Where's the Outrage, Leadership, Over Recall Violence?

It has been more than a week since the physical altercation outside Stater Brothers Grocery involving a couple of petition signature gatherers and someone who apparently identified herself as a fan of Scott Voigts.

It has been more than a week since the ugly incident, and instead of their being universal condemnation of the violence regardless of who was at fault, Lake Forest Mayor Pro Tem Voigts, Mayor Andrew Hamilton and Councilman Dwight Robinson -- the three subjects of the recall petitions -- have yet to call for peace among the two sides. They have been playing the blame game on social media, however.

Adam Nick, the least active on social media of the city's five councilmen, wrote last week that it "should never happen, we should all be better than that. I don't condone violence from any sector and no one in this great city of Lake Forest -- pro recall or anti recall -- should be or feel threatened while exercising their Constitutional rights - whether supporting the recall or being actively against it."

The other four have Facebook sites that are more active than Nick's.

Jim Gardner, on his "Lake Forest Town Square" site, says: "I believe we are all horrified that it has come to this."

What allegedly happened, according to witnesses, is that Cindy Hamilton approached signature gatherer Merijoe Axelrod and punched her, knocking Axelrod to the ground. Josue Vizcay, another recall supporter, either pushed or punched Hamilton to the ground, ending the disturbance.

As of Monday night, Voigts had made no mention of it on his Facebook page.

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Robinson on March 31 shared an aftermath video originally posted by Cindy Hamilton that adds to the acrimony between the sides. He called Vizcay "mentally unstable," and accuses him of "suggesting on social media that they should harass my kids on the way to school and has lied about where my kids attend school." And though Robinson says he feels "sorry for this guy and I hope he gets the help he so desperately needs," he follows up immediately with this: "Please share this video." There is no suggestion whatsoever that both sides should try to coexist during the final weeks of the recall window, which ends on April 20.

Robinson did post something earlier in the week. He wrote "This is out of control" and then blames the recall side for the attack. "If Adam Nick and Jim Gardner don't admonish this behavior they're even worse than the thugs they are employing." Robinson has since removed the post.

Mayor Hamilton's personal Facebook page includes a March 29 sharing of the video with the comment, "So sad to see what is happening to our community." And, Monday night, he posted a cartoon originally posted from the "A Better Council for Lake Forest" copycat page with the remark, "Funny but sad at the same time." The cartoon features a pinata with "civility" written on it being hit by a woman with a shirt that reads Lake Forest Recall while saying "I have no idea how we got a 'thug' reputation." I'm glad he can find some humor in it.

Mayor Hamilton's hands are all over the "A Better Council for Lake Forest" copycat page and there's all kinds of anti-recall and Nick-hater rhetoric posted there.

Yet one of Hamilton's comments refers to Axelrod as "part of the Recall assault team" who "yells at a Stater Brothers employee who is trying to de-escalate the situation." It's good that Hamilton realizes the significance of trying to de-escalate a situation, but what is he doing to de-escalate the situation that exists in Lake Forest? Nothing.

No words from Mayor Hamilton that try to calm the community. No words from Mayor Hamilton that try to de-escalate the tensions. No words from Mayor Hamilton that show he's capable of doing anything other than threatening 20-minute timeouts to punish attendees at council meetings.

Curiously, the video that was posted on Hamilton's anti-recall site and the one that inspired Robinson to be so haughty in his defense of Cindy Hamilton shows the aftermath, but doesn't show the attack. Yet Cindy Hamilton is heard saying she has video of the attack, which would lead one to wonder: If she's the real victim, why wasn't that portion of the video posted? And if she wasn't expecting a confrontation of some sort, why did she have her camera out in the first place? Aren't these the kinds of questions you'd expect city councilmen to ask before assigning guilt and ratcheting up the emotion between sides?

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The anti-recall supporters are painting the ugliest picture they can -- just like they have since this recall began. It's not about facts, or even close approximations of facts, it's about spin. In the case of the aforementioned video, it's about why a man would hit another woman instead of a man preventing one woman from beating the crap out of another woman. Some cavalierly suggest there's no situation that justifies a man knocking a woman to the ground. Two words: Tashfeen Malik. This is the most extreme example, but an example nevertheless. I'm not suggesting any action was right or wrong, only that truth in such incidents are rarely defined by black and white, and drawing a conclusion based on an aftermath video is naive at best.

Because it is an ongoing investigation, the Orange County Sheriff's Department turned down my public records request for the Stater Brothers surveillance video that might provide some clarification as to what really transpired and a view of the incident that might shut down some of the hateful rhetoric.

However, Mayor Hamilton's copycat site is doing everything it can to attack the credibility of those who support the recall. It's straight from the Nick is Nuts playbook that responds to the recall by smearing Nick and calling it a power grab. Yet Leah Basile, the recall organizer, says the recall never would have happened if just one of the three councilmen had broken ranks in October and been willing to put on the council agenda the Saddleback Ranch Road debacle.

But none of the three councilmen wanted to discuss it anymore, and so they sat silent when Nick and Gardner tried to put it on the agenda; needing a third person's consent, they never got it. Then they were served with recall petitions and, suddenly, Saddleback Ranch Road was on the agenda and they were taking action as if their political life depended on it.

And maybe their political life does depend on it.

The three councilmen are accused by the recall supporters of engaging in "corruption, cronyism, collusion, conduct unbecoming, conservatism denied, and compassionless" behavior. Maybe Hamilton's, Voigts' and Robinson's grasp of this situation and their unwillingness to speak out on it shows how little compassion, how little empathy, they truly have for the situation.

When violence happens, anything can happen -- including tragedies. This attack was a misdemeanor, but it could have been deadly had someone's head hit the concrete.

At this point, 10 days after the altercation in front of Stater Brothers, any condemnation of physical violence by Hamilton, Voigts and Robinson will be nothing more than political grandstanding.

They're supposed to be the leaders of the community. This was a perfect opportunity for them to tell their followers to take a step back and reflect the values that allow two sides to disagree without violence.

They did not.

About the author: Martin Henderson won several Los Angeles and Orange County press club awards while an editor at Patch in 2012-13.