Ladies and gentlemen, census worker Bill Sparkman was LYNCHED.

[TheWraith]

That's what you call it when someone is hanged from a tree and tortured to death. That's not something that you do to a person because they happened to stumble on a meth lab or marijuana field. It's not a way someone commits suicide. The mental contortions that some people here are going through to assert that there's "no way we can know" what the real story is are pretty absurd.

He was found hanged to death in a rural area far from home. Suicides don't drive an hour away to hang themselves. Police and the FBI have said the case is a homicide. He had the word "Fed" written on his chest--and the fact that the police declined to say HOW it was written there makes me suspect it was carved into his skin. So while I wish that DUers would exercise this level of discretion when it came to cases where the facts are actually in question--things like the Duke "rape" case come to mind--this is not a case where no reasonable conclusions can be drawn.

[rd_kent]

1. Yeah, just like the wing-nut that carved a "B" into her face and blamed it on black guys.

[kestrel91316]

4. Are you implying that the census worker carved "fed" into his own chest

and then hanged himself? To make the RW look bad?

Because that's what it sounds like you are trying to do.

[damntexdem]

9. No, no, no -- hanged himself first, then did the carving.

That way he didn't feel anything while carving on his own chest.

Right.

[AuntPatsy]

16. Thank you...the absurdity of some on du today is mind boggling...

[rd_kent]

22. See my post #18

[rd_kent]

23. See my post #18

[rd_kent]

18. Not at all! I think that what happened is EXACTLY what we THINK happened.

However, just like the "B" girl, everyone was quick to make judgment on what "really" happened before the whole story came out. The FBI has released VERY FEW details and the autopsy and forensics have not been released. The are HUNDREDS of plausible, not necessarily probable, but plausible explanations. It makes me laugh how DU will jump to conclusions right away based on a few incomplete or inconsistent news reports. You would think that with all the complaining we do about the MSM not telling the whole story, we would apply that logic all the time.

[unpossibles]

29. but my point was simply that in the B girl case, the lie was so patently obvious

come on. Anyone who bought her bullshit is a fool, imo.

In this case, I agree there's speculation and that we should wait for more facts, but I also think this was a "political" murder and likely had racial undertones. Having grown up in a rural area of Kentucky, anti-government attitudes are old and ingrained, BUT a lot of folks down there are also pretty pissed that there's a black guy in the oval office and a lot of them do fall for the fox news/rush limbaugh bullshit pretty regularly if for no other reason than because it fits very well into their already ingrained prejudices and fears. These rightwing fearmongers are not giving people new information so much as they are playingn on existing fears and prejudices.

[berni_mccoy]

30. No one believed that girl. Within 12 hours she had been caught in her lie.

[rd_kent]

32. OK, I used a bad example. But you get my point, right?

[AuntPatsy]

36. I fully understand what your attempting to say but suffice it to say in all seriousness we are not

the jurors so for those attempting to hush those believing this "could" very well be politically motivated what do they really hope to accomplish? It is not like our thoughts on du will surely get someone convicted of a crime they might or might not have committed?

I see no harm in leaning toward politically motivated because in reality it is not so far fetched to believe, the suicide angle in my mind is the more unbelievable of the two ..if found to be wrong..what harm? None that I can see...

[LaydeeBug]

47. I don't recall it saying "carved" I saw it said "written"

but I wouldn't be surprised...I am just not willing to jump on the bandwagon just yet.

[1955doubledie]

51. Even then, why would someone write "Fed" on their own chest

Just before committing suicide? That makes no sense. What message would be trying to convey? Nothing that's crystal clear, that's for sure. If, however, he was murdered, the message is VERY clear. Occam's Razor, everyone.

[MilesColtrane]

59. "Fed Up"?

Maybe he got halfway through and said, fuck it.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

62. Yes,

finally, a sane explanation of what happened.

I think you've nailed it.

Thank you.

