Patterico's Pontifications

1/3/2010

Obama Effigy in Plains GA

Filed under: Obama,Race — DRJ @ 6:42 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Plains, Georgia, the hometown of former President Jimmy Carter, was the scene of a racially-charged and highly inappropriate image of President Obama this weekend:

“Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan told The Associated Press that the large black doll was found Saturday morning along Main Street in the small town of Plains.

According to footage from WALB-TV, the doll was hanging by a noose in front of a red, white and blue sign that says “Plains, Georgia. Home of Jimmy Carter, our 39th President.” A witness told the television station that the doll wore a sign with Obama’s name on it.”

The Secret Service is investigating.

— DRJ

UPDATE: Plains is in Sumter County, Georgia, that has an estimated population of just under 33,000 but there are only “637 people, 215 households, and 136 families residing in the city.” In the November 2008 Presidential election, Sumter County residents cast 6,454 votes for Barack Obama, 5,717 votes for John McCain, and 64 votes for Bob Barr.

42 Responses to “Obama Effigy in Plains GA”

  1. This is, of course, in incredibly poor taste as the person of the President is worthy of respect.

    But this points up the problem that people have with official “hate” crimes. Is hanging a black president in effigy worse than hanging a white president in effigy? Does the history of lynching make this more of a threat?

    Or, to take it away from politics, would lynching a white person be less awful than lynching a black person? Isn’t a crime a crime?

    Kevin Murphy (3c3db0)

  2. I updated the post with more about Sumter County where Plains is located.

    DRJ (84a0c3)

  3. Mayor L.E. Godwin III says the volunteer fire department was called to take it down. He says he saw the doll but couldn’t read the signs.

    Interesting. I’d like to hear who the witness was and their statement…

    It’s an ugly thing. No matter if this was from some right-wing extremists or some left-wing extremists attempting to make the right appear racist and extreme, it’s just awful. And Plains, GA appears a quaint little town in the video.

    Dana (f64b7d)

  4. Dana, I’d be willing to bet that (given the location’s newsworthyness) it’s a false flag operation.

    Kevin Murphy (3c3db0)

  5. “Interesting. I’d like to hear who the witness was and their statement…”

    I wonder where that university professor is that screamed and screamed about the same thing hanging on her office door.

    You remember the one right?

    Yeah that black lady that hung it herself!

    Every now and again you just gotta hit first and from the various items of overt visual racism that have been presented to horrify this country over the last several years, the source is always the same.

    The source for this act fits the MO!

    TC (0b9ca4)

  6. Kevin, my personal experience is that anything “hanging” or “noose” that occurs between blacks and whites is worse on the whites from the white perspective.

    I had a personal experience with this on my job, where I made a comment concerning a noose and hanging bicycles on the school stage after another teacher said that I was good at hanging things (I had hung two pinyatas from a tree at school, without a noose)….

    The fallout was a pain, but not job-threatening, even though the complaint specifically said the following: “I don’t know what he said, but it was unprofessional and disrespectful.” There was a week-long investigation, and the result was “inconclusive” even though there was no evidence that I even said what I told them I said.

    During the investigation I provided evidence that I have personally had a family memeber who was hung (a great-great grandfather in 1861) but that was dismissed in the conference because “(I) am white.”

    It was an amazing adventure, but it proved the simple point that from the white perspective, you have no chance in that situation. For the record, I am white, the principal is white, the investigating administrator is white, the two witnesses provided are both white; only the complaintant, who didn’t know what I said, is black.

    reff (176333)

  7. “The Secret Service is investigating”. Did they investigate every childish action in the 8 years of GWB? Na, he’s just an old white Texan. Most likely a bunch of teens with nothing better to do, or an attempt by dhimmi’s to get O’Dumbo’s D.A. childish response to the (now) wienerless terrorists off the front page.

    Scrapiron (996c34)

  8. What a difference political ideology can make.

    Anyone recall the West Hollyweird Palin effigy?
    W. Hollywood display breaks no laws, say authorities, including the Secret Service.

    Offensive as it may be, the Palin doll — outfitted with beehive wig, glasses and a vintage Neiman Marcus red coat dress — appears to violate no law, said officials of the Secret Service, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Los Angeles city Code Enforcement Division.

