A white man wearing shorts and flip-flops carried a loaded AR-15 to confront a black man who was protesting a Confederate memorial in a Texas town.
Willie Hudspeth carried a sign reading, “Please move statue to Confederate museum. God said ‘Love everybody,'” during his protest Monday evening on the town square in Denton, reported the Denton Record-Chronicle.
The 69-year-old activist, who has protested the memorial for at least 15 years, said a younger man openly carrying a rifle confronted him as he spoke cordially with another resident who supported the Confederate memorial — which had been vandalized earlier that morning with graffiti that said, “This is racist.”
The younger man, who later identified himself as 22-year-old Stephen Passariello, strode up to Hudspeth and Adam Rinkleff while carrying the military-style rifle and shouted “counterprotest.”
Police arrived shortly after that and told Passariello he needed a sling for his weapon so it would be more difficult to steal.
“I was encouraged to open carry with a sling, although it wasn’t required,” Passareillo said. “I was told that I can stay, but they would appreciate it if I got my sling so people wouldn’t feel so threatened.”
Man open carries rifle to a protest and nothing happens. Non-story at eleven.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but do the knee-jerk thing. This white supremacist posted on facebook page something like, "Let's get out the lynching ropes." Not exactly a man of God.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the peaceable older black protestor could not have known this, but he could feel the hatred in his confronter's voice. If that angry, young man wished to engage in a verbal confrontation, he should have left his killing stick back home with his mom and dad. I am quite certain that the black man was in some fear for his life. Nice suggestion. Get a sling. Only in Texas.
Denton is actually a very diverse and occasionally quite progressive community. I believe they were the first county in Texas to ban fracking. In a downtown straw poll in 2008, Obama was ahead of McCain about 85 to 65.
Our entire nation is sick. The mind and body reel with unrest and discord. Pray for peace people everywhere.
Gun carriers should get used to having the cops called on them, especially if they are waving and pointing their guns at people. One has to assume it is loaded and therefore dangerous and unsafe to point at anyone unless you are going to shoot and that's what anyone having a gun pointed at them should assume (that they are going to be shot) and have a right to shoot in self defense when a gun is pointed at them.
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