:toast:

[unpossibles]

5. not really the same thing at all. nt

[rd_kent]

21. See my post #18

[damntexdem]

8. Yeah, the Census worker must have hanged himself to death then carved "fed" on his chest.

Such self-hate engendered by working for the federal government, unpatriotically carrying out a constitutional duty. Yeah, sure!

And then there are all those people who burn crosses on their own lawns or throw nooses onto their own porches.

Reminds me of a murder mystery story wherein a body was found chained inside a refrigerator and shot through the fridge, and was ruled a suicide.

[rd_kent]

20. See my post #18

[1955doubledie]

53. I see your 18, and I raise you 51.

:rofl:

[rebel with a cause]

65. As I posted yesterday and these are true stories.

We are not Kentucky, but a young man from another state was found hanging by his feet from a tree in a large park here. He had been shot in the head. The gun was found in the water a short distance from where he was hanging. They ruled it a suicide. Seems he hung himself from the tree, shot himself in the head and then threw the gun into the water. I think he mutilated himself also... A lot of self hate there if you believe the authorities.

Back when I was a girl, forty some years ago, a woman (store owner) was found decapitated. They ruled it a suicide, said she ran across the room and threw herself on a meat slicer. A lot of butchers argued that if she had did this it would not be a straight clean cut, but the authorities ruled it a suicide anyway. Again, a lot of self hatred there if you believe the authorities. Not many people here ever have but it shows that a lot of ruled suicides are very questionable.

[gatorboy]

24. Oh sure. Just like the liberal churchgoers from Tenn. who jumped into the path of bullets

That right wing lunatic shot at them. Right?

[rd_kent]

25. See my post #18

[EmilyAnne]

35. Yeah!! Except, not at all, actually. Nope, no lynching involved in the "B" cheeked girl.

No, no death nor torture involved.
Hmm. I suppose the girl who carved a "B" into her face used the same alphabet that was used to write "fed" on the murdered census worker's chest, so....?
Yeah, just like it!!

[rd_kent]

38. See my post #18

[Usrename]

67. I dunno, Was the word FED spelled backwards?

:shrug:

[rurallib]

2. driven by the talking heads like Oreilly, Hannity, Reagan, Beck

politicians like Palin, Bachman, Joey Wilson.
How many scalps have these folks claimed this year? I would add in those who die from lack of health care.

[Barack_America]

3. Minor point, it could have been a staged lynching...

...with the actual murder happening someplace else and by another means.

[damntexdem]

11. Forensics would have already determined that.

Of course, if that happened, the police and FBI might not be telling us.

[Junkdrawer]

6. Betcha there's a real life "Mississippi Burning" story going on right now...

Locals trying to hush it up. FBI leaking to the press.

10 days between discovering the body and the first press reports.

[timeforpeace]

7. 10 out of 9 cynics agree that this is just a little too perfect for the reactionary crowd.Let's wait

and see before we go off the deep end again.

[DarthPortnoy]

10. Be vigilent!

The line has been crossed. Time to round up the seditious fear-mongering, violence inciting mouthpieces of the Republican party. Beck, Limbaugh, Hannitty, Palin, Free Republic, Teabaggers and Malkin: I hold each and everyone of you responsible for this!

This happend on 9/12? Cooincidence? NO!

Be watchful and vigilent my brothers and sisters. This is the opening shot and I fear more of this will come. The floodgates have been opened and we need to be careful.

[csziggy]

33. The body was found on 09/12 - the death was long enough before

That his mother has had cremation recommended to her (from one of the articles linked to in another thread).

[nadinbrzezinski]

60. Like on the 11th according to the coverage

tonight on the Rachel Maddow show...

[katanalori]

52. You forgot to mention the ringleader....

Bachmann. The whackjob who has been screeching about the "conspiracy" behind the census and urging people to refuse participation. Last night, I tried to send Bachmann an e-mail about this issue. Her e-mail link (on her website) does not work (google search results showed that it hasn't worked for some time now, wonder why).
So, I sent an e-mail to Gov. Pawlenty and asked him to forward it to Bachmann. I did not accuse her of inciting this lynching, but I asked her if she was happy now.

