The assault on the New York gallery owner for wearing a MAGA hat was met with some skepticism even in the New York Post. After all, aren't there a lot of people out there who fake politically tinged attacks? There certainly are on the leftside. I noted the skepticism in the press about the MAGA hat man yesterday here.

Artnet News, which is the art press of all things, has managed to do some much better reporting (and curating of others' reporting) on the matter, which as it turns out, strengthens the man's story. Artnet's Eileen Kinsella writes:

A Manhattan art dealer is alleging that he was attacked by a group of teens who targeted him for wearing a red “Make America Great Again” baseball hat. Claiming that the police have been unable or unwilling to locate his attackers since the Tuesday assault, Jahangir “John” Turan says he is speaking out to the media in the hopes of getting justice.

Turan, who owns the David Parker gallery in midtown, suffered a black eye, bruises, and other swelling to his face after he was assaulted while walking on Canal Street, near West Broadway, just above Tribeca around 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 30.

The Artnet report states that the man's gallery - and an actual name of that is given - was not too far from the Trump Tower and he went and picked out a hat and bought it for the purpose of wearing it to see a client (who must have been a Trump supporter or else someone who would be amused by it anyway). He made a video of that and then had the hat on a couple miles south on Canal Street, either walking there or taking the subway as he went to visit the client. He then got set upon in a very fast attack that began with someone knocking his hat off and him trying to pick it up. As he did that, he was assaulted and did not even see his opponents, which for anyone who's ever been assaulted by thugs, is believable. With no description, that explains why the cops are having a tough time finding the thugs. Yet there definitely was an attack and the cops are probably not even bothering to look.

The Artnet report goes on to fix the New York Post's and other press's reportage about the cops not noting a MAGA hat being involved in this - the MAGA hat most certainly was in the police report - and that the skepticism of some officers that the attack was some beef between the man and his assailant instead of political, was pure subjective speculation from the cops. A de facto correction to past reporting actually came out that the cops had no reason to doubt the man's story. So the doubts were simply cops leaking to the press in a bid to cast doubt on the man's story.

Turan, the MAGA hat man, points out that he thinks it could very well be anti-Trump bias from the cops, and he's right, there, too. Because what else could it be? The cops had no facts to support their doubts, they just wanted their doubts to get out. Turan also clearly explains that it was his frustration with the cops -- in the city run by Mayor Bill de Blasio who says Trump is not welcome in "his" city -- that made him go to the press with his side of the story.

The story is starting to hold together and if anything, strengthen. No wonder GOP leaders such as Don Trump, Jr. and GOP Chair Ronna McDaniel, as I noted here, signaled that they believed him. His story has gotten stronger with this report.

Image credit: Screen shot from NBC4 News New York, via shareable YouTube