[VIDEO] [POLL] WOW! Talk About an Over-Dramatic Overreaction!

Amused

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Apr 14, 2001
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Soft or hard bop? Either way, whack in Carson is a hit with viewers
By J. Michael Kennedy, Times Staff Writer
February 11, 2007


One thing is certain: Carson Public Works Commissioner Jan Schaefer got bopped on the back of the head with a bunch of papers.

That's on tape.

She didn't get hit in the eye, as Mayor Jim Dear was quick to claim.

But was the blow enough to send her reeling to the floor in apparent agony? Or was her fall spur-of-the-moment melodrama?

Was it a heavy bop or a light bop?

These questions have been circulating inside and outside of Carson all week. And there have been comments galore on a local television station's website where the action was broadcast, including Dear's call for the arrest of the assailant, Vera Robles Dewitt, a leader in the campaign to recall him.

The hubbub at Tuesday's City Council meeting seemed vintage Carson of late.

Most recently, the city's image was tarnished in an ongoing bribery scandal involving millions of dollars in municipal contracts.

In December 2004, former Mayor Daryl Sweeney was sentenced to nearly six years in prison in the case. He was the ninth defendant, the second mayor and the fourth council member to plead guilty.

To recap Tuesday's incident: Dewitt, a former mayor and owner of Carson Bail Bonds, was addressing the council the day after she delivered 12,169 signatures calling for Dear's recall. The mayor, among other things, is accused by recall proponents of siding with developers who want to build an apartment complex in the city.

After Dewitt finished speaking, she stepped from the lectern and began walking up the aisle of the council chambers. As she passed Schaefer, a Dear friend and supporter, Dewitt delivered a backhanded swat with her papers to the back of the commissioner's head.

After a brief pause, Schaefer shrieked and rolled to the floor, at which point the mayor stood from his council seat and called out, "She hit her right in the eye! Stop that woman from leaving the room! She struck the woman. She should be arrested. This is unbelievable. We're going to call a doctor." :laugh: What a tool!!!

Schaefer declined medical aid and rubbed the back of her head as a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy helped her back into her seat.

"This is so traumatic, both physically and emotionally. I was hit in the head and I didn't know but that the building might be coming down," she said Friday. "I didn't know what was going to happen. I got scared." :laugh:

The incident, though, has now become a matter for law enforcement and the district attorney to consider.

Sheriff's Capt. Todd Rogers, who was there that night, said the "video is pretty much self-explanatory. It wasn't a real forceful strike but clearly an intentional strike. We're investigating it as a battery."

The definition of battery is "any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another."

The Sheriff's Department said Saturday that Dewitt was arrested and released after being issued a citation to appear in Compton Municipal Court on suspicion of battery.

Meanwhile, the city's video of the incident has been playing on the website of KNBC-TV Channel 4. Many viewer comments either criticize Carson in general or take issue with the grievousness of the hit.

"Oh, wow," wrote one contributor, who gave "passerby" as a name. "Thanks for the laugh. As a Carson resident for almost 30 years, this just takes the cake! This just goes to show how asinine our leaders are ? from the mayor all the way down."

Another writer, who identified himself as Frank M, called the incident an "absolute joke. That woman was not hit nearly hard enough to be hurt, let alone knocked to the ground."

How this, or the recall, will play out is anyone's guess. Getting a recall election requires 20% of the Carson electorate, or 8,676 voters, far fewer than were collected. The mayor submitted 5,858 cards Monday from residents asking that their names be removed from the recall petition.

Dewitt, meanwhile, would not comment on the incident. And Schaefer said it was not up to her to decide whether Dewitt would be charged.

"If I hadn't been hit, nothing would have happened," she said. "I'm not a person who takes surprises very well." No sh!t? :laugh:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me...0,3669946.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Video:

http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/Home...ale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

A website with her info from a past election.

http://www.smartvoter.org/2006/06/06/ca/la/vote/schaefer_j/

LOL, her email address is there too.
 

Wuffsunie

Platinum Member
May 4, 2002
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The shriek is priceless.

Bet she didn't know she was on candid camera and was trying to get the other woman charged.
 

nissan720

Senior member
Dec 3, 2004
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Originally posted by: Amused
You just gotta love the pause before she reacts. :laugh:

Wow, that really is funny!

And I think that the person who said it was Justified must have skipped that video!
 

loic2003

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
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wow that's fvcking pathetic. Just like most beloved patriot soccer players rolling around there...
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
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Originally posted by: nissan720
Originally posted by: Amused
You just gotta love the pause before she reacts. :laugh:

Wow, that really is funny!

And I think that the person who said it was Justified must have skipped that video!

Ya think? :laugh:
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
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Ya know, this is what happens when no one pays attention to local politics and focuses so much on national politics.

What people don't realize is those local fools have a LOT more power over your life than the national idiots.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,599
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The woman with the file folder should duke it out with Tigger sometime. It'd sure be one brutal, hellish fight, with horrendous taps, incredible swats, and intense staring contests.
 

bamacre

Lifer
Jul 1, 2004
21,030
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Originally posted by: Amused
Ya know, this is what happens when no one pays attention to local politics and focuses so much on national politics.

What people don't realize is those local fools have a LOT more power over your life than the national idiots.

If we actually did a good job of voting in good people on the local level, it would be inevitable that we got better people on the federal level.
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
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Originally posted by: bamacre
Originally posted by: Amused
Ya know, this is what happens when no one pays attention to local politics and focuses so much on national politics.

What people don't realize is those local fools have a LOT more power over your life than the national idiots.

If we actually did a good job of voting in good people on the local level, it would be inevitable that we got better people on the federal level.

Well, the main problem is party line voting. Voters pay no attention to local issues and politicians and vote party line for national races... which means the locals just ride the coat tails of the nationals.
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
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Originally posted by: MrPickins
I love how she gently lowers herself to the floor. :laugh:

I know. It's rich, isn't it?

The Mayor's reaction is similarly rich. As if he isn't trying to demonize the woman who is leading a recall campaign against him. :laugh:

Carson is a joke. I lived there briefly before going to Basic Training in the 80s. Nine officials have been convicted of felonies.
 

Amused

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Originally posted by: Bootprint
Originally posted by: MrPickins
I love how she gently lowers herself to the floor. :laugh:

Some needs to send her a homemade emmy award.

What would rock is a campaign urging everyone to send her drama awards.
 
May 31, 2001
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While the woman shouldn't have smacked her, the performance of the one that "fell" was on par with the people that are caught on store security cameras "slipping" and falling so they can try and sue the store
 

TheVrolok

Lifer
Dec 11, 2000
24,254
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Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
While the woman shouldn't have smacked her, the performance of the one that "fell" was on par with the people that are caught on store security cameras "slipping" and falling so they can try and sue the store

Yep. Ridiculous. I'd expect a council member to have more maturity than that.
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
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Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven
While the woman shouldn't have smacked her, the performance of the one that "fell" was on par with the people that are caught on store security cameras "slipping" and falling so they can try and sue the store

LOL, yep.
 

preslove

Lifer
Sep 10, 2003
16,755
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I hate people who pause and then start showing their "pain." It's a weird pathological attention grabber usually used by people with emotional insecurity issues.