The banter behind the lecterns wasn't the only source of drama at last night's candidate debate at a church in North Portland.
A man attempting to film the proceedings in defiance of the event's host, the Emmanuel Temple Church, was thrown out rather forcefully during former Gov. John Kitzhaber's apearance—a disturbance that didn't disrupt the forum but did bring out several Portland police officers.
The man asked to leave, Dan Sandini, has put up a video of what transpired on YouTube, and he also planned to show the video to police.
In the midst of Kitzhaber's remarks, moderator Sharon Gary-Smith had asked anyone who was filming without permission to stop doing so. (KOIN, a sponsor along with the Urban League and African American Alliance, was the only authorized documentarian.)
The video then shows two men sitting next to Sandini, asking him to stop and urging him to leave. Sandini refused, citing his First Amendment rights, and the video then shows a man grabbing Sandini's video camera and possibly striking him in the nose. When I saw him outside, with a co-filmer, Mike Strickland, Sandini had a cut on his nose and was extremely upset.
"I continued to film," he told me. "It's a public event. They invited the public here."
What did police do? Keep reading.