This is the story of how I was assaulted and given a concussion by members of the Lehigh Valley Tea Party on February 3, 2022. They never told me why, but I had been invited to the event and was attacked shortly after one of the members saw one of my Salon articles.
On Feb. 3rd, 2022, I went to an event held by the Lehigh Valley Tea Party at the Starlite Ballroom in the Pennsylvania city of Allentown. I had been invited by Dean Browning, who I had interviewed in 2018 when he was running for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. In 2022, he was running for Pennsylvania State Senate.
Browning and I began discussing having me attend a Lehigh Valley Tea Party meeting in December 2021. There is a great deal of correspondence, including exchanges surrounding a January 2022 meeting that I wound up not attending (due to feeling sick) despite initially intending on doing so. On Jan. 28th at 1:50 PM Browning sent me a follow up message stating that “the meeting is still on and you are still invited.” On Feb. 1st at 3:55 PM I wrote to Browning that my goal would be “to keep my ears open and my mouth shut” and that my plan was “to listen to varying perspectives on how America’s past relates to its present.” On the day of the meeting, Feb. 3rd, Browning emailed me at 6:52 AM saying “I’m sorry but it is my turn to reschedule.” When I asked if I could attend without him (at 8:09 AM), Browning replied at 8:23 AM that “yes – you can just show up and go in with the crowd. It is on the second floor and there is usually a line before the doors open. Just get in line and go on in.” At 12:58 PM I followed up and asked, “What is the proper etiquette when I show up? I hope to not be turned away, but there may not be anyone there who recognizes me. May I mention that you said I could go, or is there someone there I should introduce myself to?” At 1:04 PM Browning replied that “there is a check in table when you get to the top of the steps. Just tell them you are there as a first time visitor and you should have no problem getting in.” I was attempting to follow Browning’s instructions from this last email when I was assaulted…
I showed up a few minutes after the event began and attempted to follow Browning’s instructions, but as I was in the middle of doing so events beyond my control cut me short. Three men [one of whom, Tom Carroll, promised to be a fake elector for President Donald Trump during the 2020–2021 coup attempt; this means that he had pledged to replace one of the legitimate electors that President Joe Biden won in Pennsylvania during the 2020 election] who never identified themselves accosted me without warning and escalated the situation without provocation to the level of a physical confrontation, resulting in me leaving the event with a concussion, PTSD and various superficial bodily injuries…
Perhaps not coincidentally: Carroll had also been an assistant district attorney in Allentown for many years and has supported the local Blue Lives Matter chapter. In 2019, he had been the Republican nominee for Northampton County District Attorney, during which it came out that he had been accused of racially bullying one of his African American colleagues, including by putting a stuffed monkey on her desk. After he lost the election, Carroll pulled a Trump and falsely claimed “overwhelming irregularities.”
The Allentown Police Department told me that they would not pursue charges because they did not believe there was “probable cause,” although when pushed by both me and my attorney they either would not or could not further elaborate on this reasoning. When I asked if there was security footage to back up my own fragmented video clips, they said that there were no security cameras in one part of the building where the violence occurred; for the area where violence had occurred and there was a security camera, on that night it showed nothing but gray. I told the Allentown Police that, given how I was clearly trying to keep recording and the men were clearly trying to stop me, it should be obvious which party had something to hide — even though, as I tried to record their violence against me, the men kept shouting that I was the one attacking them, a right-wing counter-protester tactic that often intimidates victims against using footage which proves they were victimized. (It’s akin to right-wingers playing Disney songs and falsely claiming victims will face copyright lawsuits if they post the footage; also, it’s pretty hard to be violent when you’re actively trying to record with an iPhone in your hand.)
I alleged that the three men accosted me shortly after I identified myself by name and as a Salon journalist, and escalated it to assault after I started recording them, with the men repeatedly hitting me on the body, head and hands (presumably to turn off or seize my phone, which was recording them). I pointed out that I only reentered the building because I was dazed, and that the video footage shows me briefly turning around outside and then quickly reopening the door with one hand, in contrast to the police’s assertion that I had tried to force my way back into the building. Additionally, because the men had not identified themselves and approached me too abruptly for me to get a good look at them, I knew them as nothing more than three strangers who suddenly became physical while demanding I leave an event to which I had been invited… not as figures with any authority.
I pointed out to the police that they were effectively taking the word of the three accused individuals over mine without explanation and despite evidence reinforcing my story, including the emails from Browning showing I’d been invited, the video clips, medical records and more.
The police replied that, although I had called them after Carroll and the other two Tea Partyers attacked me, I left before the police arrived, and they seemed to find this discrediting. I pointed out that the men who had just finished attacking me directly ordered my father [who had dropped me off minutes earlier and had returned to check on me after I failed to confirm I’d made it inside] and me to leave shortly after I’d called the police, and that I had called the police a second time a few minutes later after I arrived at the hospital… where I immediately filed a report.