[malaise]

12. +1

Seems quite obvious to me

[Echo In Light]

13. Rec! And bear in mind; Conspiracy Phobia of The Left

[stray cat]

14. a smart way for a killer to throw off simplistic thinkers

[TxRider]

46. Yep or...

Could be a wife and lover covering tracks.

Could be a pot farmer message of "and keep out" rather than have the guy just go missing and provoke a major search operation of the area...

Could have been Glenn Beck himself...

Point is we just don't know, and using his death for political purposes isn't appropriate until we do.

[AuntPatsy]

15. I know...I cannot believe that for some that are even leaning toward suicide...

[cali]

19. And some of us are leaning toward not jumping to any conclusions

too many here are panting for this to be a political wingnut murderer.

[scheming daemons]

26. ...because that's what it likely is

Not understanding why you are so quick to exonerate the right here.

[AuntPatsy]

31. Seriously Cali....what I am leaning toward is the very fact that there is no way this was suicide..

granted, little to no facts are out but the ones that are can you in all seriousness believe this act to even remotely lean toward a suicide?

As for myself...I seriously resent your assumption that many hear are panting to believe something...

I think its more than obvious what is at stake these days in regards to the political atmospheric explosion of far conservative talking heads so openly using 'staged' words in order to incite the crazies inside their organization to act..

I have heard openly people speaking in this part of the country of a coming revolution and the fact that this president will not live to see another term.....those lacking common sense, these people are not poor hillbilly type simpletons and that in itself pushes me to admit my fear that this horrific act could indeed be politically motivated as in a call to others for more...


You and others ignore the implications all you'd like but for myself I choose to not take the threat lightly...

[cali]

37. I have a visceral dislike of jumping to conclusions with so little evidence

it's creepy. it's not thinking. From what I've read, it seems unlikely to be suicide. However, there really aren't enough facts to jump to the conclusions that the OP jumps to, and her post is riddled with assumptions and faulty claims.

I'm not ignoring implications. I'm waiting for facts and evidence.

[Better Today]

41. +1

[AuntPatsy]

43. I think the reasons the op and even myself are quick to judgment is because of what

has occurred to date...and unlike some I have heard the death to liberals for quite some time from the consevidiot talking heads since Clinton not just since this last election...

They have been pushing for their followers to begin acting and not just spouting for quite some time while they sit comfortably far enough away from the furor they have instigated as if to appear all innocent of any real crime..

As always they have no wish to be held accountable for anything they are clearly guilty of...easy enough..get the rabble to commit the crimes they need to occur so they can once again sit in power and continue raping our country as long as they deem it beneficial to themselves..

Easy enough to envision an outcome even with a shallow degree in psycology.......the human mind is eerily a fragile membrane and exposing the very real weakness many of us possess is proving lately to bare more fruit each and everyday....

What bothers me most is why....



Not even a generation has passed away since the generation of american citizen racists once held their strange power hold on this country where open racism was allowed to hold merit and women held in no better esteem....not near enough time to kill out the overgrowth of weeds ...they themselves ensured they survived by fertilizing their home grown seedlings to be as similar to themselves as possible..and in my mind that is one too many...


weeds tend to be more than a nuisance if not dealt with..they can easily take over a healthy garden and kill it outright....

[Better Today]

40. I agree, seems many are as reactive when uninformed of facts as

the Repubs and MSM were recently regarding the ACORN issues. I didn't appreciate it then by them, particularly when now we are finding out that police were called and wrongs may not have happened but were edited to appear to have happened; and I don't think it is right for anyone to be doing it now.

[Chulanowa]

66. The first impulse is usually the correct one

No, we "don't know all the facts"

That doesn't mean we have to treat all possible scenarios as being equally valid, either. This man was murdered. We're just waiting on the forensics for confirmation.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[xultar]

39. +10 and then they wonder why they got unrecs.

