Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards (news – web sites) made a brief stop at the airport as he concluded his two-day bus tour to locations in West Virginia and Ohio. (AP Photo/Randy Snyder)
I bet he went on to lecture the 3 year old about peace, love, tolerance and the first amendment. Loser just like his candidate.
You know…more and more this year I just have to ask myself how I EVER thought of myself as a Democrat.
Oh, wait, I remember now…the party wasn’t filled with assholes who made little girls cry!
So this guy is teaching his child how to be a classless heckler and we should feel sorry for him and her.
Who cares, the father is a jerk.
Just look at the compassion the party of “caring” is showin….. isn’t it touching?
John Brender — I considered writing a witty and erudite reply, but it would be a lie. Right now, what I’m really feeling is what I say to you at this moment:
Fuck you.
Chuck,
Your statement is another shining example of conservative class. My 60 year old mother has had two bumper stickers stolen off her car but you won’t find me crying about it on the internet. I’ll leave the crying to chickenhawk repubs.
Anybody who talks about ‘class’ in the same breath that he approves of bullying small children because they’re Republicans is a hypocrite of appalling scope and breadth.
Oh, and up yours.
So, its “heckling” to carry a sign supporting your candidate??
Showing up at an opposing party’s rally in an effort to provoke a response is irresponsible and foolish.
The man is a coward for bringing an innocent child.
As a father of a 2 yr old and 4 yr old I have to say that I’m probably glad I wasn’t there or else I’d probably be facing an assault charge against the jackass who ripped the sign. The three year old doesn’t know and doesn’t care about what the signs and t-shirts are all about. Her daddy had given her a toy to hold and play with and some jerk came along, stole it from her and destroyed it. I guarantee that if anyone had done that to my kid they’d be pissin’ blood.
[b][i]Originally posted by John Brender[/i]
So this guy is teaching his child how to be a classless heckler and we should feel sorry for him and her.
Who cares, the father is a jerk.[/b]I see. So you don’t believe in either the right of dissenters to protest, nor the protection of private property from theft and vandalism.
Ok, now we know where you stand on the issues you can’t complain when demonstrators advocating causes you support are treated in a simliar manner. Unless you want to be a hypocrite.
Recently in my city, New York, we had a bunch of cowards — over a quarter-million lefties — heckling and protesting and being assholes during the convention and did anyone see Republicans tearing up their signs? Democrats are vicious loudmouths until you get one alone and then watch the tears and begging. LOL
Ben A,
I believe that by showing up at a Kerry rally the “man” in the photo should not be surprised by the reaction he recieved.
What about the demonstrator who was assaulted by having her hair pulled? Were you outraged then? Don’t be a hypocrite.
Jim,
Cowardly repubs like yourself were hiding everywhere.
– Ahh you gotta love it….just spent a few minutes on Arianna’s terminally paranoid left wingnut site. They were jabbering along in their usual hair on fire, Bush hating style. All the wild off the wall remarks and accusations we’ve come to know and love fron the slithering brain dead party of lovebugs. I typed….
Those fascist baby killers in Karl (Adolph) Roves camp will never be able to prove who dummied up those documents. I don’t really care if they made the stuff up. Bush is such a lying bastard anything we say about him won’t be enough. They distroyed the originals after they retyped them. The Goppers are just making idiots out of themselves. Its to bad that great patriot Dan Rather will have to take one for the team, but theres plenty of other Liberals out there that we can recruit to play dirty tricks on those rotten fascist conservatives.
– Loved sitting there in the total “no post” silence…. My bad…..Heh
Showing up at an opposing party’s rally in an effort to provoke a response is irresponsible and foolish.
This was not a Kerry/Edwards rally. Edwards was there to hop on a plane, period. Some people showed up, from both sides.
Ah, I see.
Merely by taking a Republican sentiment to where Democrats were standing, he was somehow ‘asking for it’.
Your deep and serious commitment to free speech and the right to dissent has been duly noted, asshole.
AD — to clarify, I was speaking to “John Brender”, not you. No offense meant… to you, at least.
Sure thing Chuck. I’m sure you react with similar outrage when the roles are reversed.