When I tried to explain the cognitive as well as physical aspects of my disability (in response to police asking how I did not intuitively know I was in a dangerous situation; autistic people struggle with social intuition), a detective expressed surprise that I was autistic and said he would not have known if he hadn’t been told because I seem very intelligent. I pointed out that his comment was both insulting to autistic people and seemed to glibly brush off what I was trying to explain to him about how my disability affects the way they think about how I acted. He said that the remark was intended as a compliment. I noted that if their logic were applied consistently — namely, that if an autistic person who is not breaking the law can be physically attacked merely because a neurotypical person expects the autistic person to intuit non-verbal social cues — then every autistic person in America would have a target on their back.
The Lehigh Valley Tea Party acknowledged these events in a tweet.
I counted four errors in that tweet. This means that they averaged one inaccuracy/falsehood for every 9.5 words.
Here are the Lehigh Valley Tea Party’s 38 words, which responded to a tweet of mine that mentioned how “three members of the Tea Party (@LehighValley912) gave me a concussion” on Feb. 3rd mere hours after I posted a pro-free speech tweet. The point was to underscore the bitter irony of that situation, as I added that one of my assailants had served with Donald Trump as a fake electoral college member during his 2020-2021 coup attempt and concluded sarcastically that this is the “‘pro-free speech’ movement @elonmusk adores.”
The Lehigh Valley Tea Party’s official response: “What a load of crap, as though your Musk tweet had anything to do with our meeting where you trespassed, were escorted out, then assaulted a board member in an attempt to re-enter! Your conflation is a lie.” (https://twitter.com/LehighValley912/status/1595435157581799427)
Here are the four errors:
Error #1: “as though your Musk tweet had anything to do with our meeting”
The Lehigh Valley Tea Party clearly did not understand the point that I was trying to make with my tweet. This is of lesser significance, but still notable. Frankly, I don’t think they fully read my tweet before responding to it. This raises doubts about whether they read the attached article, which goes into considerable detail about how the three members assaulted me, as well as the fallout their actions had on my life. Like most things worth reading, my article is far longer than a tweet.
I did not claim that the Lehigh Valley Tea Party had a meeting over a “Musk tweet.” The tweet to which they responded included a screenshot of a different tweet, one that had been posted in February — on a night when the Lehigh Valley Tea Party changed my life. On that same night, when they held the meeting at which they gave me a concussion (more on that in a moment), I had posted a tweet about my 2019 interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Since that interview had focused on the need for political bridge-building, and I was planning on having similarly civil conversations with conservatives that same evening, I highlighted this paragraph from my article:
“Personally, I reacted with curiosity, a quality sometime undervalued in democracy. Even if we don’t agree with someone — or especially if we don’t — it behooves us to have a genuine interest in understanding what they think and why. Being curious about other people’s opinions can provide the foundation to build bridges where we didn’t think they were possible. Failing that, it allows us to better understand the ideas we oppose — and come up with better arguments against them. If free speech is the lifeblood of a viable democracy, then curiosity is the exercise that keeps it pumping through the system.”
As I hope is now clear, the point of my tweet was that — even though right-wingers like Elon Musk claim to support free speech — in practice right-wingers like those I encountered at the Lehigh Valley Tea Party are hostile and even violent toward those with different opinions. That is why I was assaulted, despite having been invited to the meeting and attending in good faith.
To this day I don’t know the exact catalyst behind my attack, or one might say two attacks: The first assault that occurred shortly after I signed in, and then the second one when I opened the door to ask about what had happened. Either way, one theory is that I was set up, although I considered the person who invited me to be a friendly acquaintance and would be hurt if that was true. Another theory (the one I lean toward) is that, when a man sitting at the front desk when I arrived began researching “Salon.com” after I mentioned that I worked there (and jokingly encouraged him to check his phone), my assailants saw the article being featured on that site at the time — with both my byline and an image juxtaposing Donald Trump with Adolf Hitler — and reacted in spur-of-the-moment anger. (See the link below.) A third theory is that, because I pulled out my phone after they accosted me, the three men were incensed by that act. A fourth theory is that I visually stood out because I was wearing a mask while the other attendees were not. My final theory is that it was my autistic traits, and in particular my flat affect and difficulty making eye contact, that caused them to react with hostility. This would not be the first time that had happened.
