Yesterday, I was able to positively identify the two “party crashers” who cited free speech as their justification for interrupting speakers Thursday afternoon at the Tax Day Tea Party in downtown St. Charles, Mo. Better still, I got one of them to “spill the beans” about the thinking behind his left-wing activism during a recent telephone conversation.
The loudest of the two men featured in my video, Missouri Lt. Gov. Handles ‘Party Crashers’, is Steve Belosi (at left in photo above) of Lake Saint Louis, Mo. He’s the man I described in a post Friday as a habitual “party crasher”, based upon his repeat appearances at events where confrontations have erupted.
After determining his identity, I called him Friday morning at the office of his home-based company, Eagle Marketing, Inc., and asked if he, indeed, was “the guy that kind of got everyone’s attention” at the event. In an affirmative response, he said, “I had shorts on. The other guy was a bigger guy with the white shirt.”
Asked to explain his objective at such events, he spoke volumes.
“Well, I go to those tea parties because — and I’ve only been to two of them — but, uhh, I go to them to see what’s going on, for one. I go to them to talk to people, to see what they’re there for. And maybe I get a little bit of diversity out of it by trying to find out what’s going on with the old people that are there and some of the other ones as well.
Asked if he is the guy who yells in people’s faces when they’re trying to listen to speakers or if that was “somebody else,” he didn’t deny his involvement in such an activity.
“Uhm, it just depends,” he explained. “If I feel like I want to do that, that’s what I would take as a prerogative to do.
“I’ve had that happen to me,” he continued. “I’ve been to Washington, D.C., 15 times, and I’ve had all kinds of (expletive) happen to me up there with all kinds of people against my beliefs.
“Yeah, I’ll stand up for how I feel,” he added.
I followed up by saying, “But unprovoked? When people are sitting there in a lawn chair?”
In response, he said, “No. I didn’t do that,” before finally asking me for my name — which I provided — and feigning surprise.
“Well, Bob, it’s surprising for you to even ask that question, I think.”
“What’s that?”
“The fact that you’re asking ‘unprovoked’,” he explained.
I went on to explain to him that a lady who attended the event told me in person Thursday — and again during a follow-up phone call Friday — that the man she identified as Belosi indeed had confronted her while she was sitting in her lawn chair, simply listening to event speakers.
She said Belosi came out of nowhere, leaned down close to her face and screamed at her, “Get your fat (expletive) and your damn dog and get off this socialist property!”
Confronted with that information, Belosi tried to shift the blame to her.
“I know the lady you’re talking about, (she) was boo-hooing really good,” he said. “What’s she, about 60 years old?”
“I don’t know. Does it matter?” I countered.
“Sometimes, I think it does matter,” he replied. “I mean, she was just having a real fit over anything.”
The lady, whom I’ll call Sally Jones because she asked that her real name not appear in this story out of fear of possible reprisals against her, told me she only started crying after he confronted her.
Asked if it was okay for him to say something like that to the lady, who I learned is only 59, he replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
“I did say something to her to that effect, but not completely though,” he replied.
Next, I asked him if he was a writer for Code Pink, since someone with his name appears on a list of Google Search results as the author of a 2007 article published at the radical left-wing group’s web site.
“For who?” he said, expecting me to believe he’s unaware of the group.
“Did you write a 2007 article for Code Pink?” I said, repeating my question.
“What if I did? What if I didn’t, Bob?” he asked.
“I’m just asking,” I replied. “It helps identify you.”
Beginning to get flustered, he finally asked me who I write for.
I told him I write for a lot of people without naming any, such as Big Government, Big Journalism or Pajamas Media. Then I ended the call after telling him he could look me up on the web.
Footnote: I also confirmed via this Facebook page that Belosi’s partner at the St. Charles event was John Durajczyk, a St. Peters, Mo., resident who, according to the Missouri Democratic Party’s local committees web page, also serves as secretary of the St. Charles County (Mo.) Democratic Committee. He and his wife own an apparel and promotions business, Faithfully Yours, at Mid-Rivers Mall in St. Peters.
UPDATE 4/17/10 at 4:15 p.m. Central: Looks like Belosi is an Al Gore climate change alarmist as well. He wrote a Letter to the Editor of the St. Louis Post-Disappointment newspaper on that subject last summer. (Hat tip: Magiman007)
UPDATE #2 4/17/10 at 4:32 p.m. Central: For another view of the “party crasher” in action, check out Patch Adams’ video. And who’s that “other” guy in this video with a video camera?
