Obama Effigy with the Words ‘Pray 4 Assassin’ Spotted in Alabama
Photo: Max Oden via Dothan Eagle
Neetzan Zimmerman Nov 9, 2012 7:15 PM
According to the geography academics at Floating Sheep, the vast majority of racist tweets posted in the aftermath of President Obama's reelection came from Alabama [ http://www.floatingsheep.org/2012/11/mapping-racist-tweets-in-response-to.html ], so it's of little surprise that a Dale County resident had few qualms about placing an Obama effigy on their front porch along with the sign "Pray 4 Assassin."
Oden, who was responding to a reader's tip, told Elofson the effigy was removed by the resident after the photog managed to snap a few shots. As Oden was leaving the scene, someone from across the street confronted him and struck the window of his car.
Oden subsequently contacted the Dale County Sheriff's Office, which contacted the Secret Service in turn. The Secret Service agent responsible for southeast Alabama told Elofson the matter was under investigation.
Woman Who Called for ‘Nigger’ Obama’s Assassination in Viral Facebook Post Confronted by News Crew, Is Officially the Worst Person in the World
Neetzan Zimmerman Nov 9, 2012 12:45 PM
A California woman who gained overnight infamy after posting a Facebook status update expressing a desire to see President Obama — whom she referred to as "the nigger" — assassinated during his second term in office remained defiant despite losing her job at Cold Stone Creamery and being brought to the attention of the Secret Service.
"I'm not saying like I would go do that or anything like that, by any means" she told the Sacramento-based news station. "But if it was to happen, I don't think I'd care one bit."
Helms went on to deny that using the n-word necessarily meant she was a racist.
"Apparently a lot of people in Sacramento think I'm crazy and racist," Helms wrote in a follow-up post [ http://www.modbee.com/2012/11/08/2448491/obama-threat-gets-woman-fired.html ] on her Facebook page. "WOW is all I got to say!! I'm not racist and I'm not crazy. just simply stating my opinion.!!!"
But when asked by Fox 40 if she "equated the president with the n-word," Helms responded [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLJu-RsmcV8 (next below; s;ightly shorter version embedded at the end of the source)] "sure."
One person for whom Helms' racism is unambiguous is Turlock Cold Stone Creamery store director Chris Kegle, who fired Helms from her job at the store. "We found her comments to be very disgusting, and they do not reflect our opinions here," he told the Modesto Bee [ http://www.modbee.com/2012/11/08/2448491/obama-threat-gets-woman-fired.html ].
The Secret Service was also alerted to Helms' post, and an agent from the Sacramento office told the Bee her comments would be reviewed.
Warren, whose location on Twitter [ https://twitter.com/adwnewyork?tw_i=266258416002027520&tw_e=screenname&tw_p=tweetembed ] is listed as "NYC/HAMPTONS," joked that the election results were going to make him "poor," to which Brant replied, "I have a contingency plan. Kill Obama hahaha." The remark was then followed by a joke about women's rights.
Not wishing this witty exchange to remain just between the two friends, Brant took a screenshot and posted it to his Instagram. Comments were mixed, with someone feeling the joke was hilarious, and others feeling very much the opposite.
Warren took to Twitter to defend himself on Wednesday.
Andrew Warren @adwnewyork People seriously need to take a joke, the instagram obviously wasn't serious. Everyone can move on now I obviously believe in women's rights 7 Nov 12
But Brant has yet to comment via the social networking site. As of Wednesday evening, his joint Twitter account with younger brother Harry contained only the dregs of last night's election tweets.
Harry & Peter Brant @HarryPeterBrant H:yay Obama and all, but am i the only person who is DYING for Hill DOG to run in 2016! that stylish mullet needs to be in the oval office. 6 Nov 12
Harry & Peter Brant @HarryPeterBrant P tp H: Yr a Democrat? Ok Bye forever... hahahaha #FamilyPolitics 6 Nov 12
Harry & Peter Brant @HarryPeterBrant P: Congratulations to Obama: This Counrty has alot of serious problems, but I guess we can wait another four years to start fixing them. 6 Nov 12
All "jokes" aside, making threats against the president is no laughing matter. Donte Jamar Sims, a 21-year-old from North Carolina, was arrested in September after threatening Obama in a series of tweets [ http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/obama-twitter-death-threats-486712 ], including one that said “Ima hit president Obama with that Lee Harvey Oswald swag," The Smoking Gun reports.
