Reported Offensive Obama Sign Discussed In Standish (Maine)

[sabra]

Source: wmtw

STANDISH, Maine -- The Standish Town Council is holding a special meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss accusations of an offensive sign involving President-elect Barack Obama.

This past weekend, a reporter for the Associated Press said he saw a sign at the Oak Hill General Store in Standish asking customers to bet on when Obama would be assassinated.

The owner of the store told News 8 he didn't have any knowledge of the sign.

Police said they received a complaint and passed the information along to the secret service.

The Town Council is expected to pass a resolution denouncing racism and hate crimes at the meeting.

Read more: http://www.wmtw.com/news/18024598/detail.html

[marshall]

1. What have they done in the past about offensive Bush signs?

This should be treated exactly the same. President Obama deserves the country's respect.

[denverbill]

2. In my 8 years at DU, I've never seen any posts about pools on Bush's assassination.

There's a big difference between calling Bush (or Obama) a dumbshit and posting a pool about when Bush (or Obama) is going to be assassinated.

And if Republicans all of a sudden have gotten religion and are no longer going to accuse Democrats of being traitors, murderers, child molesters, and rapists, as Republicans and their drug-adled mouthpieces on the radio accused Bill Clinton of being, that would certainly be a welcome change, and I might reconsider my attitude towards being 'disrespectful' of Republicans. But seeing as how they are already calling Obama a Muslim, terrorist-loving Marxist, I really don't anticipate that happening.

[jpak]

6. What you said.

There were no similar "pools" concerning Bush or McCain or Rush or anyone other republicans/conservatives here in Maine.

Advocating assassination of a president-elect is not protected speech.

:mad:

[marshall]

8. Remember "Death of a President"?

The movie that was a fictionalized account of Bush's assassination. I recall squaks about it on the news and I guess the movie bombed because I never heard about it being shown anywhere.
But yes, the same effort should be put to shutting down these signs as was obviously put in squelching that movie.

[glinda]

3. Sign owner should be prosecuted and jailed and fined

[HopeHoops]

4. I'm sure he would notice if someone posted a "95% off EVERYTHING" sign in his store

[47of74]

9. Or this one...

[jpak]

5. There was quite an uproar over this on the local Maine internets

As expected, the freeptards though it was funny, not at all racist and protected free speech.

Democrats in the Maine legislature are proposing a similar resolution.

[KamaAina]

7. I am now taking bets on when the Oak Hill General Store in Standish, Maine

will be raided by the Secret Service and possibly ATF and Federal marshals.

[struggle4progress]

10. Standish Passes Resolution Condemning Sign

TANDISH (NEWS CENTER) -- ...

WHEREAS on Friday, November 7, 2008, an Associated Press reporter notified the Town Manager that he has observed a sign posted in the Oak Hill General Store in Standish calling for individuals to place a bet on predicting teh future date when an attempt might take place to harm the President Elect, and

WHEREAS the Town Council finds such actions to be reprehensible, now therefore be it

RESOLVED that the Town of Standish condemns in the strongest terms any such alleged activity calling for violence against any individual no matter their position, race or ethnicity ...

The legislature also is expected to consider a similar resolution this session.

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=96287&catid=2

[struggle4progress]

11. Uproar in Maine over Obama assassination sign

BOSTON (Reuters) - ...

The Town Council in Standish condemned the sign on Thursday in a 6-0 vote ...

The sign in the Oak Hill General Store asked customers to place a $1 (68 pence) bet on the date of Obama's assassination, and said "Let's hope someone wins," the Portland Press Herald reported. It was called the "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool."

The store in the town of 9,285 people in southwest Maine has remained closed since reports of the sign appeared in the media on Sunday ...

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE4AJ9B720081120

[MaineDem]

12. Sheriff plans no charges in sign incident

The owner of the Oak Hill General Store in Standish won't face any charges from local police for a sign posted in the store last week asking customers to bet on the timing of an assassination of President-elect Barack Obama, Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion said Friday.

For one thing, store owner Steve Collins denied any knowledge of it when police arrived to check out a tip last week, Dion said. The sign itself was nowhere to be found.

Dion attributed the sign to Collins in statements to the media last week: "Whatever the intent of his expression was, we never located the evidence of it."

Dion said today that police could not prove whether Collins himself created the sign or someone else did.


http://news.mainetoday.com/updates/036108.html