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Man charged with vandalism of Tupac Shakur statue (Can't be a hate crime 'cuz perp is black)
AJC ^ | Nov 2, 2007 | DAVID SIMPSON

Posted on 11/03/2007 5:18:18 PM PDT by TankerKC

A 43-year-old DeKalb man was charged this week with the recent vandalism of a statue of Tupac Shakur at the arts center named for the slain performer.

DeKalb police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said investigators have no reason to believe the suspect, Kenneth Anthony Wilson, had a racial motive in the Oct. 20 incident. Wilson, who lives on North Hairston Road near the center on Memorial Drive, is African-American.

A spokeswoman for the center last week said she was told a noose was placed around the neck of the statue and the incident was being investigated as a hate crime.

Parish reiterated Thursday that the object was a cross on a string. Police also said underwear was placed on the head of the statue and "defamatory" stickers and papers were left on the statue and a nearby sign.

Wilson was charged Thursday with second-degree criminal damage to property, a felony. He was being held in the DeKalb jail under a $1,500 bond.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: fakehatecrimes; statue; tupacshakur
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
He was deep,

Still is. 6 feet or so.

21 posted on 11/03/2007 6:29:10 PM PDT by Tribune7 (Dems want to rob from the poor to give to the rich)
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To: TankerKC

Statue is a joke.

22 posted on 11/03/2007 6:32:56 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar (Who would the terrorists vote for?)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
He's written poetry even.

Keel mah landload, KEEEL mah landload?

Seriously. He was one of the few rap stars who didn't just rap about the usual rap stuff. He's made songs that praised black women, songs about the community, and the violence he saw.

Perhaps this is why he has been reduced to a statue.

His songs contained messages in them.

That's deep in itself...

23 posted on 11/03/2007 6:35:50 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (keep the heat on the hillary.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Not everyone here watches NASCAR and listens to Trace Adkins, OK?

It isn't just one or the other, you know.


24 posted on 11/03/2007 6:36:01 PM PDT by bannie
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To: Jet Jaguar
Statue is a joke.

Best post award.

25 posted on 11/03/2007 6:36:37 PM PDT by Tax-chick (When my mother ship lands, you're all toast!)
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To: Cicero

Pigeon pooped on the statue. That racist!


26 posted on 11/03/2007 6:42:14 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar (Who would the terrorists vote for?)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

When Trace gitz capped in a east/west county row, holler me up. Word.


27 posted on 11/03/2007 6:59:03 PM PDT by 359Henrie (38 million illegals create a big carbon footprint. The real inconvenient truth.)
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To: 359Henrie

Well, you know, Kenny Chesney is *really* short!


28 posted on 11/03/2007 7:02:14 PM PDT by Tax-chick (When my mother ship lands, you're all toast!)
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To: TankerKC
It is clear from this story and the linked story from ten days ago that the "noose" was a string/rope with across attached. It is also clear that the Shakur Center via their public representative were quite disingenious in claiming a hate crime occurred. Unless we now actually classify almost any crime that has a tint of "hate" as a "hate crime". Therefore if someone says they hate Bon Jovi and then take someone elses Bon Jovi cd and destroy it then that would technically be a "hate crime".

By the way since hate crime laws are partially based on the idea of indimidation of a community at large are other statues crying out in fear? (/sarc)

29 posted on 11/03/2007 7:04:28 PM PDT by torchthemummy ("A Tagline Presidential Endorsement Forfeits A Presumption Of Objectivity")
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To: Tax-chick

Aint too short.


30 posted on 11/03/2007 7:05:11 PM PDT by 359Henrie (38 million illegals create a big carbon footprint. The real inconvenient truth.)
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To: 359Henrie

Depends on who defines “short.” Trace Adkins is 6’5” or something.


31 posted on 11/03/2007 7:07:04 PM PDT by Tax-chick (When my mother ship lands, you're all toast!)
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To: TankerKC
"the object(hung around the neck) was a cross on a string. Police also said underwear was placed on the head of the statue and "defamatory" stickers and papers were left on the statue and a nearby sign.

All this is a felony? They have really bizarre folks there in the DeKalb prosecutor's office, but more importantly, really bizarre folks in the IL legislature that provided such a law.

32 posted on 11/03/2007 7:16:49 PM PDT by spunkets ("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
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To: Tax-chick

Lol, “Too” short, Rapper out of “oaktown”. Trace...7’2”


33 posted on 11/03/2007 7:18:33 PM PDT by 359Henrie (38 million illegals create a big carbon footprint. The real inconvenient truth.)
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To: TankerKC

Notice that the statue already has a CROSS on it. Isn’t that illegal? Maybe the extra added cross was separate from the underwear crime.

