Posted on 06/28/2017 6:29:19 PM PDT by RightCenter
In the video, the Arkansas Capitol dome can be seen lit against the night sky as the Dodge Dart accelerates to 10, then 20 mph.
“Oh my goodness,” a man says as he flicks on the car’s lights. “Freedom!”
The vehicle speeds up the hill, and the last thing that comes into view before a crash is a large, newly installed monument.
Authorities say the man in the video is Michael Tate Reed, an alleged serial destroyer of Ten Commandments monuments.
He was arrested by state capitol police officers at the scene early Wednesday, according to Chris Powell, a spokesman for the Arkansas secretary of state. Reed is charged with criminal trespass, first-degree criminal mischief and defacing objects of public interest.
That object of public interest was a three-ton granite monument that had been installed less than 24 hours before its violent, pre-dawn demise on the southwest lawn of the state capitol in Little Rock.
Crews had cleaned up the crash site by late Wednesday morning and taken the broken pieces to storage, Powell said. Jason Rapert, an Arkansas state senator who led the movement to put up the monument, said a replacement has already been ordered, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“This law will be fulfilled, and we will raise the funds to make sure it’s put back where it should be,” he told the newspaper.
Reed could not be reached for comment. Powell told The Washington Post he wasn’t sure whether Reed had been released from jail.
According to the Associated Press, a 2015 law required Arkansas to allow the Ten Commandments display near the capitol. But groups who argue for a strong separation of church and state have criticized the placement of a biblical statue on the grounds of the seat of the state’s government.
After plans for the Ten Commandments monument were announced, the satanic temple pushed for a competing statue of Baphomet, a goat-headed, angel-winged creature accompanied by two children smiling at it, the AP reported.
Other states have grappled with similar Ten Commandments controversies, including Oklahoma, which installed a 4,800-pound monument on its capitol grounds in 2012.
In 2014, Reed rammed a car into that monument, Powell said. But it was replaced and stood on the capitol grounds until the state Supreme Court ruled it had to be removed, according to The Washington Post’s Abby Phillip.
According to the he says in the post. “But one thing I do not support is the violation of our constitutional right to have the freedom that’s guaranteed to us, that guarantees us the separation of church and state, because no one religion should the government represent.”
Later, he says he’s “back at it again,” and asks for people to donate money to help repair his car.
What southern philosopher said, “Stupid is as stupid does?”the
According to the he says in the post. “But one thing I do not support is the violation of our constitutional right to have the freedom that’s guaranteed to us, that guarantees us the separation of church and state, because no one religion should the government represent.” …Wrong constitution, Bolshevik Reed.
In order to ensure to citizens freedom of conscience, the church in the USSR is separated from the state, and the school from the church. Freedom of religious worship and freedom of antireligious propaganda is recognized for all citizens.The First Amendment, on the other hand, guarantees the free exercise of religion and the protection of same from government depredation. And you continually attack that right, Reed, which makes you an enemy of the USA and an enemy of freedom.
—1936 USSR Constitution, Article 124
Citizens of the USSR are guaranteed freedom of conscience, that is, the right to profess or not to profess any religion, and to conduct religious worship or atheistic propaganda. Incitement of hostility or hatred on religious grounds is prohibited. In the USSR, the church is separated from the state, and the school from the church.
—1977 USSR Constitution, Article 52
Thou shall not destroy public or private property that doth not belong to thee.
It’s not religious, it’s Middle Eastern Literature....
Should they be raising money to revoke his license as a public menace?
Of course, the godless reports have a chuckle about this. Imagine if the guy rammed his car into a black church or a Planned Parenthood office and some goof yelled “Freedom!” as he did it?
I’m guessing the tone would be different.
This yob is insane
This is a hate crime and he has done it before. He needs to do some hard time.
Serial? Start slapping him with 2-5 years each time - or better yet - pass the word that he is a "serial destroyer of Korans" and let the fates decide.
Looks like meathead Rob Reiner.
Agree.
If he were knocking down a Koran, they’d pursue federal charges. And he’d be blown up by the Muzzies.
Now imagine how Post would cover the story of a man who repeatedly bashes vehicles into, say, the entrances of mosques.
Where I come from we don’t bother law enforcement or the courts with situations we can handle ourselves, such as this one.
Since Reed thinks he is such a constitutionalist, just where in the constitution does it say individual citizens are exempt from rule of law and can destroy that which does not belong exclusively to them?
We are lucky it was just a stone monument instead of a playground full of kids.
Looks a bit like the baseball shooting perp.
It well may be that the next time.
I have no problem with 9 of the 10 Commandments. The adultery one is the one I care for the least.
How about a man who bashes vehicles into the lobby of the Washington Post?
And does multiple times? Cute, eh?
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