| Author |
Message |
Deciviel
Captain
Joined: 27 Sep 2002
Posts: 508
Location: Joe's Garage
|
 Mon Oct 25, 2004 3:04 pm Halloween display seen as symbol of hate |
|
| Quote: | LAUREN BAYNE ANDERSON and LEANORA MINAI
Published October 20, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It had the face of Frankenstein and the hands of a werewolf.
Outfitted in jeans and flannel shirt, the creature - stuffed with crumpled newspaper - hung by the neck on a homemade gallows outside a home in the Allendale neighborhood.
To its owner, "Bob" was a Halloween decoration. But to Omali *beep*, it was a racially charged symbol of hate.
On Tuesday, as police officers on the scene scrambled to contact the homeowner at work, *beep* and others from the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement tore the dummy down.
"There is no history of hanging ghouls in this country but there is a history of hanging African people," said *beep*, leader of the St. Petersburg-based group.
Colleen Watson was surprised and upset when police called her at work to say the display her 15-year-old son had spent two days creating had been torn down. She said it had never occurred to her it would offend anyone.
"We are not those kind of people, we are not like that," Watson said. "This really opened my eyes, I just didn't see it this way."
Last year for Halloween, the family beheaded "Bob," replicating a guillotine. The year before, "Bob" lay in a casket. But on Tuesday, "Bob's" latest incarnation sparked anger.
*beep* said he got a call from a local high school student, who saw the hanging dummy from her school bus window on her morning commute. Post-slavery, lynchings were used to terrorize African-Americans and remain a painful memory for many today, *beep* said.
"She called because she couldn't believe what she had seen," he said.
*beep*, who tore down a mural in St. Petersburg City Hall that he found racially offensive in the 1960s, went to see the display.
Despite the Halloween decor - a synthetic spider web that spanned half the width of the gray house and an arrangement of plastic skulls and bones - *beep* said he saw something more sinister: a black man hanging from a noose.
Some passers-by agreed.
Sandra Albanese stopped and called police after she spotted the hanging monster. "I drove by, saw it and came back around again," said Albanese, a real estate agent. "It looked like a black man hanging."
As a small crowd of passers-by and Uhuru members gathered Tuesday afternoon, Patty Melnick also drove by with her 9-year-old daughter, Lindsay.
"My daughter told me this morning there was someone hanging out here and right away I said, I bet you it's black," Melnick said. "I think it's horrendous, it's a hate crime."
As the crowd looked on, *beep* said he wouldn't wait any longer for the gallows and hanging dummy to be removed.
"It's coming down," he said and opened the chain-link gate around the yard. *beep* walked up to the dummy and ripped it down. Uhuru supporters followed, dismantling the gallows and tearing apart the dummy's head and limbs and leaving the newspaper stuffing strewn across the yard.
As the Uhuru members left the property, St. Petersburg police Sgt. Glenn Stofer approached them and took their names, but did not arrest anyone.
Stofer said he arrived shortly before *beep* tore down the dummy and was trying to contact Watson, who was at work.
"They were rightfully upset," Stofer said of the Uhuru members. "I was in the car trying to get information and while I was doing that, they decided to tear it down themselves."
In some misdemeanor incidents - in this case, criminal mischief - police usually interview alleged victims before making an arrest to determine whether they want to prosecute, said Lt. Joe Jesiolkiewic.
"Without a victim, we don't have a crime," he said. "How do we know that they don't know the people, that this isn't some kind of set up? There's an infinite number of things that could play into it, and the prudent thing to do is make sure you've got a victim."
*beep* said he would do it all again, even if it meant going onto private property. "The issue of private property holds no special mystique," he said. "We have been private property as a people."
Watson told police she did not want to prosecute anyone. On Tuesday, she called *beep* and apologized. He accepted.
"If we hurt someone's feelings, let's take it down now," Watson said from her garage as she cleared up "Bob's" remains.
Florence Whipple, who lives with the Watsons agreed, "Bob is officially retired."
� Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved |
This is totally stupid. I mean, IT'S FRANKENSTEIN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! I swear, it's stupid people like this who I just cannot stand.
-------signature-------
"Wheeee. Now say 'nuclear wessels'."
|
|
|
Captain Dappet
Forum Revolutionist
Joined: 06 Feb 2002
Posts: 16756
Location: On my supersonic rocket ship.
|
| Mon Oct 25, 2004 3:09 pm |
|
I find this very stupid.
And what I find sort of humorous, is that the person in the article has got a profane last name, which is censored.  tee-hee
|
|
|
Deciviel
Captain
Joined: 27 Sep 2002
Posts: 508
Location: Joe's Garage
|
| Mon Oct 25, 2004 3:23 pm |
|
| Captain Dappet wrote: | I find this very stupid.
And what I find sort of humorous, is that the person in the article has got a profane last name, which is censored. tee-hee |
 Haha, I just noticed that! That's hillarious.
-------signature-------
"Wheeee. Now say 'nuclear wessels'."
|
|
|
Captain Dappet
Forum Revolutionist
Joined: 06 Feb 2002
Posts: 16756
Location: On my supersonic rocket ship.
|
| Mon Oct 25, 2004 3:33 pm |
|
What is his name, anyhow?
|
|
|
TrekkieMage
Office Junkie
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Posts: 5335
Location: Hiding
|
| Mon Oct 25, 2004 4:36 pm |
|
I find it very sad that people had to take it to such a level. The could have simply knocked on the household door and commented that the Frankenstein offended them.
I do like the censoring of the name though
|
|
|
Founder
Dominion Leader
Joined: 21 Jun 2004
Posts: 12755
Location: Gamma Quadrant
|
| Mon Oct 25, 2004 10:46 pm |
|
Oh c'mon! Look I think that he or she didn't do a bad thing and no one is to blame but it should be brought down. I think we all know what that looks like....a Skeleton hanging? Fine. But if it looks like a person it evokes memories of an all too familiar terrible time in our history.
|
|
|
Sam Kenobi
Not a Duke
Joined: 13 Jun 2003
Posts: 10373
Location: The 'Verse
|
| Mon Oct 25, 2004 11:09 pm |
|
except nobody alive really has "memories" of seeing people being hung out in the front yard. They were still hanging people in the 20s, but only privately. I agree that it's stupid. It was a stuffed Frankenstein, for crying out loud. They could've done worse and hung a real cat or something.
|
|
|
Dirt
Exercise Boy
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 2086
Location: a tree
|
| Mon Oct 25, 2004 11:28 pm |
|
I've heard of cabbages being seen as a demon, still cracks me up every time I have to think about it... 
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
Star Trek �, in all its various forms, are trademarks & copyrights of Paramount Pictures
This site has no official connection with Star Trek or Paramount Pictures
Site content/Site design elements owned by Morphy and is meant to only be an archive/Tribute to STV.com
|
Search
FAQ
Log in
