Someone slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside the Crown Coliseum on Sunday during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, authorities said.Sheriff's deputies are investigating. The tires were cut while people were inside the Crown Coliseum listening to speeches, said Maj. E. Wright of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.
Many of the damaged vehicles were parked on Wilkes Road. Representatives from Obama and Sen. John McCain's campaigns said they were unaware of the acts.
Susan Lagana, the North Carolina communications director for Obama, said it was extremely disappointing and unfortunate that "people would have to experience something like that."
Mario Diaz, communications director for McCain, did not respond to a call late Sunday.
Sarah Revis, who lives on Wilkes Road, said the slashed tires left several women, including a single mother and a toddler, stranded and upset. At least four tow trucks were sent to move the vehicles from the Crown, Revis said.
"This is an embarrassment to this city and to me as a citizen," Revis said. "I've seen women out here crying and men cussing. This is a crying shame."
Lynne Steenstra said she thought that the slashings were scare tactics designed to keep her and others from supporting Obama.
Even though it cost her roughly $120 to get her Dodge Caravan towed and fixed, Steenstra said the act would not intimidate her from voting.
"It hasn't deterred us one bit," Steenstra said. "It has only encouraged us more. I just hope whoever did this pays the price."
Take that, and add it to a case of Jerry Springer-esque vandalism (or this or this), and I worry that if Obama wins, Obama supporters are going to be hurt or killed. These aren't pranks or street theater. It's flat out rage--a rage that knows no shame:
It's not so much that racist attitudes are being confirmed. It's that so many people live in microcultures where racism is so accepted that they openly profess their racism to Obama canvassers, reporters, and other perfect strangers. It's the lack of shame that I find most disturbing.
Driftglass recently compared the dregs of conservatism to an addiction. Like any addiction, you have to keep escalating just to get the same fix. I hope I'm wrong, but when it comes to estimating how shitty people will be, I'm usually not far off the mark. It could get really ugly.
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If Obama wins, the Secret Service is gonna be busier than they've been since 1963.
NoAstronomer - If McCain wins . . . let's see, January, he gets sworn in; February, Palin realizes that Jesus wants her to be POTUS; March, she decides McCain is spitting in Jesus's eye by not dying yet! . . . by April, the Secret Service will have their hands full protecting him from Palin.
Either way, they'll have a lot on their plate.
Funny you mention this. I live in northern VA, and I have two pro-Obama bumper stickers on the back of my car. Today, two vehicles with McCain/Palin bumper stickers zoomed in front of me in traffic and swerved to cut me off. I guess they are road ragin' like ragin' McCain.
Rage, like any mood altering substance or behavior, can be addictive. Sure, it's basic fight (establish dominance if the odds look good) or flight (run away if the odds look bad). But. To go to the extremes that I've seen lately, a person would have to feel pretty confident that the odds are good, and have experienced the rage enough to want that high over and over.
Such calculations can lead a person to walk into a 'Liberal Church' armed to the teeth, imagining that the wussy girly-men will shriek and run, rather than tackle, break arms and leave a person to face the harsh judgement of the law.
All it takes for evil to thrive is for good people to do nothing.
We are not doing nothing, and we are not wussies who will run and hide.
NoAstronomer-
Screw 1963. They'll be busier than they've been since 1860. (Ok, technically the Secret Service was only formed 2 months AFTER Lincoln's assasination. But my point is that if Obama gets elected, he's going to have more people gunning for him than any president since the Civil War.)
-RdF
Adrienne,
They must have been from "Real Virginia."
I hope Obama wins. And I hope he makes it through his term. While evidence may not persuade those who hate due to whatever prejudices they have, it may be time for us as a nation to get that "hate" or "rage" or whatever it is out in the open. And get over it. I don't want to see violent outbursts, but from time to time I think they can be a catalyst for change. If it were a war, I would sign up as a soldier. It's not (thank god), but I will still stand up and say my piece.
Whoever you are, where ever you are: if you are a hater, get it out and over with. Don't do anything stupid in the process. And in four years, realize he (whoever wins) is as good as any other guy and it doesn't matter if he's a she, or christian, or muslim, or black. Or--gasp--conservative or liberal.
And if you must, come curse at me. I can take it. My country can take it. And we will not only survive but become stronger because of it, and regardless of whether you come along for the ride or not.
Adrienne,
My wife's family lives there, so we are in the NOVA area frequently. How can you distinguish those drivers today from plenty of other drivers there on any other day?
NJ, I drive against traffic generally, so I don't see the worst of NoVA traffic (and drivers). That's what made these two incidents so striking. There weren't any other cars nearby, so this was not a typical case of bad NoVA rush hour driving. There was a lot of obvious and deliberate effort put into the act of cutting me off.
I live in northern Ga. I have been wearing an Obama pin. The absolute HATE I see directed at me is unbelievable. The white people here treat me rude as possible, and I had a white suburban looking lady follow me from a local big-box store all the way to my truck. I am white, by the way!! Lived here all my life.
hey,im a white guy from england,35,hopin mcain wins as obama looks like a lot of hot air from this side,its borderline hysteria here,but either way u guys chose the right one