The extra cross for sure is a hate crime. Actually accusing someone of being a Christian!


34 posted on 11/03/2007 7:29:24 PM PDT by Sleeping Hampster
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To: Jet Jaguar

Pigeons will properly maintain the statue..


35 posted on 11/03/2007 7:31:33 PM PDT by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Not everyone here watches NASCAR and listens to Trace Adkins, OK?


Don’t be hatin, dawg.


36 posted on 11/03/2007 7:32:47 PM PDT by Grizzled Bear ("Does not play well with others.")
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To: Jet Jaguar

What nearsighted person did that statue?

“The Gorgon was a maiden bold,
who turned to stone the Greeks of old,
that looked upon her awful brow.
We dig them up in ruins now.
And swear that workmanship so bad
proves all the ancient sculptors mad.”
- Ambrose Bierce


37 posted on 11/03/2007 7:55:58 PM PDT by popdonnelly (Get Reid. Salazar, and Harkin out of the Senate.)
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To: L98Fiero

If they found the “noose” and had not caught the perp in the act, then it would have been determined to have been a horrible hate crime by evil white guys who should be burned at the stake. Riots to follow.


38 posted on 11/03/2007 8:28:11 PM PDT by tbw2 (Science fiction with real science - "Humanity's Edge" - on amazon.com)
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To: TankerKC

If one hates statutes shouldn’t it be a hate crime?


39 posted on 11/03/2007 9:08:11 PM PDT by taxesareforever (Never forget Matt Maupin)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Well you have some academics on your side asserting the importance of Tupac, but the mere fact that he expressed a few thoughts beyond the usual cesspool of rap and hip hop doesn’t necessarily make him a profound thinker. However, I have never found him worth the effort for me to develop an informed opinion about his ‘work’ so I’ll have to say I simply don’t know what his life’s output was worth. I have to be skeptical of any claim that he’s some artistic genius until I see real evidence, but I confess I haven’t begun to look at his output.....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupac_Shakur

On April 17, 2003, Harvard University co-sponsored an academic symposium entitled “All Eyez on Me: Tupac Shakur and the Search for the Modern Folk Hero.” The speakers discussed a wide range of topics dealing with Shakur’s impact on everything from entertainment to sociology.[61]

Many of the speakers discussed Shakur’s status and public persona, including State University of New York English professor Mark Anthony Neal who gave the talk “Thug Nigga Intellectual: Tupac as Celebrity Gramscian” in which he argued that Shakur was an example of the “organic intellectual” expressing the concerns of a larger group.[62] Professor Neal has also indicated in his writings that the death of Shakur has left a “leadership void amongst hip-hop artists.”[63] Neal further describes Tupac as a “walking contradiction”, a status that allowed him to “make being an intellectual accessible to ordinary people”.
A memorial of Tupac Shakur at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia
A memorial of Tupac Shakur at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia

Professor of Communications Murray Forman, of Northeastern University, spoke of the mythical status surrounding Shakur’s life and death. He addressed the symbolism and mythology surrounding Shakur’s death in his talk entitled “Tupac Shakur: O.G. (Ostensibly Gone)”. Among his findings were that Shakur’s fans have “succeeded in resurrecting Tupac as an ethereal life force”.[64] In “From Thug Life to Legend: Realization of a Black Folk Hero”, Professor of Music at Northeastern University, Emmett Price, compared Shakur’s public image to that of the trickster-figures of African-American folklore which gave rise to the urban “bad-man” persona of the post-slavery period. He ultimately described Shakur as a “prolific artist” who was “driven by a terrible sense of urgency” in a quest to “unify mind, body, and spirit”.[65]

Michael Dyson, University of Pennsylvania Avalon Professor of Humanities and African American Studies and author of the book Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur[52] indicated that Shakur “spoke with brilliance and insight as someone who bears witness to the pain of those who would never have his platform. He told the truth, even as he struggled with the fragments of his identity.”[52] At one Harvard Conference the theme was Shakur’s impact on entertainment, race relations, politics and the “hero/martyr”.[66] In late 1997, the University of California, Berkeley offered a student-led course entitled “History 98: Poetry and History of Tupac Shakur.”[67]


40 posted on 11/03/2007 9:38:51 PM PDT by Enchante (Democrat terror-fighting motto: "BLEAT - CHEAT - RETREAT - DEFEAT")
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