I'm Proud to be an Okie from Lahoma....

[Joe Guy]

Oklahoma mayor shrugs off husband’s staged KKK rally as just a Halloween ‘prank gone bad’
Travis Gettys02 Nov 2015 at 09:47 ET

The husband of an Oklahoma mayor won’t likely face any charges after dressing up in a Ku Klux Klan uniform and possibly burning a cross in a Halloween “prank gone bad.”

Garfield County sheriff’s deputies were called about 10:30 p.m. Saturday after a woman reported seeing a group of men wearing white robes and hoods burning a backyard bonfire, reported the Enid News.

Deputies told the woman there wasn’t much they could do about the men and their display.

“(We) tried to explain to the woman that although in poor taste, the Constitution protects freedom of speech and that we can’t make them stop,” said Deputy Aaron Moore in his incident report. “This further irritated the woman.”

The deputies went to speak with the men and found 47-year-old Cary Sharp, whose wife is the mayor of Lahoma, and two other men wearing white, KKK-style robes and burning a fire near a cross — although authorities said the cross was never actually burned.

“I advised the group why I was there, and that although I know it was a joke that they save them and myself anymore headaches to not burn anymore crosses,” Moore said in the report.

Sharp said he and some friends were drinking alcohol when they decided it might be funny to cut holes in some sheets and dress up like members of the notorious hate group.

“Sit around the bonfire and drink a couple of beers and thought, well my buddy — his last name is White — and the subject got brung (sic) up,” Sharp said. “We just thought it’d be something to do, and it’s not something to do. I am embarrassed. I’ve shamed my family and friends, and I apologize for that.”

Mayor Theresa Sharp pointed out that she was not present when her husband wore the costume or took part in the bonfire burning — which she described as a “prank gone bad.”

“I was out trick-or-treating with my son, and I in no way support the activities that occurred,” she said.

“I just don’t condone it regardless of who it is — whether it’s my husband or Joe Smith around the corner,” the mayor added. “It’s not anything that I think needs to be represented for our community at all.”

A photo of the men, showing what appeared to be a burning cross, circulated on social media — although Cary Sharp claimed the image was misleading.

“There was no cross that burned,” he said. “It was held behind the fire to look like it was burning, but there was no fire. The pictures we’ve seen claimed they were burning one, but there was not one burnt.”

The woman who reported the incident said that didn’t matter because children and others out enjoying Halloween likely saw the robed men burning what appeared to be a cross.

“We are a small community, and in no way do I feel this represents our views as a whole,” said Misty Meister, who called police. “It is upsetting due to the fact that we live in a community with families of different ethnic backgrounds, and this is a symbol of hate and intolerance.”

The sheriff said the men had not broken any laws, and he said they took off their robes and put out the bonfire when deputies asked.

Although the men are unlikely to face any charges, the sheriff said the incident report had been handed over to the district attorney’s office for review.

“It was done in very, very poor taste,” said Sheriff Jerry Niles. “It brings up bad images of things that 99.9 percent of Americans, especially Oklahomans, are adamantly against. We’re all Americans, born and raised here, and we have a responsibility to honor the Constitution and the rights of others and feelings of others.”

Cary Sharp, however, doesn’t understand why anyone is upset by what he describes as a joke.

“This is ridiculous, really,” he said. “It was a Halloween night.”

source (with photo)

[rubato]

"More people in America believe ghosts are real than believe racism is real."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

I ain't afraid of no spooks.

Back in the late 50s, it was all the rage to have theme parties amongst the gin and get blasted set. My wife's parents were to attend a "Gone with the Wind" party here in little old NE Ohio. They (dedicated non-racists) decided to really discomfit their friends - and showed up in KKK sheets with a wooden cross. "Isn't that what it's supposed to be like?" they asked. I think they were off the circuit for a while after that one.

[Lord Jim]

a Halloween “prank gone bad.”

This is a "prank" that went went "bad" in the "thinking it through" phase....

A phase which apparently never took place....

It went bad at the point where one guy says, "Say, I've got a really fun idea. Let's dress up in KKK costumes, start a bonfire, and put up a cross. That'll be hilarious, especially on Halloween with a bunch of little kids outside to see it"

And nobody else says:

"Actually, that's a really stupid idea. Let's not do that"...

Mr. Sharp would appear to be anything but....

[rubato]

On the other hand it does give the neighbors having a "Black Panther Party" something to shoot for.


yrs,
rubato

[BoSoxGal]

This is only my opinion, but I don't think anyone who isn't a [t least a little bit] racist at heart could even contemplate this as a 'prank'.

eta: I think there should be sub-categories of racism; there are virulent racists such as white supremacists who actively believe people of color are inferior, but then there are ignorant racists who were raised with certain stereotypes and haven't had the life experience to dispel them, and unconsciously perpetuate those stereotypes via stupid acts and comments, and then there are 'enlightened' folks who think they aren't racist at all and say all the politically correct things, but don't associate with people of color and cross the street when a young black man is approaching them late at night on the sidewalk.