https://www.salon.com/2022/02/03/the-psychological-reason-that-so-many-fall-for-the-big-lie/
I cannot say with certainty why I was attacked. I know for sure, however, that I was never violent and did nothing to provoke violence. I am also certain of this much: They attacked me after I repeatedly identified myself as Matthew Rozsa, a reporter from Salon.com. That in itself makes this a free speech issue — especially since the only assailant I’ve identified, former Allentown Assistant District Attorney Tom Carroll, was interviewed by me twice in 2018. It is difficult to imagine that, upon repeatedly hearing my name and employer, Carroll did not recognize who I was.
https://www.salon.com/2018/04/08/donald-trumps-shadow-looms-over-a-swing-district-in-pennsylvania/
https://www.salon.com/2018/04/17/charlie-dents-rush-resignation-throws-pennsylvanias-gop-into-chaos/
Error #2: “where you trespassed”
On Feb. 3rd, 2022, I went to an event held by the Lehigh Valley Tea Party at the Starlite Ballroom in the Pennsylvania city of Allentown. I had been invited by Dean Browning, who I had interviewed in 2018 when he was running for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. In 2022, he was running for Pennsylvania State Senate.
Browning and I began discussing having me attend a Lehigh Valley Tea Party meeting in December 2021. There is a great deal of correspondence, including exchanges surrounding a January 2022 meeting that I wound up not attending (due to feeling sick) despite initially intending on doing so. On Jan. 28th at 1:50 PM Browning sent me a follow up message stating that “the meeting is still on and you are still invited.” On Feb. 1st at 3:55 PM I wrote to Browning that my goal would be “to keep my ears open and my mouth shut” and that my plan was “to listen to varying perspectives on how America’s past relates to its present.” On the day of the meeting, Feb. 3rd, Browning emailed me at 6:52 AM saying “I’m sorry but it is my turn to reschedule.” When I asked if I could attend without him (at 8:09 AM), Browning replied at 8:23 AM that “yes – you can just show up and go in with the crowd. It is on the second floor and there is usually a line before the doors open. Just get in line and go on in.” At 12:58 PM I followed up and asked, “What is the proper etiquette when I show up? I hope to not be turned away, but there may not be anyone there who recognizes me. May I mention that you said I could go, or is there someone there I should introduce myself to?” At 1:04 PM Browning replied that “there is a check in table when you get to the top of the steps. Just tell them you are there as a first time visitor and you should have no problem getting in.” I was attempting to follow Browning’s instructions from this last email when I was assaulted.
As an invited guest, I was by definition not trespassing. If the Lehigh Valley Tea Party wished to throw me out, or believed that I had been invited in error, the burden fell on them to politely explain this to me. Instead they responded to my arrival — which they only learned about because, believing that I had been invited, I immediately identified myself by name and employer to a man at a front desk upon arriving — by instantly becoming violent. They alone acted violently during our interaction, and I did nothing that any reasonable person would argue warranted a violent response.
Error #3: “were escorted out”
This error may stem from another Lehigh Valley Tea Party failure to read something to completion. The full definition of “escort” reveals that this portion of the tweet is at best misleadingly euphemistic; “escort” is defined as “to go with a person or vehicle, especially to make sure that he, she, or it arrives safely” (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/escort). The video I instinctively recorded of the encounter, though fractured by both my assailants’ repeated attempts to disrupt recording and my own trauma-tainted recollection of events, makes it seem pretty clear that none of my Lehigh Valley Tea Party-member assailants had any concern for my safety.
One video clip shows a hand connected to an angry man (Tom Carroll) that reaches toward a camera. That clip began immediately after I was first accosted by my three assailants— I felt suddenly startled and fell back, although I don’t remember why due to my subsequent PTSD symptoms — and I pulled out my phone. This is when all of the recordings begin. This video clip shows all three assailants angrily yelling at me, refusing to allow me to explain that I am, in fact, an invited guest, and aggressively moving closer to my face and the camera. It also indirectly shows Carroll striking the camera, and therefore by extension myself, as he angrily moves his hand toward the phone/my body during the clip, eventually making contact.
In another later clip I (i.e., the camera) am facing the floor as the men who attacked me accuse me of trying to attack them while I repeatedly yell back that I did not touch anyone and they assaulted me. My iPhone is a flat object with its camera facing out on one side, I am the one holding the phone, and the phone is facing first the floor and then my face, which is obviously turned toward the ground. This clip shows that I am facing the floor. Assuming at least one of my hands is holding the iPhone while I’m facing the floor, the clip belies my attackers’ claims that I was violent, since my other hand is visible in the clip. Given that I was being physically dominated if I was facing the floor with one hand holding my phone, and given Carroll forcibly turning off the camera in the previous clip, a cinematically literate person can deduce that I am being physically attacked in that scene. This clip ends with one of the Lehigh Valley Tea Party assailants saying “here’s your glasses” and telling me to “go home.”
During all of this “escorting,” the three men were repeatedly hitting me on the head and hand (presumably in their effort to seize my phone) while shoving me. To put it mildly, it is inaccurate to characterize this as simply “escorting” me out.
