'I thought I was going to be killed,' mayor says at sentencing hearing

[undeterred]

Barrett's attacker sentenced to 12 years in prison

It was Friday, the mayor's chance to tell his side of the story. "I talk for a living, your honor," Tom Barrett told Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Hansher. Hansher was presiding at the sentencing hearing of Anthony Peters, convicted of attacking and severely injuring the Milwaukee mayor last summer.

Then, overcome with emotion, Barrett stopped. Seated at a table beside Assistant District Attorney Mark Sanders, Barrett took a moment to collect his thoughts. "It's going to be more difficult to talk about this," Barrett said.

It was Aug. 15, 2009. About 10:30 p.m. Barrett, his two daughters, a sister and her daughter, were leaving the State Fair. "We heard the piercing cry of a woman, crying: 'Call 911! Call 911!' "

The woman was Ellen Sabady, grandmother of Peters' 1-year-old daughter. Peters was attempting to take the child away from her.

Everything happened quickly. The mayor pulled out his cell phone. The man charged Barrett and slapped the phone from his hand. " 'Now I'm going to have to shoot all of you,' " Peters said, according to Barrett. Barrett told the court he glanced at his sister and said: "Get the girls out of here." " 'No, no, no,' " Peters said, Barrett testified. " 'Everybody stays here.' "

Barrett described the horror of thinking his family might be hurt. Peters appeared to have a weapon. Barrett thought it might be some sort of gun. Peters seemed furious. Out of control. He ordered Barrett to lie face down on the sidewalk. Barrett remembered thinking, "This is a lousy way to die."

Rather than lie down, Barrett punched Peters. The object Barrett thought might be a gun turned out to be a tire iron, and Peters began to use it to bash in the mayor's head.

"I thought I was going to be killed," Barrett said. "I thought Tony Peters was going to kill me that night."

He almost did. Peters knocked out three of Barrett's teeth. He split his skull. The mayor tried to protect his head with his right hand, which Peters repeatedly smashed with the tire iron. A doctor would later look at an X-ray of the mayor's hand and think it belonged to someone who had been in an industrial accident.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/99118074.html

[LiberalFighter]

1. Looked at the picture of Peters and the guy does not show any remorse.

Or appearance of really caring what is happening.

[undeterred]

2. Barrett did an incredibly gutsy thing

to help a stranger, and he could have been killed. Shows what kind of man he is.

[undeterred]

3. How Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett gets elected governor of Wisconsin

Though the odds are against the Democrat, a confluence of factors could work in his favor
by Marc Eisen on Thursday 07/22/2010 (Isthmus)

The email from the Republican partisan might as well have had a sound file attached of him laughing and chortling. He was among a number of activists — Democrats and Republicans alike — whom I asked how Democratic gubernatorial nominee Tom Barrett might pull off a win in what looks to be a deliciously good GOP year.

"It is truly stunning," the Republican partisan wrote back. "It took the GOP eight years , split partisan control, scandals and a war to ruin their brand. The Democrats have ruined their brand in a mere 18 months."

Cue the chortling. "In that time, Democrats have alienated and energized the middle and the right by overreaching...while alienating their own base on the left by underdelivering on any actual policy. "It is the worst of all worlds," he announced with the subtlety of an executioner swinging an ax. Democrats are demoralized, while "the right and the tea party middle...will crawl across broken glass on top of fiery coals to get to the polls."

This would be a truly vertiginous turn of events. It seems like only yesterday that Wisconsin Democrats were on top of the world. They had delivered a crushing 410,000-vote margin for Barack Obama in 2008, seemingly burying the notion that Wisconsin was a presidential swing state. (Democrats John Kerry won Wisconsin by a whisper-thin 11,000 votes in 2004 and Al Gore by an even thinner 6,000 votes in 2000.)

much more at: http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=29927