This must be what has RobVG so enthralled…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-supporter-punches-protester-in-face-at-north-carolina-rally_us_56e1761ce4b0b25c9180dd44

The footage shows a white man in a cowboy hat walk down the row to the aisle where protesters are leaving and sucker-punch an African-American man, later identified as Rakeem Jones.

http://www.ncronline.org/blogs/intersection/leaders-should-condemn-ugly-moments-trump-rally-violence-ky

Last week, I saw one of the most frightening series of images I’ve seen in a long time. About 29 minutes into a viral video recorded in my home town, Louisville, Ky., a young black woman named Shiya Nwanguma is shoved, punched, and yelled at by a mob of white men at a rally on March 1 for GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.
In a shorter, more close-up clip, you can hear the men yelling obscenities at her as Trump’s voice, ringing from speakers in the background, bemoans the “the old days, which isn’t so long ago, when we were less politically correct.” Some of the men appear to be around her age (turns out she’s a college student). Some of them are gray-haired. One, Matthew Heimbach, is an avowed white nationalist. Another, Joseph Pryor, was in the U.S. Marine Corps Delayed Entry Program at the time of the incident. He has since been discharged.

White anti-racist and pro-human rights protestors were attacked as well, and some have filed charges in the incident. One protester said on social media that Trump supporters grabbed her breasts. (Due to her privacy settings, I’m unable to share that post.)

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/03/04/trump-rally-fight/

Donald Trump says a violent episode involving a protester at one of his rallies “was amazing to watch.”

The Republican presidential front-runner told a Warren, Michigan audience on Friday that he’s tired of political correctness when it comes to handling protesters. He was interrupted several times during his remarks by yelling protesters, as he often is at his events.

During one interruption, Trump said, “Get him out. Try not to hurt him. If you do I’ll defend you in court.”

“Are Trump rallies the most fun?” he then asked the crowd. “We’re having a good time.”

He then recalled an incident at a New Hampshire rally where a protester started “swinging and punching.” Trump said some people in the audience “took him out.”

“It was really amazing to watch,” he said.

Police are investigating at least two alleged assaults against protesters at a recent Kentucky rally. One, captured on video, involves a young African-American woman who was repeatedly shoved and called “scum.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/the-violence-to-come/471924/

After some initial hesitation and defensiveness, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, and Hillary Clinton reacted to these disruptions by meeting with activists and embracing much of their agenda. Most Republican candidates ignored the protests as best they could.

But Donald Trump saw them as an opportunity. Asked last August about a Bernie Sanders event in which Black Lives Matters protesters spoke at length from the stage, Trump called the senator from Vermont’s response “disgusting.” He added: “That will never happen with me! I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself or other people will, but that was a disgrace. I felt badly for him. But it showed that he was weak. Believe me, that’s not going to happen to Trump.”

It’s no coincidence that Trump raised the specter of violence. The Black Lives Matter disruptions had been peaceful. But as Trump’s campaign took off in the summer and fall of last year, he began depicting entire categories of overwhelmingly peaceful people as a physical threat. Undocumented Mexican immigrants were potential “rapists.” Syrian refugees were “strong, powerful men” who might be a “trojan horse” for ISIS.

Trump’s supporters exhibit high levels of what political scientists call “authoritarianism.” Authoritarians are unusually fearful of disorder and favor simple, brutal methods of quashing it. As Amanda Taub has noted, “When many Americans perceived imminent physical threats, the population of authoritarians could seem to swell rapidly.” So by fanning popular fears of chaos, especially violent chaos, Trump wins yet more votes.

He does this, in part, by turning his treatment of the activists who seek to disrupt his events into a parable for how he would restore order in society at large. At a rally in Atlanta last November, an African American man began chanting, “Black Lives Matter.” According to various reports, Trump supporters responded by punching and kicking him while yelling racial slurs. Meanwhile, from the podium, Trump contrasted his response with that of Sanders’s. “You see,” Trump declared, “he was politically correct … I promise you, that’s not going to happen with me. I promise you. Never going to happen. Not going to happen. Can’t let that stuff happen.” Later on Fox News, Trump declared that, “Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”