*click*

  • Chris Hogan

    Odds-on a stunt by ethnic Bulgarian nationalists. The intention being to scare Mr Doğan into retirement (and to cow potential successors) rather than make a martyr of him.

    Just another day in the Balkans.

    • Petzl

      well hopefully his stunt results in a stint in the hoosegow.

      • Boundegar

        +1 for hoosegow.

  • nixiebunny

    The old guy with the umbrella at 1:00 was my fave.

    It’s not likely that the fellow with the gun intended to use it, because he took his sweet time.

    • ldobe

      Looked like he didn’t even have a round in the chamber.  Just before and while being tackled you can see that he’s trying to pull the slide.

      • MB44

        You are correct. Looks like nerves got the best of the shooter. The potential victim is a lucky man.

        • Antinous / Moderator

          Lucky? He slapped the gun aside and tackled the guy.  Most people would just stand there whimpering.

          • MB44

            The time that he was afforded to slap at the weapon was only made possible by the ineptitude of the shooter. The video is very clear. The shooter runs up, points, and pulls the trigger. Shooter was pulling the gun away to the side so that he could pull the slide and put one in the chamber; something he should have done before. The slap had nothing to do with anything. There was no bullet in the chamber. Pure luck, nothing more.

    • http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker

      I am rather fond of the old man, as well. In the middle of a rather disturbing video — near assassination followed by what I was worried was going to turn into an unrestrained beating — he made me LOL. 

      • Timmy Corkery

        Another +1 for the old man. Different feelings about the unrestrained beating, however.

        If one plans to kill someone — not grumbling and stewing, and muttering under one’s breath “ooh, if I only had the chance,” but really, truly planning to take someone’s life, acquiring the means to do so, and then attempting to execute the plan, no pun intended — and the result is that one fails and subsequently sustains a whoopin’ (and, I think we can all be honest about this, having seen anything from a complete UFC match to only just snippets of what goes on in an octagon, that really wasn’t much of a beating), one had it comin’. Obv, sure, and it doesn’t make the beating, live and in living color, any less shocking; I guess this is just a longish, poorly-worded way of expressing that I can’t muster much/any sympathy for the assassin taking the whoopin’.

        I suppose the bright side (?) to this is that the attempt on Doğan’s life failed; had the assassin succeeded, the body count would have been waaay higher than just one: Doğan, the assassin, and all the other probably-completely-uninvolved folks who would have been (and, sadly, may still be) swept up in reactionary ethnic violence. Ah, the Balkans.

        [sigh] Humans…

        • adornheimer

          [sigh]

          You do not lose your basic human rights, no matter what you do. Yes, he tried to kill someone. There will be a judge, there will be a trial and there will be some form of punishment, according to the laws of the country. 

          The bodyguards who kicked the man while he was on the ground, are no better than him. Their job is to protect their client – something they have failed at abysmally. Their job is not to deal out punishment, for this is the sole right of the state. They assaulted a defenceless person in a manner that could have led to grieveously bodily harm or even death (if one of those thugs had hit the guy in the head). 

          Kicking a man who lies on the floor is a crime, no matter if the man himself is a criminal. 

          This is not about sympathising with a would be assassin. This is about rising above bronze age concepts of justice and society. 

          • Timmy Corkery

            Sure, I agree in principle, but the problem is not one of either sympathy or justice; the problem is humans. Laws can be as stone/bronze/iron-clad as we want them to be, but the human adrenal response is awfully difficult to legislate.

            Please know that I wouldn’t twist your response to accuse you of sympathy for the assassin; that’d be straight-up trolling. My lack of sympathy, similarly, I hope will not be used as evidence that I am a heartless scofflaw. The beating the assassin took, however vicious and/or however criminal, was an expected outcome of his action. If you attack [member of group] in front of [group] –  and that’s physically, verbally, or otherwise — [group] won’t like you very much. If [member] turns into [leader], expect the worst. Sadly, that’s what humans do, and we’re very, very good at it. Doesn’t make it right or legal; it’s just what happens. For the assassin to expect any different treatment would be folly. The execrable idea of “suicide by cop” (I really hate that term) is, unfortunately, operative in this situation; unless he was delusional or simply irretrievably stupid, the assassin could not have expected to make it out in one piece.

            Perhaps I erred in trying to minimize the beat-down. I suppose I should have said that the assassin got off lucky that he didn’t get killed right there (although his punishment, and the incarceration leading up to it, will surely be a far worse fate), and not tried to qualify it. Sorry for ruffled feathers.

  • bo1n6bo1n6

    Dude got owned.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/TO5UKBBQ6Q4VZ2MFZTGNB6HYRI Ideal

    When everyone has guns we’ll all be safe.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzF_TbmDH5s

  • oasisob1

    He was punched, kicked, beaten with an umbrella and some shiny object (a camera or microphone?). They have totally got politics down outside the US.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      With all those chunky middle-aged men in suits, it looked like an episode of The Sopranos.

  • http://blog.doomsdayzen.com agonist

    That’s the face of death. Very disturbing video to watch.

  • http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Dr. Chronobiologist

    I can not imagine politicians from the US being capable of such violence. As they’re mostly out-of-shape lawyers I foresee them cowering and calling for security to shoot the intruder.

    • ldobe

      I could imagine Paul Ryan giving an attacker an asswhoopin’.  He’d have to be constantly be changing fighting style though.  Gotta keep those muscles confused.

      • http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Dr. Chronobiologist

        Love the mental image of Paul Ryan squealing, “THIS ISN’T FAIR. SOMEONE ELSE SHOULD TAKE HIM OUT” after other members nominate him to exit from underneath their desks and confront the attacker.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Paul Ryan has no chest. I can’t see him packing much of a punch.

        • http://profiles.google.com/joshuabardwell Joshua Bardwell

          Punch comes from the hips. Like everything.

    • http://www.facebook.com/david.guilbeault David Guilbeault

      Here is a couple Canadian pols go’in at it; MP Justin Trudeau (Pierre’s son) and Sen. Patrick Brazeau, with bonus faux fox commentary: http://youtu.be/XuSpZ3_5pTc

  • http://www.spellingmistakescostlives.com darrrrrrn

    Reminded me of the (“successful”) assassination of ‪Inejiro Asanuma‬ live on Japanese television in 1960 by a right-wing extremist. The video isn’t graphic, but the realisation of what has just happened is. http://youtu.be/3O9loo9ncZs

  • fungstyle

    The island won’t let him die.