Update Nov. 9, 2:47 p.m: Peter Brant, father of Peter and Harry, released this statement Friday:
Stephanie and I are deeply troubled and upset by our son Peter’s posts on Instagram and Twitter after the election. Even though his intentions were in jest, he is responsible for his written words and should have been more careful about how his comments may have been construed. The comments that were made are not politically or morally representative of our family or our values. Each member of our entire family believes that Peter should have serious consequences for embarrassing himself and his family and we plan on implementing these. We all love Peter very much and recognize who he is as an individual but we won’t tolerate this kind of behavior toward others. We hope that he learns from this serious mistake, matures, and goes on to make himself and his family proud.
The Boone County prosecutor determined the man behind the display is within his First Amendment rights.
By Kent Erdahl 8:55 p.m. EDT, October 13, 2012
Boone County, Ind.
At first glance from State Road 39, the Halloween decorations in a yard may not have appeared anything more than morbid, but that changed when people like Becky Cline stopped to get a closer look at one display.
"Oh I see," Cline said. "Very inappropriate."
Inappropriate because the stuffed effigy tied up by the arms and neck bore the mask of President Barack Obama.
I mean, I'm not a fan (of the President) but I don't want to see that,” Cline said. “I don't think anybody should do that."
"I find it offensive on many levels," said Dave Feltner, who owns a home a few doors down.
Feltner said his neighbor took his freedom of speech too far.
"I don't care much for our President, but he is our President," Feltner said. "We live in a country where everybody has got a different opinion and that's fine, but it's not fine to go out of your way to make a statement like that, that's purposely designed to offend people."
Feltner says the most offensive aspect of the display for him was the use of rope around the President’s neck.
"This is not 1945 Selma, Alabama," Feltner said. "We supposedly have moved past that."
After originally defending the display as a freedom of expression, the man responsible has since reached out to Fox59, saying in an anonymous statement, "He's not supposed to look like he's hanging. The rope had nothing to do with anything."
The man did not offer an apology but said, "Due to the public's displeasure I will be taking it down."
Those who witnessed it said it should have never been up in the first place.
"I don't know, this whole political campaign has been so negative all along anyway, and I hate to see things like that," Cline said.
"I'm really sorry to see that somebody would take it to that extreme."
Feltner worried the damage to neighbors was already done.
"That does not represent this community,” Feltner said. “It does not represent the people who live in this community."
The Boone County Sheriff's Department has confirmed that the display has been removed.
Though deputies did investigate complaints, a sheriff’s department spokesperson said the Boone County prosecutor determined the man behind the display was within his First Amendment rights.
By Mark Hanrahan Posted: 11/07/2012 11:32 am EST Updated: 11/07/2012 5:34 pm EST
UPDATED - A disturbance broke out on the University of Mississippi's campus early Wednesday, after students angry at the reelection of president Barack Obama took to the streets to vent their displeasure.
Police were called to the scene and the crowd broke up around 12:30 a.m. It's unclear exactly who was there to protest and who came outside to watch.
Ole Miss student Nicholas Carr tweeted [ https://twitter.com/NicholasCarr ] that he didn't see students throwing rocks, and suggested some students were outside to witness the protest instead of to participate.
Hampden-Sydney College reports post-election unrest
By: STEVE SZKOTAK Published: November 09, 2012 Updated: November 09, 2012 - 12:28 AM
RICHMOND, Va. -- About 40 students at Hampden-Sydney College shouted racial slurs, threw bottles and set off fireworks outside the Minority Student Union within minutes after President Barack Obama's re-election, officials of the tiny, all-male school said Thursday.
The disturbance late Tuesday and early Wednesday also included threats of physical violence, President Chris Howard said in an email to parents.
Members of the Minority Student Union notified campus police of the gathering outside their house. An investigation is under way.
"I am terribly disappointed with the students who participated in this harmful, senseless episode including those men who stood idly by and watched it happen," wrote Howard, the college's first African-American president. "There is no place for bigotry or racism on this campus."
Howard said offenders will be adjudicated by the campus justice system. They could face punishments ranging from probation to expulsion, he said.
The racially tinged incident is the second reported protest sparked by Obama's re-election. A protest at the University of Mississippi in Oxford late Tuesday involved about 400 people who shouted racial slurs. Two people were arrested.
Howard said nearly 300 members of the campus community gathered at a campus meeting Wednesday night to discuss what happened.
"There were a lot more at that town hall meeting denouncing what happened than the knuckleheads who were misbehaving terribly that night," Howard said in an interview. "We need to keep that in mind."
