Two protesters were attacked inside well known midtown Manhattan Irish Bar Eamonn’s Bar & Grill after disrupting a pro-Trump meeting on Sunday night.
Ryan Clayton told the press he was forcibly choked, kicked in the head and dragged down a flight of wooden stairs by the enraged attendees. Jason Charter, who filmed much of the event, said he was thrown to the ground and kicked as his phone, camera, wallet, and keys were taken.
The violence reportedly broke out at a “Friends of Abe” event at the East 45th Street Irish bar and grill that featured controversial conservative activist James O’Keefe as main speaker.
Clayton, who runs the progressive group Americans Take Action, had recently launched a counter strike against O’Keefe’s Project Veritas group, allegedly plotting to stink-bomb the DeploraBall, an inaugural ball created by the so-called alt-right to celebrate Trump’s election victory.
When attendees at the Manhattan meeting were invited to ask questions Clayton made his presence known and he was quickly grabbed him from behind, he says.
Clayton told the Huffington Post that an assailant put his larynx in the nook of his elbow and began twisting his head sideways. “I felt a pop-pop-pop-pop-pop, and then there was nothing left to pop,” Clayton said. “There was a moment I thought, “Oh God, this is how I die.” Last night was the most terrifying night of my life.”
Clayton said he tumbled down the stairs then, but a man standing halfway down helped break his fall, then someone kicked him in the head he says.
When Clayton informed his attackers they were being filmed he believes it ended the beating. He said he ran out the front door of the bar after that.
Police reportedly made no arrests at the scene. The spokesman said police were called to settle a harassment complaint, not for an assault.
“We have no information on somebody being thrown down the stairs,” Sergeant Lee Jones told the Huffington Post. “That would be assault.”
Pete Callahan, another activist at the event, caught the incident on video:
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