A bizarre incident Monday involving a heart balloon, several drops of blood outside the Supreme Court chambers, a Capitol protester and, allegedly, assistant director of the Division of State Facilities Ron Blair now includes Blair's arrest on a tentative charge of endangering safety by use of a dangerous weapon.
Blair had been named in numerous eye witness accounts of the incident via social networking sites as initiating a physical altercation with a protester in an attempt to stab a balloon she was carrying. He had not been identified by authorities until his arrest Thursday. He remains on paid leave from his job with the state Department of Administration.
Blair has been a fixture around the state Capitol throughout the protests, recognizable by his distinctive handlebar mustache and sometimes natty attire. And in the following YouTube video, shot by Laurence Meade and posted on Ann Althouse's blog in early March, Blair is asked to keep his hands off Meade.
In the video, Blair asks Meade to step back as a maintenance employee attempts to remove a sticker from a column in the rotunda. Just before the one-minute mark, Blair's tone becomes impatient, he approaches the camera and Meade subsequently tells Blair to keep his hands off of him. The two bicker for the next couple minutes and the incident ends peacefully.
