Posted on 09/18/2004 1:27:38 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Phil Parlock says he's a peaceful guy who doesn't mind carrying a Republican sign to a Democratic rally. Others say he has a history since 1996 of attending Democratic rallies in West Virginia for the sole purpose of provoking the anger of the party faithful.
On Thursday, the Huntington real estate agent said, he hid nine Bush-Cheney signs under his pant leg and took 3-year-old daughter Sophia and 11-year-old son Alex to a rally for Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards. An older son manned the van outside the rally with a larger Bush sign.
When it came time for Edwards to leave Tri-State Airport, Parlock said, he gave his children signs to proclaim their support for Bush. Just as quickly, the signs were ripped out of their hands and torn apart, he said. Two more signs were thrust into their hands. Again, Edwards supporters tore them away, he said.
"It was like a feeding frenzy," the father of 10 said Friday. "I didn't want to have Sophia being defeated and I told her to hold up the sign, but they kept going after the last shred."
Sophia broke into tears, and the image of the child resting on her father's shoulders with a torn Bush sign in her hands was caught in Associated Press photographs.
That image became the subject of intensely partisan Internet chatter on Friday, with some Democratic supporters suggesting the incident was staged and that the sign had been grabbed by one of Parlock's other children. Other messages pointed out that Parlock was involved in similar incidents twice before.
In 2000, Parlock and one of his sons smuggled in 12 Bush-Cheney signs to a campaign rally for Al Gore at the state Capitol. Police ejected them after Gore supporters tried to tear the signs away from them.
During a 1996 campaign stop in Huntington by then-President Clinton, Parlock held up a sign outside the rally with the words "Vince Foster," referring to Clinton's former deputy counsel who was found dead in a Virginia park on July 20, 1993. The sign was taken by steel workers attending the rally.
"We're not part of an organization. We're not part of the political machine here," Parlock said. "It's not bad to show children that you can go and express an alternative viewpoint and stand fast for that viewpoint no matter what people say."
West Virginia is viewed as a battleground state in this year's presidential election. Although voter registration is 2-to-1 Democrat, Bush won the state in 2000 by 6 percentage points.
Amy Shuler Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the John Kerry campaign in West Virginia, said their goal is to "include everyone in our events. But when your main goal is to disrupt and be the center of focus of the event, that's not what anybody wants."
Parlock said he doesn't fault the Kerry campaign.
"Two of the Kerry people apologized even though it was not their fault," he said. "It was their constituency's fault."
The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades issued a statement Friday apologizing for the distress of the family. The photos showed a man wearing an IUPAT shirt and holding a piece of a sign.
"We extend our apologies to the Parlock family, especially Sophia, for the distress one of our overzealous members caused them," president James A. Williams said in the statement. A call seeking comment from the union after business hours was not immediately returned Friday night.
September 17, 2004 10:21 PM
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/2004/September/18/LNtop1.htm
The left is so tolerant of other points of view.
Yeah he and the kid deserved it and should have got a democrat-like thuggery beating too!
The LINK in Post one goes to another report on this.
I can't post it due to a "copyright complaint."
Proves what I said the other night.
Parlock is an instigator (and I applaud him for it) but he has NO BUSINESS bringing his small children into a potentially dangerous situation.
In legal terms this would be called "reckless and willfull" disregard. If his kids had been killed/seriously hurt somehow, he would very likely go to jail.
This is mind-numbingly stupid, considering that the Kerry campaign has been whining for months about their people being thrown out of Bush events for disrupting.
What the Kerry campaign should have done is have John Kerry make a call to the family and apologize on behalf of his supporters. It would have been an enormously good PR move. Instead, we have one of his people blaming the victims here. This incident crystallizes why Kerry is losing this election.
Did you notice we have an author named Farkas writing about a Fracas?
Hold it a second... It's our fault? We are responsible for the incident because We provoked these Kerry-punks anger? How can this nonsense be legitimate?
ping
I hope you are not giving 'Rats permission to beat and kill children.
Oh no... The responsible Rat would wind up in jail too, if something terrible happened.
My point is that a)it is well known that union activists sometimes resort to violence; and b)this man is a well known Republican activist and has gone to opposition rallys before to protest; and c) small children should never knowingly be placed into dangerous situations.
I applaud the Father's exercise of his right to peaceably protest - I think he is a damn fool for bringing his kids with him.
I see that guy on the far right. He's that dude that was at the WTC with the airplane underneath him. LOL
For holding a sign at a political gathering? Get serious. It's not like he was handing his three-year-old a chainsaw. It was an airport pit-stop for Edwards. If you think holding up a Bush/Cheney sign is somehow 'reckless and willfull', then you've got a very, very, very generous description of 'reckless'.
Showing up at an airport photo-op doesn't strike me as 'reckless'. Overzealous union meatheads tearing up a 3YO's sign is the problem, not showing up and holding a sign.
Aren't the neocoms daily reminding us that this is a God-given right as well as a Constitutional guarantee?
LOL
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