[TheWraith]

57. Really? Care to explain what I've "made up?"

A quick perusal through both the news articles about the deaths and CDC figures about suicides will tell you that everything I said is correct, plus I added one bit of speculation based on reading between the lines on something the FBI wouldn't comment on.

[unblock]

27. mrs. unblock worked as a census taker earlier this year

i don't think i'll be showing her this story....

[kctim]

28. So you know what the "real story" is

and there are no facts which are actually in question, but you "suspect" because of the lack of facts you have?
Makes sense to me, arrest everybody who is not a registered Democrat right now!

[Rebubula]

34. Obviously...this was not suicide

Other than that...there is no way for anyone here to know the rest of the story.

[OneGrassRoot]

42. Has anyone stopped to think that, even if it was a drug-related murder....

in that Mr. Sparkman stumbled upon a crime scene and they murdered him, the fact that they chose to cover up his murder IN THIS FASHION speaks volumes about the effect right-wing hate talk has had on this country.

Even if they committed this heinous act with the intent to divert from the truth, the fact that THEY HANGED THE MAN is significant. Writing or carving or whatever the hell they did with the word "fed" would have been enough to potentially divert.

Lynching is a huge leap.

The fact that so many people in this country, silently or overtly, applaud lynchings, degradation of government workers, and all manner of racism and bigotry is mirrored in this horrible event.

There is an awful lot of anger and hate coming to the surface and it's boiling over.

[AuntPatsy]

44. The most interesting reply to the op yet...

[TxRider]

49. Lynching implies an extrajudicial mob, not an accurate term most likely

[BuelahWitch]

50. The coverup is the the elephant in the room

Sorry for the pun...

[kestrel91316]

45. If this is a drug-related murder, as some are speculating, why on earth

would a drug producer/dealer want to draw attention in this way to the area?? You would think they would dump the body where it wouldn't be found instead of hanging it in public for all to see.......

Political lynchings are PUBLIC because they are to serve as a warning to anyone linked to the victim that "if you do what this person did, we will kill you, too".

[TxRider]

48. Think about it

A) You have a dead guy found, with a warning. "and don't come back" Cops investigate, but are careful.

b) You have a missing man, presumed alive maybe lost in the countryside, spawning a massive search of the entire area.

Hopefully whoever did it was dumb enough to leave plenty of clues and we will learn motive.

Could be a wife and a lover just trying to throw the authorities off track...

[era veteran]

54. Mr. Sparkman was a good father

He had cancer,worked two jobs,re educated himself ..so sad and wrong. We will not let this be covered up.

[Taverner]

55. I agree with you, even if the Rose Colored Glasses Mob says otherwise

It was a lynching

And I seriously worry that things are going to get uglier. And uglier.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

56. Uh, people do commit suicide by hangings.

And it's a lot more common than lynchings.

"Suicides don't drive an hour away to hang themselves."

Nonsense. Just a few weeks ago in Germany they found the body of a man in a tree of a remote forest. He'd killed himself some thirty years ago because he was dying of cancer.

"Police and the FBI have said the case is a homicide."

Oh, have they ruled out suicide? Link?

"the fact that the police declined to say HOW it was written there makes me suspect it was carved into his skin."

Ah, that's some great detective work there, Columbo.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

63. I just read that it was

in marker, felt tip pen.

Lynch mobs almost always have Sharpies with them.

The leaping and bounding to inane conclusions is just unbelievable.

No one knows what happened. But people have already constructed scenarios out of thin air.

Those NCI shows are having their effect, I think........................

[nadinbrzezinski]

58. You said it, and I call it DENIAL

[BlooInBloo]

61. Clearly it was auto-erotic asphyxiation.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

64. You like that one, I can tell .......

Bet you thought David Carradine was murdered, too, eh?