Town hall crowd vents wide-ranging anger at Rep. Spratt
By Matt Garfield
mgarfield@heraldonline.com
Posted: Friday, Sep. 04, 2009


U.S. Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., talks to some of the crowd following a town hall meeting on health care Thursday night in Rock Hill.



ROCK HILL A hostile crowd greeted U.S. Rep. John Spratt in his home county Thursday night, filling a 700-seat hall to voice anger over far more than health-care reform.

Many in the Rock Hill audience lashed out at illegal immigration, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a federal government they say no longer deserves the trust of Americans.

Outside, an overflow crowd of 200 listened on portable speakers.

The loudest applause inside a packed Baxter Hood Center might have come when a Fort Mill man denounced Pelosi for one criticism of opponents of Democratic reform efforts.

“One of the things that really made me angry is being called a brown shirt,â€