    ML (f060a0)

  9. While they’re investigating the clown who put the doll up, maybe they can go over the plain-as-day photos from about twenty lefty protests with people holding signs demanding Bush die in all kinds of ways.

    Metallica (e4735c)

  10. Agree with ML above: there wasn’t any concern from the left when Sarah Palin was hanged in effigy in 2008.

    McClatchy Watch (878005)

  11. It was probably a charred version of George Bush.

    HeavenSent (01a566)

  12. That’s pretty ugly. Let’s hope it’s a hoax.

    Patricia (b05e7f)

  13. Hmmm. Isn’t this the town where Mr. Johnson and Dr. Kaufman take their vacations?

    Eric Blair (ddbceb)

  14. This type of crap has been false flag operations for the last twenty years. But Jimmy will now be able to scream racism for a week on the MSM. Any bets on a connection to Jimmy?

    snookered (6f83c5)

  15. When the media looked the other way…or in many cases favorably reported on…8 years worth heinous acts of disrespect against President Bush, up to and frequently including hanged effigies at protest marches…they forfeited any credible claim that I as a consumer of news should be shocked and appalled that Obama incites his share of crazies too.

    mike d (d48081)

  16. Don’t discount the probability that this is just a couple of bored middle school kids on holiday with nothing to do (and stuck in Plains, of all places). Let’s not import deep meaning to a likely prank w/o due cause.

    Chuck Roast (766879)

  17. The same was done to Palin in LA, which nobody seemed to care about, but when a similar incident occurred in Redondo Beach everybody was up in arms because obviously it’s only offensive when done to the Messiah.

    TheAudacity (2fd5ad)

  18. Folks, get with the program–the whole point of hate crime legislation is to criminalize thought that is right of center, not left.

    Kevin Stafford (abdb87)

  19. GWB was hung and burned in effigy with regularity. It is not a crime to do so to a White President. If it is for a “Black President” then we can confidently say that Obama is only for Black people, not Whites. That furthermore, special restrictive rules are for a privileged aristocracy of Blacks against Whites.

    We are either a color-blind, merit based society where everyone has the freedom to be as offensive as they wish, including hanging Sarah Palin or GWB or Obama in effigy, or we live in a society of racial spoils system.

    If we live in the latter, then I want, as a White Man, unable to make myself a Black Man and privileged, to cut the spoils based on racial population: i.e. special privileges for Whites and everyone else in the back of the bus, so to speak. Since Whites are still the majority population.

    I prefer to live in a merit-based, equalist, color-blind society. But if everyone insists on a racial spoils system, then I will go along with it, but only for my own advantage. I suspect most Whites feel the same way, and will eventually be heard on the matter one way or another.

    whiskey (f36a0a)

  20. either its always a crime or its never a crime: you can’t have it both ways, and since the effigies of Palin & Bush were not crimes, neither is the one of Ear Leader….

    come to think of it, i want a Ear Leader pinata for my birthday party, or maybe 4th of July.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  21. I question the timing of this distraction!

    daleyrocks (718861)

  22. I question the timing of this distraction!

    how dare you question the timing??

    the science is settled!!

    Al Gore (fb8750)

  23. Al baby, piece of advice, go back to those earth tone suits.

    You’ll thank me later. I’m a giver.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  24. i think its racist to assume that white people hung the effigy.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  25. daleyrocks – Almost-President Gore is so tone-deaf that he cannot wear any kind of tone suits …

    Alasdair (a7420c)

  26. Let me see if I have my facts straight.

    1. Hanging Bush in effigy is ok with the SS.
    2. Hanging Palin in effigy is ok with the SS.
    3. Showing Bush with his head cut off is ok with SS.
    4. Making a movie about the asassination of Bush is ok with SS.

    I would like to know what the hell the SS is doing wasting my money looking for some Democratic creep who hung up an effigy of Obama in order to get it blamed on Republicans. And in all places Plains, Ga. And if they find the creep, they will do nothing.

    And why are you so worried, Patterico? Are you catching the chuckles johnson syndrome?

    templar knight (f7c667)

  27. First, templar knight, it was DRJ who posted this article. Second, she posted no opinion in her article. It would be wise to take in the full article and cross-check your opinions regarding the article before castigating someone you think wrote the article you think was written.