A spokesman for the college said the unrest escalated within minutes of the presidential race being called on television for Obama, with students leaving their residences and "expressing their disappointment." About 20 students were inside the house at the time and some left to peacefully confront the crowd, as did other students, spokesman Thomas H. Shomo said.
"There were slurs directed toward the MSU house, but at some point very quickly, certain responsible students got involved and said this is not right," he said. There were no physical confrontations and no damage occurred as a result of the unrest, he said.
Howard called the incident "a perfect storm of a tense nation, an uptight" nation and a campus of young men. "We love our men, but they're young men," he said. "Young men sometimes act before they think."
He added, however, "You've got to look the facts in the eye and say what happened on that night was ugly."
Howard said those who attended the Wednesday night meeting were intent on addressing the root causes and how to move forward.
"This is not who we are and we're going to do better," Howard said, calling the offending students "bad seeds."
Hampden-Sydney, located about 60 miles southwest of Richmond, has a black enrollment approaching 9 percent of its 1,080 students. The private, tradition-bound school was founded in 1775 and is one of only three all-male colleges in the U.S.
Its former students have included a president, William Henry Harrison, and comedian Stephen Colbert.
Racial tensions flare at Hampden-Sydney on election night
By Brent Solomon Posted: Nov 08, 2012 12:02 PM CST Updated: Nov 09, 2012 8:25 AM CST
FARMVILLE, VA (WWBT) - Administrators at Hampden-Sydney College near Farmville are investigating complaints of an election night brawl that left some students feeling racially threatened.
The fight broke out Tuesday night, around the same time President Barack Obama won re-election. Now some community leaders are asking the Governor's office to investigate.
The students say it was supposed to be a moment of great pride for them, but that moment quickly turned into minutes of threats and chaos.
"I haven't heard the ‘N-word' being used that much in a while. [There was] a constant barrage of it, a lot of 'Go back to Africa,'" student John Barber explained.
He says students supporting Mitt Romney flooded the Minority Student Union building in an uproar.
"When they started forming one large group, that's when things got a little bit scary, when they started throwing fire crackers and breaking bottles," Barber said.
In a panic, Barber told fellow minority students to stay indoors.
"The level where it turned to where we felt threatened and felt like we had to lock our front door and back door and windows and everything is too extreme," he said.
More students shared the same concerns. College officials who say they're on top of it, but that it's ultimately up to a student-run judicial system to take action.
"Well there is an investigation. Anytime people are made to feel unwelcome, it concerns us. They're our students," said Dean of Students David Klein.
Klein points out the Minority Student Union consists of students of all races but says what happened outside of the groups' building is inexcusable. Students on the campus who support the president agree.
"I feel like if my brothers want to go out and yell ‘four more years of Obama,' they have that same right and they shouldn't be barraged by racial insults," Barber said.
In response, the college held a Town Hall meeting Wednesday for the campus to discuss the issue. Barber says he hopes it's part of an ongoing effort to make all students feel welcome.
No one was hurt during the altercation Tuesday night, but campus administrators say they do expect some students will be found in violation once the investigation is finished.
Charged racial language is an inappropriate response to an electoral loss
By Managing Board | Nov 08, 2012
College students are often the youngest demographic of eligible voters — a fact that was proved this week. Incidents of racial hatred following President Obama’s re-election — already reported at the University of Mississippi and Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia — can now be joined by an alleged altercation that happened at the University. College students, as well as administrators and leaders of political organizations, should take care not to allow the emotions of an election to spill out into actual violence. Although issues are contentious, and frustrations legitimate, this is no excuse for charged language to be hurled against fellow citizens.
The University of Mississippi was the location for the most widespread of this post-election melodrama. There, nearly 500 students gathered in front of the student union in protest. According to the University of Mississippi, there were two arrests made, epithets hurled and racial language used. The University of Mississippi Chancellor Daniel W. Jones was forced to release a statement that chastised over-exaggerated accounts of the protest, but nevertheless admitted the students’ mistakes and criticized them accordingly.
The event at Hampden-Sydney took place Wednesday morning. Again students — upset with the election results — yelled slurs and attacked the minority student union by throwing bottles. Hampden-Sydney’s President Christopher Howard, who is African-American, wrote a statement in response as members of the college convened in a town hall setting to discuss the violent affray.
