'Selective justice': No charges after woman attacked at Trump rally

A group of men accused of assaulting a woman who heckled President Donald Trump at a recent rally remain uncharged nearly two weeks later, according to a report from The New York Times, with one commentator calling it a prime example of the sort of "selective good ole boy justice" that Trump has allowed to flourish.

As the Times' report detailed on Saturday, 29-year-old Blake Miley attended the Oct. 12 Trump midterm rally in Youngstown wearing a shirt calling for the release of the Epstein files, and at one point, stood up and repeatedly called the president a "fascist." In response, Milly "was tackled, held down and punched by male rally-goers as the president mocked her from the stage, calling her 'scum,' 'low-class,' and 'a fat guy.'" Trump, who misgendered Miley multiple times, suggested from the stage that her parents were supporters of his.

"Ms. Miley attended the rally alone, and had intentionally seated herself among people who seemed older, she said. She hoped it would keep her safe," the report detailed. "But as soon as she started yelling, a man grabbed for her neck and then shoved her backward, video of the episode shows. When she stood back up, another man appeared to pull her to the ground, put her in a headlock, yank her hair and punch her in the face. She remembers being hit twice, unable to get up until Mahoning County sheriff’s deputies intervened about 30 seconds into the brawl."

The report added: "The deputies escorted Ms. Miley out of the arena. The men who attacked her were left alone. One raised his fists and high-fived those around him. In the arena’s parking lot, Ms. Miley was shaking so severely that onlookers called her an ambulance. She said she spent a few hours at the hospital, was discharged, and drove in a daze to her mobile home north of Columbus. She threw her Epstein shirt in her closet and collapsed onto her bed."

Now, as of the report's publication, no charges have been filed against the men who attacked Miley. As videos of the incident began to circulate, the local sheriff's office was "flooded with angry calls" from people demanding that something be done. In spite of criticism, Republican Sheriff Jerry Greene insists that steps are being taken in the case.

"Sheriff Greene, who had changed parties to become a Republican in 2023, said that he is, in fact, doing something," the Times detailed. "He reviewed body camera footage, which he said shows that his deputies were pushing through the crowd to reach Ms. Miley and did not witness the punch. He has identified three men who he said took part in the assault, including a New Jersey resident who said in a now-deleted Facebook post that he and two friends had 'subdued her and threw her to the concrete.' Investigators believe the other two men, including the one who threw the punch, are local... The sheriff said that all three would be interviewed in coming days. He is waiting for medical records from Ms. Miley’s trip to the emergency room, he added, to determine whether her injuries were severe enough to warrant felony charges instead of misdemeanors."

Reacting to the report on BlueSky, Soraya Nadia McDonald, a writer and cultural critic formerly of the Washington Post, argued that this sort of response to MAGA-affiliated violence was directly from the Jim Crow playbook.

"I need people to understand this selective good ole boy justice — the kind that protects abusers, rewards impunity, and openly flouts rule of law and equal protection under it — is Jim Crow s——, practically speaking," McDonald wrote. "It's how Jim Crow terrorism FLOURISHED. Trump broadened the acceptable targets."