"Even though the person wanted to be a Martyr, she shouldn't have been stepped on."

I can't presume to know what this woman wanted to achieve in this instance - as said previously in the UK the opportunity for politically motivated "martyrdom" by offering a plastic trophy to some campaigning politician or such-like would be low to nil. At best it would become a passing joke for a couple of our political comment programs.

You might be right, but even without actually knowing her motives personally I think it's reasonable to assume that rather than seeking to be assaulted for the sake of "martyrdom", she might simply have been seeking a *non-violent* means to challenge this politician and raise whatever political issue she wanted to publicly highlight by offering him the "award", in the media?

As a point of interest. What WAS the issue she was seeking to highlight? I must have missed it! *laughing!*