I remember seeing this and thinking, seven pickups in a small town with license plates visible. Someone will find these guys and then we will hear some pretty epic bullshit excuses.
A second video shows the trucks gathered on a grassy area, and at least one racial slur can be heard. Alford, the woman hosting a family member’s birthday party, said the trucks drove by several times before parking in the field next to her house.
“One had a gun, saying he was gonna kill the [racial slur],” Alford told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Then one of them said gimme the gun, I’ll shoot them [racial slur].”
Meet Levi Bush, driver of the lead truck. Lord on high did he not disappoint me.
Bush, the leader of the caravan of trucks, told the AJC that his group is called “Protect the Flag” and is not a hateful one. They “drive around and sell flags,” he said, with all of the proceeds going to veterans or toward purchasing new American flags for those in need.
Bush said his group was leaving a nearby event when they drove by Alford’s home and the partygoers started yelling at the trucks in front of him. They then threw rocks at his vehicle, he said.
Bush said he fishtailed while trying to drive away, then ran over a median and got a flat tire. When he pulled into a nearby driveway, the partygoers swarmed and made threats, and his friends backed him up, he said.
I guess that settles it. Rather than looking for trouble, he was just leading a humble well-armed caravan selling the redneck swastika from their pickup trucks. They cruise past a suspicious gathering child’s birthday party, apparently at walking speed (taking his lame story at face value for a moment, do people carry throwing rocks in their pockets?), and unpleasantness just sort of ensued out of nowhere. Being a humble flag seller, young Mr. Bush did the only sensible thing and drove his caravan around the homeowner’s lawn shouting racial slurs and waving a gun.
Or maybe he rolled around with some friends looking for somewhere to vent his futile rage at that stupid flag becoming a social and political albatross. Man, talk about a coin flip. Then I checked Levi Bush’s F-book page and I noticed that ‘Respect the Flag’ is apparently also a thing that comes up more often and earlier with him than ‘Protect’ does.
Now that says something to me. The other day Dr. Mrs. Dr. F. was sitting in traffic in the university part of town behind a lifted pickup flying that huge rebel flag. A couple of college kids, chatting on the crosswalk, stopped and did a double take. The black guy told the other guy, who was maybe south Asian, something about the flag and then he started laughing. The spouse watched him call out to the rock-still white kid in the pickup cab, (roughly) “Really, dude? It’s the twenty first century”. Then he shook his head, laughed again and walked off before the light changed. Now having people hate your symbol and fight against it, that is more or less the point. Hating something is just another type of respect. But nowadays ol’ Dixie is clearly in retreat (again), the reddest of red legislatures have started abandoning it and people who should feel intimidated just laugh in your face.
I can only guess what it would feel like to get stranded on the wrong side of history, seemingly all at once and out of nowhere, with no one specific to blame. On the other hand I have a pretty good idea what fighting the inexorable march of history looks like: weld giant offensive flags to some overcompensating pickups and roll around the first group of black people you can find, wave guns and shout moronic insults at your own rapidly growing irrelevance.
***Update***
It could mean nothing that Levi Bush comes from Spokane, as relayed by his Facebook page. Then again, for folks just like him that part of the Northwest is a pretty happening place.
chopper
“THEY’RE COMIN’ RIGHT FOR US!!”
yeah, sure.
shell
Oh yeah, I can imagine a bunch of black folks swarming a bunch of pickups plastered no doubt with confederate flags.
What a bunch of chicken shit rednecks.
aimai
I agree that pointing, laughing, and maybe saying something about penis extenders is the way to go. In fact the only reason everyone doesn’t do that is that confederate flags seem to co-locate with guns, and vice versa, so in demonstrating one’s contempt for these goons one runs the risk that they are armed and incompetently dangerous.
Another Holocene Human
Spokane again! It’s like white supremacist cesspit ground zero!
aimai
Oops, used a forbidden word!
I agree that pointing, laughing, and maybe saying something about “forbidden word here” extenders is the way to go. In fact the only reason everyone doesn’t do that is that confederate flags seem to co-locate with guns, and vice versa, so in demonstrating one’s contempt for these goons one runs the risk that they are armed and incompetently dangerous
Another Holocene Human
@shell: If the [racial slurs] don’t follow the script by throwing–or perhaps shall we say chucking?–rocks or empty 40s at white persons’ cars, just invent it, right? I’m think of MO a couple of months ago.