A similar occurrence allegedly took place at our University, according to Taylor Gist, a fourth-year College student. Tuesday night, outside Trinity Irish Pub, Gist – an African-American student – says she was called an epithet before cigarettes were thrown at her by two men. The incident took place at 12:30 a.m., one hour after the College Republicans’ reservation for a watch party at Trinity had ended.
In all these cases it is important not to tie the individual perpetrators to larger political groups. Though, demographically, Mississippi is a Republican state, and the alleged incident at the University took place outside the location where an event was hosted by the College Republicans, it would be unjust to suggest the actions of a few reflect the attitude of an entire political party. And even though Hampden-Sydney is a private, all-boys school, the outrage that took place there has also happened at public universities.
The fact is that President Barack Obama’s ethnicity is still a topic of scrutiny for many bigoted citizens; there may be others who have no qualms against the president’s race — only his policies – but nevertheless in the fervor of an election loss feel incited to make remarks that are hateful. Both Republicans and Democrats are in a position to be a model for students by dismissing such language as unworthy and disgraceful to the political process.
In contrast to the juvenility of college students, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney accepted his defeat with grace and humility. He called President Obama to offer congratulations while students nationwide called fellow students unacceptable names. It’s worth pointing out that free speech gives us the right to say many things, chief among them the right to respond. Students and groups at the University and elsewhere need to adequately distance themselves from such episodes rather than being complicit in silence.
President Obama, where are the tears for those you lead?
By Alice Stewart Published November 10, 2012 FoxNews.com
The leader of the free world let his emotions flow this week, crying as he thanked staffers the day after his re-election. The tears of joy were humanizing, but it begs the question: where are the tears of heartache for those who are suffering?
Where are the tears for the 23 million Americans out of work who worry about putting food on the table, the Hurricane Sandy victims who are still without power or without a home, and where were the tears as the four flag-draped coffins returned from Benghazi?
Our leader is able to witness the country’s worst heartbreak without a tear, yet when he experiences personal victory, he weeps.
We have people crying out for jobs and a better life. The president’s answer is to redistribute the wealth and provide the poor a subsistence-level income.
We have storm victims wading through sewage on the East Coast to find the smallest possession, and our president dons his Barack O’Bomber jacket for a photo op and jets off to the campaign trail.
We have a terror attack on 9-11 in Benghazi, and our leader hops on a plane to Vegas to fill his campaign coffers.
President Obama appears stoic through America’s worst pain, yet can’t keep his composure when his own job is saved. That’s enough to make a grown man cry.
Don’t get me wrong, in this day and age of “politics ain’t beanbag,” I find it refreshing to see our elected officials show their softer side.
President George W. Bush cried during a Congressional Medal of Honor ceremony honoring Navy SEAL Petty Officer Michael Monsoor.
Now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cried during a 2008 presidential campaign stop in New Hampshire. Secretary Clinton choked up while commenting that she didn’t want to see the country fall backwards.
And Speaker of the House John Boehner is known for crying at the drop of a hat. Yet the Speaker generally tears up when talking about the American dream.
These leaders mourn for others and the future of our country, not President Obama.
We have 23 million Americans looking for work, four deaths in a terror attack at the U.S. Consulate in Libya, and a death toll of more than one hundred as a result of Hurricane Sandy; all this and not a visible tear from our president. Yet, the Commander in Chief keeps his own job and he’s a wailing wall.
While our president gets misty-eyed over his personal milestone, I can assure you there is a trail of tears across this country. Along the campaign trail from South Carolina to California, I saw tears from selfless Americans who want our country to succeed.
There is the grandmother in North Dakota who choked up as she voiced concerns about the Obama administration’s growing debt and the burden it will place on her children.
I saw the tear-filled face of an influential conservative woman in Iowa concerned about how President Obama’s mandates will infringe on our religious liberties.
And there was the mega-church pastor in Florida, urging his congregation to vote their conservative values. You couldn’t find a dry eye in the place. The pastor illustrated his point with the story of NFL Coach Tony Dungy who ministered to a troubled teen while dealing with the loss of his own son.
Dungy talks about that “service above self” concept in his book Mentor Leader. He writes: “It’s not about me, it’s not about you, it’s about others.”
Mr. President – once you dry your eyes after celebrating your good fortune, open your eyes and take a serious look at the needs of those you lead. Because it’s not about you, it’s about others.
Alice Stewart is a Republican strategist and currently serves as a Romney and Republican National Committee surrogate. She worked as National Press Secretary for the presidential campaigns of Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Mike Huckabee. She is spokeswoman for Conservative Women for America.
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