A Republican Redshirted Bully Harasses a Witness at a Public Hearing

Special to the Blog for Arizona

A Republican woman in a red shirt bullied and traumatized a Democratic woman at the December 4 redistricting hearing for half an hour. Republicans standing in line at the hearing ignored her distress and did nothing to help. Finally, two military veterans, including me, got her to safety.

The incident that I witnessed there left me shaken and deeply troubled.

I am a veteran of the US Air Force and a former military spouse. I joined the military to serve my country and to defend American values, such as freedom, equality, and justice for all. I’ve remained active in my community since leaving the service, as I feel that the oath I took to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States never expires.

As part of being a public citizen, I attended the meeting of the Redistricting Commission in Tucson. I expected it to be heavily attended and possibly unpleasant because political partisans were sure to be there. But I did not think I would have to actively protect someone from abuse and harassment.

I was waiting in line with hundreds of other people to get into the meeting room when I noticed a commotion about 20 feet behind me. A heavyset, very loud blond woman with glasses, wearing a red Republican shirt was yelling, believing another woman had cut into the line. Ms. Redshirt started screaming and yelling at this innocent person, bullying, harassing, and invading her personal space without wearing a mask. The disruption continued for several minutes. It appeared that the bully was a Republican-leaning person, given her red clothing, who heaped verbal abuse upon the victim in front of her.

Veterans protect the victim

Caleb, a military veteran whom I know in Common Defense, happened to be in line just ahead of the bully. He had seen me in line and phoned me to ask if I could take the victim to my spot in line farther ahead to protect her from the bully. Caleb said, “You have to come to get this woman away from this bully because she is being traumatized.” I went outside to where he was. I knew it might be unpleasant, but he wouldn’t ask if he didn’t think it was necessary.

When I reached my friend and the bullying victim, I gently took her arm to lead her away. Her arm was rigid and she appeared to be paralyzed with fear. As we returned to my original place in line, the bully followed us, yelling and screaming even louder. It took several people forcibly placing themselves between the bully and her victim to get her to stop.

I looked around and met the eyes of a woman in a red shirt who also appeared to be a Republican. She looked away and mumbled, “that makes everyone look bad.”

Does it? Does it make everyone look bad? No, no, it doesn’t. It makes all the other Republicans waiting in line, who didn’t lift a finger to intervene, look bad.

Why did it take a military veteran to do the right thing? Caleb had served in the Marines and deployed to Afghanistan. He fought for American values overseas. He should not have to feel that he had to do the same at home because no one else would.

Acceptance of bullying

The bullying and its tacit acceptance are even more troubling because it appears to be a microcosm of a larger problem in national politics today. Since 2015, America has seen the Republican Party taken over by people who are (and I think this is the best way to describe them) bullies. They are bullying all the rest of us, threatening to take away our way of life, our rights, and our country through violence if they have to.

The people who used to compose the mainstream of the Republican party have stood by and done nothing. They won’t look us in the eye and admit that the behavior of bullies is making them look bad. And we are all, collectively as a nation, paying the price for it, just like everyone in that line had to listen to that verbal abuse.

From listening to the conversations between other red-shirted people, I could tell that those folks were utterly delusional. They had fully bought into the Big Lie that there was fraud in the 2020 election — when there was not. They falsely believe Democrats cheat to win elections. They think they have to take away our right to vote to make elections “pure.” These are not the actions of freedom-loving people — they are the actions of dystopian tyrants.

How much longer is this behavior going to be tolerated? I wish I had not witnessed this kind of bullying and abuse before, but I have. Now I see it as an everyday event. Everyone who witnessed the hostile behavior that day was affected. How many were forced to remember abuse and trauma from their past? How many domestic violence survivors had to hear that? How many minorities were scared away and will never participate or try to use their voices again?

When good people do nothing, evil wins.

As I considered the events of that day, I realized that and how it was tied to so many nationwide issues we are dealing with. Civility and humanity are abandoned with a growing fear of equality and freedom for all. Those who think they can be rational with them are now in the trenches seeing it happen in front of them.

I saw all the silent, complicit ones, who are embarrassed and want to distance themselves but are willing for their own selfish reasons to look the other way. And they are unable to look me in the eye.