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If you read the news on the ‘net last night, undoubtedly you came across a couple of very disturbing photographs, which were carried by AP and featured on Yahoo news, and which later found their way to Drudge Report and many internet web logs and discussion boards:
Photo caption: Sophia Parlock, 3, cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, a supporter of President Bush (news - web sites), after a Bush-Cheney sign she and her father were holding was torn up by another person standing in the crowd that had gathered to greet Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. John Edwards (news - web sites), D-N.C., Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va. At right, is Alex Parlock, 11, Sophia's brother. (AP Photo/Randy Snyder)
At the Democratic Underground forum, Several people expressed skepticism about the photos, and they did a little internet research. After reading what these DUers uncovered, it appears that Phil Parlock has a near decade-long history of “victimhood,” which he incited by taking his children to Democratic rallies and creating skirmishes—the stories about which have been reported in two West Virginia newspapers.
In 1996, Phil Parlock attended a Bill Clinton-Democratic rally in Huntington, West Virginia, not to support Clinton, but to display his anti-Clinton sign. According to a 27 August 1996 article in the Charleston, West Virginia, Daily Mail:
They obtained their tickets by promising those at Democratic headquarters they would be having signs during the president's visit, but they did not reveal their signs would be in support of Dole. "Clinton thinks he can just come here to Huntington and get a crowd, but we're here to show not all West Virginians share Clinton's values," said Gillespie, a senior at Marshall University. "We always try to give them a warm Republican welcome," said Painter, a recent graduate of Marshall University. Phil Parlock's experience was less calm. The Huntington man said he was knocked to the ground by a Clinton supporter when he tried to display a sign that read "Remember Vince Foster," the deputy White House counsel who committed suicide in a Washington, D.C., park. His death has become the subject of much debate among Clinton opponents."It must have been a strict Democrat who did this," Parlock said, feeling the red abrasions on his face. "Everyone with the exception of him was real peaceful about our protest." Parlock said some of the crowd tried to make other anti-Clinton demonstrators feel unwelcome. He estimated that about 150 Dole supporters attended the rally, but their signs couldn't be seen for most of the rally. "I came to show that not everyone from Huntington is going to vote for Clinton," Parlock said. (1)
Parlock’s confrontational, anti-Democratic demonstrations did not end as Clinton’s presidency came to a conclusion. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Parlock escalated his protests and even kept his son home from school to join him. Parlock, who worked for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, and his then twelve-year-old son Louis smuggled 16 pro-Bush signs into a Gore rally in West Virginia: they stuffed the posters into their shirts and socks to sneak them in, even though the rally tickets that granted them entrance said that no signs would be allowed. Inside the rally, Parlock and his son unfurled their Republican signs and ended up in a scuffle with United Mine Workers—supporters of Gore—who took the father-son duo’s signs away from them. According to a 28 October 2000 article in the Charleston Daily News:
Parlock said after all his signs were stolen, he got some more from a group of Bush supporters who had not been allowed into the rally. Though police said they were not ready to make official comment Friday evening, earlier Friday an officer said he had seen a scuffle during the rally. Charleston Police Patrolman R.H. Vinyard said the incident involved people with Bush-Cheney signs, though he could not identify them by name. He said Gore supporters got into a fight with the Bush supporters about 10 minutes before the end of Gore's speech. He said the altercation lasted about 45 seconds, was over before the police arrived to break it up and no one was treated for injuries. Afterward, he said, the Bush supporters tore up their own signs and left the area.
As workers cleaned up the debris from the rally in front of the Capitol after the rally, Parlock sat next to a pile of ripped up Bush-Cheney signs he had collected. He said he thought the people who took his signs went too far. Still, he said he'd do it again. And he thinks it was a good educational experience for Louis, too. "You can't get this kind of a lesson in school," he said. (2)
Flash forward to 16 September 2004. Same situation, different place, different children—after all, Parlock only has a brood of ten children from which to choose to accompany him on his missions. At an Edwards rally yesterday in West Virginia, Parlock once again showed up, this time with his three-year-old daughter perched on his shoulders and his eleven-year-old son by his side. Supposedly, the daughter and displayed held their Bush-Cheney signs, only to have the placards viciously ripped from their tender young fingers by an evil Democratic oppressor—a member of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. (Funny how those union members are always handy to take Parlock and his progeny’s signs away!)
According to Parlock, in a description of the scuffle that in the Washington, DC, Times yesterday, “They just pounced on us. She was crying; they were pushing and shoving her. She was scared.” (3)
As the little girl’s photo circulated the internet, many members of Democratic Underground questioned the incident. After scouring the internet, they discovered that the photographer, Randy Snyder, who captured the image of the crying toddler, is chief photo editor of one newspaper that has frequently featured Phil Parlock’s conservative activism and interned with another newspaper that carried article about Parlock. Therefore, the photograph was not just a lucky shot by some AP photographer who happened to witness the ugly scene. Could Snyder and Parlock have planned the nasty shot? Could they have been working in collusion? Would a true journalist stoop so low? (4)
But there’s an additional twist—a twist that demonstrates just how twisted men like Parlock can be. One very perceptive DUer found a photograph of the Parlock clan on the internet—at the Herald-Dispatch website, which employs camerabug Snyder—and she noticed that one of the older sons bears a striking resemblance to the union worker who accosted Parlock’s shouldered daughter:
The Parlock clan:
A comparison of the “union worker” and the Parlock son:
And, to demonstrate the familial similarities, a comparison of the “union worker” and Phil Parlock:
Seems too surreal to be true, doesn’t it? And it leaves the discriminating reader with many questions: Why would a man who understands the volatility of political rallies bring his children along, when he himself has been injured in scuffles at them? Were the people who “assaulted” Parlock at earlier rallies actually friends or family who assisted him in his quest for attention? Why would a man who supports the Republican family-values platform endanger his children, unless they never were endangered, because every single battle had been staged, with a reporter or photographer near?
With little doubt, when Phil Parlock saw his tearful daughter’s photograph on news sites last night, he knew he had hit the motherlode of activism. How could anyone not pity the tearful baby-doll sitting on his shoulders, holding the clean remnants of a sign just snatched from her grasp by a Neanderthal union worker? However, in his attempt to discredit Democratic Kerry-Edwards supporters, Parlock just might have invited scrutiny of his actions—last night, and in the previous two presidential election cycles. At the very least, he should come forward to answer the questions that are being posed—questions that damage his own credibility today and over the past decade.
Notes
1. Associated Press, “Dole Supporters Find it Rough at Clinton Party,” Charleston, West Virginia, Daily Mail, 27 August 1996, 3C. Available on Lexis Nexis database, accessed 16 September 2004.
2. Sam Tranum, “Signs for Bush Taken at Rally, Father, Son Say,” Charleston, West Virginia, Daily Mail, 28 October 2000, 1A. Available on Lexis Nexis database, accessed 16 September 2004
3. Robert Stacy McClain, “Democrats Accused of Ripping Bush Signs,” Washington DC Times, available on the internet at: < http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040917-010155-804... >
4. Randy Snyder, photography editor, brief bio available at < http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=236 >
Written by jchild, 17 September 2004
DU investigators include, but are not limited to:
rezmutt (uncovered the Lexis Nexis articles that demonstrate Parlock's history of confrontationalism at Democratic events)
girl gone mad (photo comparisons of "union worker" and Parlock son at 16 September 2004 event)