Census-taker Bill Sparkman was found hanging from a tree in a cemetery with a noose around his neck and the word "Fed" scrawled on his chest. The authorities haven't determined whether the death was a homicide or a suicide.If Bill Sparkman was killed by right-wing extremists for being a Census worker in rural Red State Kentucky, this was an act of domestic terrorism. If he was killed for stumbling across a meth lab or other illegal operation and was killed because of it, it's still an act of domestic terrorism.Richard Benjamin asks whether Sparkman was a casualty of Methland, USA or a victim of anti-government bile. That's a false dichotomy.
If Sparkman was murdered, whoever killed him committed an act of political violence. It doesn't matter whether the killer was also trying to protect a drug operation. The perp took a page out of the old fashioned lynching playbook--stringing up the victim and defacing his corpse as a warning to others.
We still have a very real anti-government domestic terrorism problem in this country. Republicans are feeding this climate for political gain, but it has already gotten out of control.
There is a story from the AP in our paper this morning about the murder. Mr Sparkman was stripped naked except for his socks, his hands and feet were bound with duct tape, his mouth and neck were also taped and one report said his census badge was taped to his neck/shoulder. There was a red rag stuffed in his mouth, and "FED" was written on his chest in black magic marker.
ReplyDeleteIt is totally domestic terrorism and the effort to bury this story from two weeks ago is shameful. It's a lynching, a warning, and the people who murdered Sparkman must be found and punished.