    Aside from that, your material was a good read.

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  28. RE: 8

    ML, I don’t know where you flunked out of grammar school, but there’s a hell of a difference between putting a figure in a window and burning it hanging from a noose.

    JEA (0ccd61)

  29. Whoops, my bad, John! I stand corrected, but I assumed the post reflected Patterico’s thoughts on the matter. That got me in trouble, and I humbly admit I was wrong.

    templar knight (f7c667)

  30. But doesn’t this encourage people to hang him from a tree?

    The Secret Service is investigating?
    What a stupid response.

    Dead Kennedy (1d558a)

  31. I love people in general, but some people want me to hate them, I think. Don’t do stupid things, people.

    MayBee (a4324b)

  32. […] reading: Jules Crittenden: More Whinging Patterico’s Pontifications: Obama Effigy in Plains GA and An in-depth look at Rasmussen and vintage Democratic whine and Obama’s End-of-Year Polls […]

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  33. #26, that is b/c only the right wing has violent koooks.

    HeavenSent (01a566)

  34. A few thoughts.

    First, is this genuine? We have seen a lot of fake hate crimes in recent years. So I would be skeptical on that level.

    Second, let’s say it is, is it racist? I think we would have to say almost certainly. I suppose there are a few people here like on that episode of south park who literally doesn’t notice the significance of imagining lynching a black guy, but I think 99% of the population would recognize it. Now I have been very much a believer that people can innocently say or do something that invokes stereotypes without meaning to. Like if my little cousin (9 years old) said that Obama sure loved fried chicken, I would be very surprised if she understood the racial context. I mean too this day I continue to find it baffling that there was ever any ugliness surrounding that food. Its good stuff. How does liking good food become a bad thing? I guess everything is in the mind of a person sufficiently racist, and I am glad I can’t understand that mindset, you know what I mean?

    Of course there were tons of threats against Bush’s life, even some showing him being hung. But we all know that that is different.

    Also, to correct the record, my understanding is that the SS goes after every single representation of the president dying, no exceptions. For instance, a pro-Bush cartoonist depicted democrats trying to kill bush, to criticize democrats and he was visited by the SS. It seems a little ridiculous but the SS’s attitude is that if they were not even handed, they could be accused of going after the president’s critics. So they check everyone out. If they didn’t check everyone during the bush years, well, it was probably a matter of triage. I mean the dems did go very nuts and I could be wrong but they seemed to threaten bush more than most.

    A.W. (e7d72e)

  35. […] calls the Obama effigy “highly inappropriate” and “racially […]

    Obama Effigy Hung In Carter’s Hometown « The Underground Conservative (d9a4c0)

  36. JEA, if you utilized grammar (you know, the kind you say ML is lacking), you would have read the article ML attached as it covers a lot of what we are talking about and you will see why ML brought it up.

    I agree with the other commenters: either let it all be legal or none of it. Stop crying when it happens to Obama and I’ll stop brining up the fact that most are silent when it is done to those on the right.

    TheAudacity (2fd5ad)

  37. What exactly is the Secret Service investigating? Littering?

    Federale (4e0ded)

  38. I’ll bet the Secret Service investigation is starting with those 64 Bob Barr voters.

    Paul (6d0c48)

  39. #39 – I’ve lived in Georgia for quite a while. Including way back when Bob Barr was the local Federal Prosecuter. I swear he was African-American back then. Don’t know how the hell he got to be white.

    Chuck Roast (382424)

  40. I’m from Sumter County and lived in Americus, just 10 miles from Plains. I used to bag Mr. Carter’s groceries when I was a teenager and he was President. It is a nice, small town, that loves it’s association with the Carters.

    My gut is telling me it wasn’t anyone from Plains. But today, who knows? Bet we will soon enough. That’s a tight small town and county. If someone in that county did it, they’ll get sold out pretty quick. Not because racism is dead in the south, but because they love the Carters in that county.

    Johnny (2ee7b3)

  41. […] Same Media that Bashed Bush for Vacations Makes Excuses for Obama Patterico’s Pontifications: Obama Effigy in Plains GA and An in-depth look at Rasmussen and vintage Democratic whine and Obama’s End-of-Year Polls […]

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