The Pinata With Hair

Don't let anyone tell you that Islamophobia isn't spreading from New York.

The flap over the Park 11 cultural center has spread to Murfreesboro, TN, where construction equipment used to lay the groundwork for a mosque there has been set ablaze and Tumecula, CA, where teabaggers tried intimidating Muslims with barking dogs.

It's also spread to West Haven, CT, but not in the form that 31-year-old Kevin Morris would have approved.

After walking into the Fire & Ice Hookah Lounge (I LOVE that name.) and screaming racial epithets at a number of black and middle eastern people, a drunken Morris...how can I put this delicately?.....ehh I can't...got the everlovin' shit kicked out of him. By the time police showed up, the outside of the Lounge looked like a hockey game with Morris playing the role of the puck. Bystanders told police that one of the patrons had rung Morris' bell several times before running off. (But you just know that they made that guy up and in reality EVERYONE had taken their best shot at Morris' drunken ass; like he was a pinata with hair.)

Morris was bleeding profusely from the face. Police had to take him to the Yale-New Haven Hospital to be treated for his injuries before arresting him for third degree intimidation and second degree breach of the peace. Morris' face, with one eye swollen shut as a result of his night out, can be seen here: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/09/as_weve_been_reporting_there.php

With thanks to Amanda Pinto of the New Haven Register and TPM Muckraker.

S. Olson