Bill Belichik, so I started following the Patriots then, since they had delivered two Super Bowls for the Giants. I always said I would only have a problem when they face off in the regular season and if they face off in the Super Bowl – now look what’s happened, twice!

        • I have extensive family in NYC and lived there, in the midst of the gloating, entitled, obnoxious Yankee fans for too many years. They remind me a lot of Republicans to tell the truth, even if many of them aren’t

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