My sense is that reader interest in this story expired a few days ago, but since Pat Dollard’s now claiming the NOPD told him there was a political motive and the officer he spoke to is claiming he told Dollard no such thing, I guess a new post is obligatory.

Here’s the police report, the key part of which was helpfully transcribed by the boss emeritus. Nasty shouting? Check. Vicious assault resulting in gruesome injuries? Check. Political angle? Hmmm…

“Shortly before 10:30pm, Mr. Brown and Ms. Bautsch left the restaurant and began walking towards St. Louis. Street. Mr. Brown noted there were still several protestors loitering in the area, but not nearly the number which had been present earlier. Soon after leaving the restaurant, he heard what he described as ‘cat calls.’ At an unknown point within the 400 block of Royal Street, both Mr. Brown and Ms. Bautsch then crossed from the Brennan’s side of the street to the Supreme Court side of the street. They continued to walk towards St. Louis when Mr. Brown began to hear people behind him scream obscenities. Initially he was not sure if thoese were being directed at him and his girlfriend, or if they were simply the outbursts of drunken revelers. As they neared the intersection, Mr. Brown stated he heard subjects state thing such as, ‘Little blonde bitch,’ ‘You’re a fu**king faggot,’ and ‘You think you’re fu**king special.’ At this point Mr. Brown realized these derogatory terms were being directed at Ms. Bautsch and him. He then requested she begin to walk faster toward the Omni-Royal hotel located at the intersection of St. Louis and Royal. Mr. Brown also recalled the farther they got from the restaurant, the closer these subjects got to them. When they reached the corner of St. Louis and Royal, Mr. Brown and his date turned south on St. Louis. It was at this time that one of the subjects pushed him into the iron gate which surrounds the State Supreme Court. He then fell to the ground, and one of the attackers got on top of him and began to attack him. Mr. Brown stated as he was being pushed to the ground, Ms. Bautsch was also either pushed down or fell down near where he was. As he fought to get his attacker off of him, he heard his girlfriend cry out in pain. She then repeatedly stated,”Oh my god, my leg is broken.”

All of the attackers then ran away in an unknown direction. Mr. Brown then saw two uniformed Police Officers respond to their location. He requested they notify an ambulance as Ms. Bautsch was in obvious physical pain. The officers then did so. In response to Sergeant Gernon’s questions, Mr. Brown stated the majority of the protestors had left the area outside of Brennan’s about an hour prior to their leaving the restaurant. Additionally he was unsure if the attackers were the protestors. It should be noted that other than making reference to the victims being nicely dressed, along with other observations about their physical appearance, Mr. Brown did not hear them make any other comments.

Bautsch’s mother told Fox News today that “things were said to my daughter and to her boyfriend that basically everything was about money,” but otherwise she shied away from speculating about politics. (She did, however, say that Bautsch’s leg was broken in four places, and that she has a screw running straight through her ankle. Good lord.) I don’t know how to explain the confusion between the NOPD on the one hand and Dollard and Yahoo News, which cites a source close to Bautsch as saying she does indeed believe there was a political motive, on the other. One possibility: Maybe Bautsch thinks the attackers were protesters and is inferring a political motive from that, even though nothing explicitly political was said. Another possibility: Maybe the attackers were, in fact, protesters of some anarchist stripe and zeroed in on Brown and Bautsch because they looked like stereotypically well-heeled members of the dreaded bourgeoisie. That would explain the sneering about money and being nicely dressed and it would qualify as a political motive, but not quite the political motive originally imagined by the rumor that they were beaten by mainstream lefties for wearing Palin buttons. Not sure what lesson, if any, can be drawn at this point, but consider yourself up to speed until, inevitably, we hear from Bautsch and Brown themselves.