Democrats charged in Election Day tire-slashing in Wisconsin

[truthteller]

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- The sons of a first-term congresswoman and Milwaukee's former acting mayor were among five Democratic activists charged Monday with slashing the tires of vans rented by Republicans to drive voters and monitors to the polls on Election Day.

Sowande Omokunde, son of Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., and Michael Pratt, the son of former Milwaukee acting mayor Marvin Pratt, were among those charged with criminal damage to property, a felony that carries a maximum punishment of 3 1/2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The activists are accused of flattening the tires on 25 vehicles rented by the state Republican Party to get out the vote and deliver poll watchers November 2.

Also charged were Lewis Caldwell and Lavelle Mohammad, both from Milwaukee, and Justin Howell of Racine.

The GOP rented more than 100 vehicles that were parked in a lot adjacent to a Bush campaign office. The party planned to drive poll watchers to polling places by 7 a.m. and deliver any voters who didn't have a ride.

Some Republican officials have criticized Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann, a Democrat, for taking more than two months to bring charges.

McCann said FBI agents were involved in interviewing witnesses in four states: Georgia, Virginia, Maryland and New York.

"We asked the FBI knowing that this probably wouldn't be their first priority," he said.

Rick Wiley, state GOP executive director, discovered the vandalism on the morning of Election Day.

"It was unbelievable that people could stoop this low in a political campaign," he said. "I figured it had to be someone from the opposition. But I didn't think someone on the paid (John) Kerry campaign would do this."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted sources Sunday as saying the five were paid staffers.

Wiley didn't say whether the vandalism prevented anyone from voting, but he said poll watchers were about two hours late.

Moore did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/24/tires.slashed.ap/index.html

 

[JudgeWapner]

Stupid.

 

[Lawrence]

in my opinion, there are people who do dirt on both sides...politics brings out the worst in many

 

[JudgeWapner]

Lawrence, in total agreement. Impeding anothers right to vote is the lowest of the low. Hopefully it won't get uglier than this last election.

 

[Lawrence]

Judge, if it were up to me all elections would be held on Saturdays, exit polls would be banned and the media outlets wouldn't be allowed to play the racing game on the tally's..

 

[Ego74]

Dirty tricks have been used on both sides, it's even uglier when some of the perpetrators are on the payroll of the candidates. There should be stiff penalties for impeding someones right to vote.

 

[JudgeWapner]

L, that all makes sense.

 

[HiloBoy]

politics and religon suck because it is power and money etc before everything else.

 

[lander]

Must have been some knife to get through tractor tires

In all seriousness, I'm glad they were captured. We have enough problems with Governors cheating in elections -- we don't need to encourage the public to partake in the fraud.

 

[Marco]

Tragic waste of tires considering the lack of any real candidate in the election.

 

[4moreyears]

Truthteller, I am NOT surprised at all about this story.

During the campaign trail, there were scads of nasty protests everywhere Bush went by liberal democrats. During the Republican National Convention, democratic protestors were caught kicking a police officer again and again while he was on the ground.

Even though the media is biased to the left, I didn't read even one account of a republican protest of Kerry that got violent.