Error #4: “then assaulted a board member in an attempt to re-enter!”
This is a spurious and defamatory allegation that my video and memories refute. Another video clip shows me being ejected, trying to reenter and again being angrily and forcibly repelled by Lehigh Valley Tea Party members. I have to emphasize that, although I was able to identify Carroll as one of my assailants in the days after I was assaulted (thanks to the same footage that Carroll tried to stop me from recording), I did not recognize him at the time. I had never met him in person, and only knew him by name. He had an advantage over me by knowing my name; at the time of the assault, I did not know who he was.
Just as importantly, they had never established themselves as authority figures in any way. They never named themselves with titles or said they were affiliated with the organization. They refused to explain anything. All I knew was that — shortly after I had told a man at the front desk who I was, at an event to which I had been invited by a prominent member — three strangers out of nowhere accosted me and then started violently assaulting me while shoving me out. I had no idea why. I struggled additionally because, as an autistic person, I am not able to read social situations with the same ease as neurotypical people — particularly confusing and anxiety-inducing social situations. In that context, I did not know what to do, and so — in confusion, out of instinct and without resistance — I reopened the door to the event to ask questions.
There was no legal or moral burden whatsoever on me to stay out of the building because, again, all I knew at that point was that three strangers had assaulted me and shoved me out of the door. (I suspect my assailants know this too, which is why their tweet responding to my essay lied and said I had assaulted them.) The video I took at this point shows me opening the door with one hand (the other hand is holding my phone to record). The door wobbles a bit, perhaps because I was so shaken after being struck several times. I also have a hand-eye coordination disability that, among other things, makes it difficult for me to maintain balance, and along with my other injuries could have contributed to my difficult reopening the door. (This disability is not insignificant; it’s the reason I cannot drive.) After the door opens, a voice on this video clip keeps saying “don’t start with me” — a clear attempt to compromise my video footage, as the footage clearly shows me not touching anyone — and then you see me get tackled. The voice then alleges I, iPhone recording in one hand and the other out of sight, am trying to hit him with a brick and tells me to “put my glasses down” while I – again, repeatedly – say I did not touch anyone. I also say the glasses are mine and, at one point, yell “help me” and “let me go.” Like the other video clip of me being assaulted, this one shows mostly my sweater and toward the end what looks like part of my hand, which again suggests I am being forced to the ground.
Notably, the video shows that I was in possession of the phone the entire time. This clears up any ambiguity that my attackers attempted to sow into the footage by falsely accusing me of trying to assault them. The entire time, the phone would have been either in my hand or under my stomach. While one assailant was kneeling on my head, I had the phone under my stomach so they could not seize it; I thought they were claiming I took one of their glasses as a pretext to seize my phone. I don’t remember if it was in my hand or stomach at that point, but it would have had to be one of the two. Either way, it is clear that I am the one being attacked and was not attacking back, as I could not have done those things while simultaneously holding my phone without it being obvious. This piece of context is vital.
Despite what the Lehigh Valley Tea Party tweeted 9 months after the fact, following a police investigation in which the Lehigh Valley Tea Party conveniently did not have security footage of the area in question, my videos and recollections show that: (a) I did not assault anyone when reentering, (b) I reentered without any resistance, (c) they tackled me and (d) kept me pinned to the ground and strategically lied while assaulting me by falsely claiming I was hurting them, likely because they knew they were being recorded. Even if the Lehigh Valley Tea Party in good faith believed an unlikely account by one of their apparently unscathed board members that I had tried to attack him, the evidence conclusively says otherwise.
Conclusion:
“From there my mind’s eyes start to sting and water. That is because from start to finish, my experience beyond that was nothing but feeling fear and pain — and trying to keep my iPhone recording as my one way of protecting myself. The altercation began in the building but ended outside of it, after my father happened to walk by (I had promised that I’d text him when I got inside and he was concerned when I hadn’t done so). At that time, the man in the American flag shirt let me up — because, until the sound of my father’s footsteps began to approach from half a block away, the man in the American flag shirt had been kneeling on my head. I feared that it would cave in like an overripe cantaloupe; in one of the video clips, where you see nothing but a red screen, my iPhone was under my stomach (where I’d put it so the men couldn’t seize it from me). This is the clip during which the man in the American flag shirt was kneeling on my head.”
Is this the man described by the Lehigh Valley Tea Party as “a board member”? Either way, I would like this person’s name.
I do not expect explanations for the four factual errors. At a rate of one error every 9.5 words, I doubt I could keep up with fact-checking their “rebuttal.” Yet I would like to know the name of the man who knelt on a disabled journalist’s head at a political event to which he had been invited.
Since they claim they did nothing wrong, why not?