Hanging Carr effigies offend some in area [Wichita Massacre]

The Wichita Eagle ^ | Wed, Nov. 06, 2002 | TIM POTTER

[Lassiter]

A front-yard display of the Carr brothers hanged in effigy has been removed after some Wichitans found it racially offensive.

For several days, two dummies -- each with a dark face and a noose around its neck -- hung from trees in the front yard of a west Wichita house.

A sign beneath the dummies, with arrows pointing to them, said "Carr Bros," referring to the two Dodge City siblings found guilty Monday of capital murder in a Wichita killing spree. The Carrs are black and their victims were white, but prosecutors say robbery -- not race -- was the motive.

The Rev. Gill Ford, the NAACP regional director in Denver, said he heard about the display from the local NAACP branch. To many African-Americans, he said, a noose is especially repugnant, "It's going to be like the swastika to somebody who's been in a concentration camp.

"My hope is that the community of Wichita as a whole would condemn those kinds of actions," Ford said.

Michael Watley, a 35-year-old black carpet layer, said he found the display to be a very public and racially offensive symbol -- a jarring reminder of prejudice and lynchings in the nation's past.

"I know there is some prejudice here," Watley said, "but I didn't think it was to that level."

The resident who put up the display, who would not give his name, said he took the dummies and the sign down late Monday night after he was told that the display upset some people.

He said he didn't intend the display to be offensive and that he put it up as a statement of outrage over the brutality of the killings. People driving by and seeing the display gave him the thumbs-up sign, he said.

But Watley sees the Carrs and their crimes this way: "They're individuals, and it doesn't matter about skin color. What they did, they did on their own."

A Wichita radio station, KDGS-FM 93.9, received nearly 100 phone calls and more than 50 e-mails from listeners who heard about the display and found it offensive, said station program director Greg Williams.

Reach Tim Potter at 268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.

[Lassiter]

The last person I heard speak like this was Charles Manson.

[f.Christian]

Tele-pathy/thic?

[f.Christian]

To: f.Christian

The fact that the nomenclature of the political spectrum is
is reversed in the USA indicates the radical nature of our republic. The radical idea of the 18th century was reducing the power of central authority in favor of individual liberties. American liberals of today seem more interested
in returning those hard won individual freedoms to the central government. (I deliberatly use the term central rather than federal because I am a Southerner who recoqnizes the difference.)

American conservatives today are Classical Liberals.


7 posted on 10/25/2002 9:34 PM PDT by limitedgov

[Lassiter]

Something like that (???).

If you're trying to communicate with me, you're going to need to use English.

[archy]

Better they should hang their effigies in effigy.

Effigy Mounds, Iowa isn't too far from Wichita. That would be a fine place to hang the Carrs.

Of course, so is Wichita. Say, in front of the Artichoke

-archy-/-

[archy]

is there that much demand for black carpet

Depends on who you ask.These guys seem to favour it.

-archy-/-

[mhking]

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[GovernmentShrinker]

Earth to Loony-lefties: The Carr brothers were not selected for hanging in effigy on account of their race.

[demosthenes the elder]

no, but for "35 year old black carpets" there is a huge demand - it has been properly aged, you see, and has become a lucretive luxury good among the PC elite.

[KS Flyover]

    "Wichita Massacre" murder trial "Ping List"

Please let me know if you want on (or off) this list.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Luckily none of these people were offended by the actual murders. /yuck

[Jimmy Valentine]

Cordially suggest that they hang them publicly "in fact".

And don't drop them; too quick. Take them up slow and leave their feet loose.

Let's see them dance.

[mafree]

Maybe the effigies should have had each of the Carrs' names on them- then it would be about them and not any other Black person. Actually, I'm far more offended by the murders than I am by some effigy.

[Leatherneck_MT]

The NAACP is the 2nd most Racist organization in the country. 2nd only to the Democratic party.

[Lion Den Dan]

A shame that the effigies can not be replaced with the real convicts. This is not vigilante action, it is true justice for racist butchers.

[Blue Screen of Death]

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Unless you offend someone, in which case none of the above apply.

[albee]

If you can believe the good Reverend, his point of offense was that a noose was used and that nooses are a reminder of slave days.

The Solution?

Take those black dummies, lay them out on cots and have a huge needle stuck in the dummy's arms.

The point is made. Problem solved!

[eyes_only]

 

Earth to Loony-lefties: The Carr brothers were not selected for hanging in effigy on account of their race

 

You are correct sir...

 

May they be judged by the content of their deeds and not the content of their color....