Allegedly shoving a reporter down a stairwell [update: and manhandling another reporter] is never a bright idea.
Flannery plans to file charges, I’m told.
*** UPDATE *** The story is up now…
CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery plans to press criminal charges after he was shoved and sent down a flight of stairs while questioning a congressman Friday, knocking him into a woman who also fell.
The incident happened at a news conference in Joliet, where Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) was announcing his intention not to run for reelection. […]
There’s a large man, who begins shoving reporters around, including yours truly. He shoves me one way, then he goes after another reporter with CLTV.… There’s an opening in the doorway, and I begin moving through that doorway, and he shoves me down the stairs; he shoves me into a railing on the staircase and also into a woman in on the staircase who was traveling with Weller,” Flannery said. […]
“I realized that I need to ask the police to look into this, and I indicated to them that we get roughed up like this from time to time, but I don’t recall ever being treated his violently; shoved around this violently, to the point where a woman gets knocked down,” Flannery said.
Flannery said he later learned an arrest had been made by police officers from Joliet Junior College.
He said the man who shoved him was identified by others as a Weller staffer, but, “He never said a word to me before during or after his violent actions, nor did he say a word to my colleagues who were similarly mistreated.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** There’s apparently much better video of this thug pushing both CLTV reporter Carlos Hernandez Gomez and Flannery. It should be posted soon.
*** UPDATE 3 *** This isn’t the first time that somebody has been dealt with harshly by the Weller people. Remember this one?
*** UPDATE 4 *** The CLTV video is now posted. It gives you a different angle and shows how the CLTV reporter was pushed by the Weller guy, who is now reported to be in custody.
*** UPDATE 5 *** From the CLTV video it looks as if the Weller guy leaned hard against Carlos Hernandez Gomez’s throat or upper chest. You can hear Carlos grunt in the video. Here’s a screen cap, which shows Carlos putting his hand on the other guy’s hand, but go watch the video…
*** UPDATE 6 *** This appears to be the guy…
