On Mirecki

Gary Hurd has an excellent summary and analysis of the Mirecki mess over on The Pandas Thumb. He quotes the entire email and gives us his expert opinion on how he thinks the Mirecki assault went.

To Review

Mirecki noticed he was being tail-gated.

Mirecki pulled over to the side of the road in the dark. (Dumb move).

Two men approached him.

Mirecki got out of his car. (Very dumb move).

He was attacked, and ONLY received a bruise on his arm, black eyes from his glasses, and a few sore spots.

His chipped tooth could only be the result of being hit with his mouth open, as his lips were neither cut or swollen. This is also a strong piece of evidence that Mirecki’s injuries were not self inflicted.

From the background information provided, Mirecki is not a particularly physical man. When he said that “they beat the hell out of me,” I am certain this was from the point of view of someone who has never actually been severely beaten. He was hardly beaten at all. He does not know how to fight. (Mirecki is a sissy IMHO).

(Some relevant points of fact- I have been severely beaten, and I was not walking around 6 hours later, or even 2 days later. Second point of fact- I have examined bodies (and parts there of) of people who have died from violence including being beat to death. Third relevant point of fact- I have spent up to 38 hours on a surveillance, but always with a partner).

Based on the above presented above: Mirecki was not “spotted” on the road, he was followed, and probably from his home. He did not notice being followed until they were in a rural area. That is very hard to do in the dark with little traffic. During part of, or even most of the attack, one man held Mirecki while the other struck him.

Their attack was controlled so as not to kill or maim, hell, he did not even really need medical attention. The two assailants were obviously trained and worked together as a team. Having a partner is a critical need under the circumstance; the target might know how to fight, the target might get lucky. But the most important function of a partner is to stop you from going too far in your “lesson.” I learned while still in High School from one of my fighting instructors.

Who are the most likely people with that combination of training and conservative religious leanings in the relevant area?

It is a rather short list. Men trained in martial arts should have the technique and control to have produced Mirecki’s injuries. However, in my study, I never had a Sensei teach how to tail a suspect.

This outrage was sparked by Mirecki’s comment “a nice slap in their big fat face” refering to Intelligent Design Creationists.” It seems that egged on by political extremists including elected officials, Mirecki was physically slapped in the face. I find it notable that one religious right commenter actually referred to Mirecki being slapped ( Posted by: dcb at December 8, 2005 10:51 PM ). I have no doubt that his attackers felt quite proud of themselves.

I am not unsympathetic to the view that someone with training decided to put a scare into Mirecki.

On a sad note, Gary Hurd gives notice of his departure from PT.

This is my last post to Panda’s Thumb. There are contributors to PT whose personal politics are far closer to the rightist mob revealed above than to people with whom I will remain associated.

I am sorry that he feels that way. I think PT is a great resource and other political disagreement should not get in the way of the job that they do. But I don't have all the information and even if I did, that's not my call to make on someone else's behalf. I will miss seeing Gary's work on PT.