Vast generalizations there, but I think my point makes sense. The reason, I think, we have such a difficult time talking about racism in this country is that the folks in the 2nd & 3rd categories get very offended by the notion that racism is still alive and well. They don't see that institutionalized racism is one thing and virulent racism is something else, and they think raising the issue is accusing them of the latter when really it's just an attempt to address the former.

[rubato]

The South went straight from Jim Crow murder to "That was in the Paaaast" without ever passing through admitting that they did it, apologizing, and offering atonement/reparations.

yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

As did "the North".

[Big RR]

BSG--I guess it depends; sometimes a "joke' is the best way for so me people to deal with the horrific (look, e.g., at Mel Brook's "To Be or Not to Be" which lampooned the Nazis. I am almost certain the Brooks did not feel any oneness with the Nazis or their beliefs, but it was his way od dealing with it by making fun of them. I could see some people doing the same thing with the Klan, proving them to be the asinine clowns that they are by lampooning their "sacred" ceremonies.

That being said, I see no evidence of such an intent here. These seem like a bunch of jerks who were doing it for no discernible reason. I have no idea what they were doing and it doesn't appear to be remotely funny.

[Lord Jim]

I have no idea what they were doing and it doesn't appear to be remotely funny.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that alcohol may have been involved...

[Big RR]

Perhaps, and a lot more than the couple of beers admitted to. Sometimes alcohol can make the unfunny appear hilarious. But drunk or not, would you do something like, say, reenact the Sandy Hook massacre (for fun, no killings) and think it funny? These were grown men, not 10 year olds.

[rubato]

As did "the North".

"the North" is not symmetrically guilty.

That gets no one off the hook. Just a racist excuse.


So if Germany had said "the Japanese never atoned for their crimes, why should we" would that be all right with you? Racist.


yrs,
rubato

[BoSoxGal]

Perhaps, and a lot more than the couple of beers admitted to. Sometimes alcohol can make the unfunny appear hilarious. But drunk or not, would you do something like, say, reenact the Sandy Hook massacre (for fun, no killings) and think it funny? These were grown men, not 10 year olds.

And then there are the totally stone cold sober folks who think Sandy Hook was fabricated to TAKE YOUR GUNS!!!!!

[Big RR]

The South went straight from Jim Crow murder to "That was in the Paaaast" without ever passing through admitting that they did it, apologizing, and offering atonement/reparations.

yrs,
rubato

True, but then the US has never been an atonement/reparations country. Except for the Japanese internees during WW2, we rarely, if ever, compensate groups of people for the consequences of our policies (after all, how could god's chosen country of manifest destiny be wrong?). We never gave compensation to the native americans, and we just continued down that route. If victims of racism are waiting for compensation/reparations, they will be waiting a long time.

That being said, I believe many, if not most, victims of racism would welcome a real change in racist policies to reparations; those who see no hope would take the reparations as better than nothing.

bsg--I never heard any allegation that the Sandy Hook incident was made up, but nothing people come up with surprises me.

[Joe Guy]

So if Germany had said "the Japanese never atoned for their crimes, why should we" would that be all right with you? Racist.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Then stop making excuses, rubato. Racial discrimination was an evil in both regions well into the 20th century and it's not gone yet. But your privileged middle class liberalism leads you to argue that a lot of racism is not as bad as a whole heap of racism. Which is racist in itself.

One is well aware that the only slaves remaining in the North in 1860 were 19 in New Jersey - it was good that northern states got rid of slavery, of course. But that doesn't change the fact that neither region has ever got around to "admitting that they did it, apologizing, and offering atonement/reparations". Or did I miss the apology to slavery museum in DC last time I was there?

[Big RR]

Well the northern states might have gotten rid of it, but the USA (including a number of states like Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky) had around 3 million slaves legal in the good old US of A until the 13th amendment was passed, well after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Let's not pat our historical brethren on the back too much either.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'm not sure whether you're wagging a finger at me or at rubato?

Let's not pat our historical brethren on the back too much either

is kind of what I was saying to him, isn't it?

So I suppose you are emphasizing that the "unsymmetrical" argument is rather a heap of manure?

[Big RR]

You got it.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Sometimes alcohol can make the unfunny appear hilarious. But drunk or not, would you do something like, say, reenact the Sandy Hook massacre (for fun, no killings) and think it funny?

I've been that drunk.