Some people are asking for it. This asshole who brought his daughter into the frey is a typical repub.
Chickenhawks till the end.
Originally posted by John Brender
>Ben A,
>I believe that by showing up at a Kerry rally >the “man” in the photo should not be surprised >by the reaction he recieved.
I see. Then it’s open season on protesters no matter what their side then if they show up to their opposition’s events.
>What about the demonstrator who was assaulted by >having her hair pulled? Were you outraged then? >Don’t be a hypocrite.
I hadn’t heard about it, but now that I have I agree that is upsetting as well.
But seeing as you have outrage for that but not for this incident you like the hypocrite.
Originally posted by John Brender
>Ben A,
>I believe that by showing up at a Kerry rally >the “man” in the photo should not be surprised >by the reaction he recieved.
I see. Then it’s open season on protesters no matter what their side then if they show up to their opposition’s events.
>What about the demonstrator who was assaulted by >having her hair pulled? Were you outraged then? >Don’t be a hypocrite.
I hadn’t heard about it, but now that I have I agree that is upsetting as well.
But seeing as you have outrage for that but not for this incident you like the hypocrite.
Ben,
Where did I say I was outraged?
John Brender:
1) You don’t know me, and you’re incredibly wrong-headed to think you can even try to figure me.
2) Any one so lost to common humanity as to attack a 3-year-old girl would, if a Republican, be rejected by every right-thinking Republican on the planet within the day.
3) You are a shithead.
AD — to clarify, I was speaking to “John Brender”, not you. No offense meant… to you, at least.
No offense taken.
Wow.
John Brenders right,
She should think herself lucky she wasn’t sprayed with urine like the right wing bitch deserved for being in a public place with a Republican sign.
Everyone knowd republicans don’t have a right to free speech and peasceful assembly, what were they thinking?
/sarcasm
Oh, and your 60 year old mum got off lucky, if it had been a Bush sticker, her car would have been keyed by the tolerant left.
/no sarcasm
Jim,
I was in NYC for the convention and the protesters I encountered weren’t that bad. The ones I had occasion to speak to (I walked from MSG back to my hotel following the convention a couple of evenings so I could meet some of them) were taken aback when I thanked them for helping to ensure our democracy by exercising their right to free speech. I found them to range from dull to mildly obnoxious though they were almost uniformly uninformed about the policies of any of the 3 major candidates. Many seemed to be there because it was an “in” thing to do rather than from any tightly-held political beliefs. Others were like John Bender: merely trying to get a rise out of anyone who wasn’t part of their group. Those quickly lost interest when they found out that said reaction was not forthcoming (at least from me).
Hey, John Brender: you can go naked.
I want to add something about the “Democrat who had her hair pulled” rant by the Left.
It’s something that’s been irritating to me ever since I saw that photo (Democrat protestor being removed from Republican gathering by having her hair grabbed by the elderly security guy, that was routinely enshrined on most Left sites all over the Internet)…
IN LIFEGUARD TRAINING…you are taught to grab a struggling person’s hair and “tow” them to whatever position you can inorder to remove them from the situation.
In an emergency, if you can’t determine (and who can) the actions by someone who is noticably “in distress” (causing a disturbance, posing a security problem, otherwise potentially creating some greater problem to others, about which you cannot determine developments), it’s smart and safest to AVOID BEING DISABLED BY THE PERSON while attempting to remove or restrain them.
As with lifeguard work, or otherwise rescuing someone from a situation that can be possibly life threatening, you do what you need to do to (1.) protect YOURSELF in order to (2.) save the person by (3.) restraining the person in the most effective way possible…and grabbing a person by the back of the head, by their hair, is the most effective means to stay away from a potential retaliation by that person that would harm you and disqualify any rescue attempts.
In other words, if a person is flailing around, walking/swimming up to them and greeting them face to face and “reasoning” with that person is a foolish: waste of time, possible waste of your own security, and, certain encouragement for thier struggle to continue or even amplify (people in distress often harm not only themselves but whoever attempts to intervene and/or assist).
