SEMPER ‘FIE’: Julius Spohn, outraged by the gross Santa display...ripped it down, but later apologized. Photo: Rick Dembow
Posted on 12/19/2005 4:32:33 AM PST by Liz
SEMPER ‘FIE’: Julius Spohn, outraged by the gross Santa display...ripped it down, but later apologized. Photo: Rick Dembow
A former Marine took a stab at saving the Christmas spirit yesterday — knocking over a bloody, knife-wielding Santa that was part of a controversial display outside a Manhattan home.
Julius Spohn, 64, of Newark, said he had read about the display in The Post and wanted to see the macabre scene in front of the East 18th Street brownstone belonging to Joel Krupnik and Mildred Castellanos.
Curious after seeing it, he opened the gate, walked into the small front yard and knocked down the "Bad Santa." "I think it's atrocious," said Spohn of the display..............
Krupnik has said he erected the sickening Christmas display in protest against the commercialization of the holiday.
But Spohn called it "an insult to people on this block, to the community in general."
.....Krupnik's 16-year-old daughter, Darla, was inside the tony brownstone — and confronted Spohn. When she demanded to know what he was doing, Spohn said he replied, "I'm ripping this piece of garbage down."
Darla called the police.
"Somebody taking [Santa's head] off and his body down — that's creepy," Darla said later. Darla said the entire display — which she claimed is welcomed by most people — will go back up. The family is even discussing next year's display, she said, which may include one of Santa's elf helpers driving a hammer down on another elf's severed noggin.
On Saturday, the family hung a new doll head on the tree after the original head was stolen last week by a Brooklyn group calling itself The 7th Avenue Boys for a Merry Christmas.
Spohn said.....the display wasn't considered the sort of freedom he was protecting while serving in the military, he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Linux taking down decorations, lol...
If this display had been set up on public property, you MIGHT have a point. The fact that it was set up on someone's private property makes this guy's actions way out of line.
Merry Christmas.
People motivated to view any of the anti-Christmas displays, should go to their houses and start carolling. The people inside those houses would go nutz if they heard Christmas carols every night.
hehehe... that is just better.
Right on. And if you don't like the way they celebrate Christmas, GTH out of theirs.
All season long we Freepers have been rightly applauding the retailers who say "MERRY CHRISTMAS", despite the fact that some people will be offended by it. There's something un-American about allowing our actions to be dictated by fears of offending somebody.
Well, that has to cut both ways and back again. If this guy was offended by the way some jerks observe Christmas, he should have said something offensive back to them and left it at that.
"Bow Down, Bow Down, Before the Power of Santa,
or Be Crushed, Be Crushed,
By His Jolly Boots of Doom."
This is for little kids.
I was on 18th St. on Thursday & saw this display. It's a quiet block in a fairly low-key area of Manhattan, a few blocks away from the Village. A few doors down from this brownstone there is a row of houses that are among the oldest remaining in Manhattan, more than 150 years old & on the National Register of Historic Places. I'd wanted to take a picture of these houses for quite some time but am not often in that neighborhood. I'd heard about the bloody Santa display but didn't know it was on that block.
The building where the display is has some of the most amazing gargoyles I've ever seen. Some looked like fairly recent additions, but there were many where it was difficult to tell how old they were. These brownstones are typically around 80-100 years old. Thing is, when you see a collection like that, it's usually a tip-off that the owner is some type of eccentric, to one degree or another.
The display itself was much ado about nothing, with the exception of Santa's bloody knife, and a prominently displayed, bloody & decapitated Barbie doll strung in a tree a few feet away. It was certainly one of the more extreme & nonsensical expressions of opinion on something like a holiday that I've seen, but I certainly didn't think it was worth wasting any time thinking about. There's always going to be some wacko looking for attention. And there's always going to be someone whose feelings steer them toward misguided acts who will give them that attention.
I snapped a few pictures & went on my way. While I was there, a few people stopped to look, had some sort of reaction, & continued on their way as well. Nothing to see here? Perhaps that's overstating it. Little to see here, is more like it. If you care about Christmas & think it was somehow disgraceful...well, I saw a poster above state that this was not 'destruction of property,' which is probably true. However, to say that it was not trespass is completely inaccurate.
Anybody has the right to protest on the street & call attention to this if they find it offensive. I would suggest that if it bothered this guy so much, that's what he should have done. Of course, then he's calling attention to something that should be ignored as much as possible, in my view. Even more obviously, what he did called even more attention to it.
Brilliant.
I will not disagree that this is probably more of a protest on Christmas than one about the commercialization of it. Nevertheless, unless I care to call the person a liar, then I may accept that they are sincere. To be honest, though, I fail to see why anyone would care all that much. This is not a school block, so, outside of neighbors (and I will point out that this is a very expensive area in which to own such property), I don't think all that many children are going to see this display. Until it made the news, that is. (There was a report on the local cable news outlet about it early last week, but a minor one) I do like the idea that children raised properly will either understand the ridiculousness of this, or will have it explained to them by their parents. I realize that there are many scenarios in which this is not going to be the case, but in the bigger picture I don't think this is something that's going to damage or scar a child, especially one who's growing up in a place like Manhattan.
I will not post the photos I took, because I will not give this the sort of attention they're so eagerly seeking. I did show them later that day to one of the most rabidly liberal people that I know. He was shocked, outraged, and looked physically ill when he was handing my camera back to me. He didn't say 'hate speech,' but, knowing liberals as I do, I have a feeling it was on the tip of his tongue. He's lost interest in throwing that term out at me, though, at this point. In any case, I understand the outrage, but there are things I find far more outrageous--such as what looks like a transit strike in this city 12 hours from now--and I say let a jerk put something like this in his front yard, and let the rest of us roundly ignore it.
How does destroying a maccabre "Santa" display "save Christmas"? Jesus had no part of this display. It is a shame to see this ex-Marine confusing Santa for Christ somehow. There is no connection. Better had he added a Mother and Child to the display.
Amen to that.
Less Santa. Less Rudolph. Less Frosty.
More Christ.
People's disgust level varies. Yes, your opinion is important....and so is the opinion of the many who are outraged at the display.
It's more revealing that these self-absorbed individuals reside in a country where Christmas, and its icons, in all of their permutations, are revered.....and that these individuals have so little respect for other people's feelings
Santa is associated with children.......so that the display is more horrific when one discerns the mindset of these individuals who would scandalize children in such a horrific manner.
Well done.
Merry Christmas.
RD
No kidding...If you have to "get offended" to that degree on someone else's front yard, apologizing is the least you should fear.
I love how so many freepers are all for the rule of law and private property rights..."for me but not for thee." Any one of us would be twitching for the shotgun if it was a hippy tearing down our manger.
"They have failed as a "family" they are a group of idiots living together and Co-raising each other."
...
I call that sort of dysfunctional home scene,
co-dependants requiring insignificant others to participate in mutual misery.
He "damaged" a three dollar blow up Santa......big deal. I wouldn't have wasted my time, but this guy is going to become a folk hero. The family has been looking for trouble and put their children at risk. Forgetaboutit.
And I'll bet you were sure to tell their little friends who did believe in Santa.......that it was all a lie
No, I let my children do that.
Get them going now for the realities of adult life
You bet
Are you equating a legitimate and honored religious symbol with this man's hanging of Christmas in effigy?
Of course I would not equate the sacredness of the Nativity with a commercial image developed by 20th century ad men, but you're missing my point.
Having your sensibilities offended does not give you the right to trespass on and destroy private property. I think that's a pretty simple concept.
I stand corrected....thanks.
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