Had that elderly security guy grabbed the woman by the arm, she’d have possibly thrown the guy or pushed him or even scratched or punched him, or even worse, if she had a weapon (a signpost can be a weapon in someone’s hands)…
So, the guy did the smart and efficient thing and grabbed her in such a fashion as to cause the least damage to her and to best protect his own person.
From what we’ve seen about how Democrats respond to “protestors,” they just punch them in the stomach or tear signs out of little children’s hands or the like.
LAST THING about that woman being grabbed by her hair, however, is that she was already noted to be behaving badly…physically active, yelling, otherwise unpredictable…so grabbing her from behind by her hair was a very smart and safest means possible to begin to restrain her and get her to some secularized space.
With that father and child, however, what were they doing? Standing peacefully with a sign. Hardly posing some security problem to anyone, least of all themselves and/or the speaker, except that they weren’t supportive of the speaker.
There’s just no comparison between the two situations, and, about the hair-grabbing security guy, he did the right thing at the right time for the right reasons.
“Sir;
I just saw the photograph of the little girl who had her sign destroyed by the individual wearing the IUPAT shirt on the AP feed.
Does IUPAT condone and support this type of action on the part of it’s members?
I find it more than a little hypocritical that IUPAT is in the CONSTRUCTION trades, yet appears to actively support the DESTRUCTION of a basic freedom of our Republic – Free Speech.
At the beginning of this campaign, I was willing to give John Kerry the benefit of the doubt. After seeing too many incidents like this one perpetrated by his supporters, I no longer have any doubts. George W. Bush will be getting my vote this November.
Additionally, in future, I will be vetting any contractors who do work on my property. IUPAC members will get no business from me.”
I just sent this to the Head Honcho of IUPAC. Was I plain enough?
– Yeah … What S said…..
– If I could find that peckerhead I’d be happy to see if he would rip a sign out of a 285 lb linebacker’s hands like he did when he terrified that three year old girl…Somehow I think he’d see things a little differently….
To John Brender. Ya know, there was a time in this country when you could disagree and show support for whatever you wanted whenever you wanted without having to deal with one of your fellow citizens committing violent acts upon you. But the left has shown that time is over. Don’t worry though, we’ll kill you all in the coming civil war… (which the left is forcing upon this country). BTW, We actually have guns.
Whatever happened to civil discourse? We should all be concerned that violence is even being mentioned as a way of addressing domestic political differences.
There is no justification for it, no matter what your politics are.
John Brender,
You comment “Showing up at an opposing party’s rally in an effort to provoke a response is irresponsible and foolish.” brings about many thoughts – I guess it proves my point that the 250,000 “protestors” in NYC during the RNC convention weere also irresponsible and foolish. I’m just glad that I served 24 years in the Armed Forces to protect this man’s (and his daughter’s) rights to protest. You are a shining example of typical democrat thought processes – It’s okay for us to do this, but not anyone else. You’re pathetic. By the way, I was raised as a democrat in a liberal household. It wasn’t until I matured enough to realize how self-centered and selfish democrats are that I changed to an independent (voting for Bush). Your diatribe proves my point.
Oh, it gets worse, guys. Far, far worse.
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040917-010155-8041r.htm
————–
“She was crying; they were pushing and shoving her,” said Mr. Parlock, a Huntington real estate agent. “She was scared.”
————–
We all need to chill out a bit. These things go both ways.
First, by the standards of American political violence, and I’m not talking about the Civil War, this stuff is all small beer.
Second, those of us who are politically engaged enough to blog should be happy that people are passionate about this election. Well, when you get thousands of passionate people together several times a day, there’s bound to be the occasional shove.
Third, I think we are seeing a lot of this because of the ubiquity of digital cameras. Every little public nosepick is now distributed around the blogosphere in a trice. I’m guessing that there was plenty of shoving during the 1972 campaign, for example. Then we had a long lull of boring or relatively unemotional elections, and then we got Florida. Florida 2000 was nothing but a precursor of the fun to come. We are going to see a lot of signs ripped up in the weeks to come.
-S-
I don’t know where you got your life guard training, but I was never taught to grab a person by the hair as a primary approach. Besides, do you really thing she looks like she is in danger of drowning?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040909/480/pajl10109091829
As far as the little girl and her sign, it was stupid and mean for whoever it was to take her sign and tear it up especially to scare the crap out her while doing it.
However, the father is not blameless here. He took her into a highly charged situation with an invitation to a hostile response. Is that any way to parent? I would level the same charge of stupidity against a Dem who took a three year old with a Kerry sign into a Bush rally.
Interestingly, this is not the first time this has happened to this particular man, and he always gets at least a local newspaper story out of it. However, he has now determined that a crying 3 year old is the necessary accessory for nationwide exposure and outrage.
http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2004/09/bogus-assault-father-freeper-of-year.html
That guy seriously needs to move, as he obviously lives in a town that’s 200% Democratic thug asshole.
Oh, and he faked it, huh? So, he faked the AP photograph? With the torn part of the sign in the thug’s hand? I suppose those are all just professional actors he hired for the occasion, then?
:rolleyes:
Chuckg: Actually, questions have been raised regarding whether the angry sign-ripping union supporter in the photo is in fact the man’s son.
Sure, and that little girl is faking her tears. What a load of crap.
Jess — Then I raise questions about their eyesight.
The sign-ripper is visibly several inches taller than the father. Assuming that dad is the guy in the red shirt on the left side of the 2nd photo, then neither of their two suspects in that picture are taller than him.
Sheesh, the DU loonies aren’t even trying…
Not that I would ever agree with anything coming out from the DU site. It would appear that this guy has had this happen to him before on 2 separate occasions. Jonah Goldberg links to this site, which has 2 newspaper accounts involving the same sort of incidents.
Not that this means I agree with what happened to him in any way. Although I must say that I am truly disgusted when I see a child of this age at a leftist moonbat rally and get pissed at his or her parents for essentially using their kid as a political prop (photographers are always going to take pics of kids). so why should this be any different. The dad has a right to free speech, but why would you put your 3 year old daughter in harm’s way.
OK, lets break this into two stories.
#1. Man brings kids to political rally (again)
#2. Leftist thug rips sign from little girl and makes her cry.
Which of these two stories causes the most disgust? Which represents the most dispicable behaviour?
Mike — the point is, in a civilized society, no one should *expect* that handing your child a sign to carry is putting them “in harm’s way”.
So we need to ask ourselves, *why* is it “in harm’s way” to carry a Bush sign near Kerry-supporting union members?
Answer — because they are thugs.
And thus, we find the root cause of the problem — Democratic thuggery.
(I say ‘democratic’ because anybody who pushed and shoved a 3-year-old child at a Republican rally would, 99.99999+% probability, get the shit pounded out of him — by other Republicans.)
#1. Nothing wrong with bring your kids to a political rally.
#2. Ripping signs from little girls is rude.
#3. It seems odd that this gentleman has so much trouble at rallies. 3 times? Possible but it does make one wonder.
MikeAdamson — he lives in West Virginia. ‘Nuff said.
I’m pretty sure it’s a faked photo. The sign fragments don’t seem to fit very well. Oh, and the guy who apparently ripped up the sign has a CBS logo on his shirt, if you look closely. A joke?
Doesn’t matter if the picture is fake, as long as the story is true.
Fake, huh?
The IUPAT union head just admitted that yup, it happened, and yup, it was was one of theirs.
———-
“The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades believes in the fundamental right for civil discourse, freedom of speech and activism to support our candidates and issues.
What happened in Huntington, West Virginia yesterday is an affront to everything we, as a union, pride ourselves to represent. We extend our apologies to the Parlock family, especially Sophia, for the distress one of our overzealous members caused them.
I have personally taken steps to address this issue internally, and will take immediate disciplinary action to the full extent allowed under U.S. Department of Labor regulations and the constitution of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
It is my hope that this incident reminds all of our members that every last citizen in this country has the right to express his or herself freely. Not one single one of us has the right to tell them otherwise.
General President James A. Williams
The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades”
———-
Hey, DU’ers. Here’s the salt. And here’s the crow.
Bon appetit, as Kerry would say.