Black people tossing stuff at white people’s cars as they ride through the ‘hood is like a white idee fixe, isn’t it?
JPL
There is some type of confederate flag day at Stone Mountain this weekend. I’m sure he’ll be there.
Another Holocene Human
@chopper: It’s always projection.
Ruviana
TimF. are you in the general vicinity of upstate NY? I know some of the Front Pagers are. I’m there and see the dudes with the flags and pickups a fair amount–Upstate is the Spokane of New York.
trollhattan
@JPL: Now doesn’t THAT sound like a good time?
Ugh. Which Republican presidential candidates are slated? I’m-a look for my spare comet.
Tim F.
@Ruviana: No, I’m Pittsburgh. You do not see that very often in our city limits.
Ruviana
@Tim F.: No, it doesn’t sound like Pittsburgh. They probably stay north of the state border or east of you.
The Moar You Know
The End.
The body may still be kicking but he’s dead.
Tim F.
@Ruviana: yeah, not a local thing. We call the big T between Pittsburgh and Philly Pennsyltucky for a reason, but within town it is definitely the 21st century.
Bill Arnold
Some years back NPR “Selected Shorts” had a fantastical satirical story “The Appropriation of Cultures” by Percival Everett (link is to the publisher so I assume it is legit.)
I sat in the Home Depot parking lot listening to the whole thing. Wouldn’t actually work in this case (Confederate flags) but appropriation can work.
Another Holocene Human
@Ruviana: Upstate is pretty vile. I was at the John Brown site and one of the docents said some vile Fox-inspired Christian dominionist stuff, like we all love Christmas, and good patriotic American Jews love them some Christmas too.
I hated humanity after that trip.
Duke of Clay
Not that this couldn’t happen in my native state of Mississippi, BUT… This happened in Douglas County, Georgia. Shouldn’t the headline be “Georgia Sulking.” I’m sure there’ll be cause to use the Mississippi headline next week.
Breezeblock
There’s a douche kid in my quiet northeastern NJ town that flies a giant Loser Flag in his shitty pick-me-up truck. Now granted, I only ever saw him twice, and the last time was maybe 6+ months ago. But our town also had a father + son who had a General Lee knockoff.
Tim F.
@Duke of Clay: Yeah I know. The Mississippi Burning reference was hard to pass up. I would have thought of a Georgia connection but I keep getting that Ray Charles song stuck in my head.
NCSteve
Welp, looks to me like a “he said/she said” sitchation, so that makes it a civil matter. Case dismissed.
Fred
Brave and true MEN of the South, standing tall up against a kids’ birthday party. Really instills me with a feeling of respect. It certainly is exactly what the Confederacy was all about.
ThresherK (GPad)
Where is Tuba Man when he is needed?
(My fantasy is an uprising of volunteers to be Tuba Man, as there were saying “I am Spartacus”.)
ThresherK (GPad)
@Bill Arnold: PS No edit on my tablet. Just wanted to nod in agreement for any mention of Selected Shorts.
fester
@Tim F.: Yeah, but as soon as you get more than 15 miles out of Oakland/Downtown, you are guaranteed to be in the boonies in some directions, and 30 miles, you are in Appalachia
catclub
@fester: The real outlier is Vermont. As rural or more than Upstate NY, or Pennsyltucky,
but way Democratic.
dogwood
@Another Holocene Human:
Spokane is my neck of the woods. I’ve spent my life in what is referred to as the Inland Northwest – eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana. It attracts racist kooks for a couple of reasons. The area is overwhelmingly white, and while its by no means isolated, it’s definitely off the radar of national media and national consciousness.
Geoduck
As a WA state resident.. the further you get from downtown Seattle, the redder the politics tend to get. The whole eastern half of the state beyond the Cascades can almost be written off as a lost cause. Fortunately, the population of the Seattle metroplex will keep any GOPers from being elected to state-wide office anytime soon, but there are enough knuckle-dragging troglodytes in the Legislature to keep the process gummed up. And we’ve got serious problems that need dealing with, including our hideously regressive tax-structure.
dogwood
@Geoduck:
Don’t know where you live in Wa, but I wish democrats would take some interest in Joe Pakootas who ran pretty decently against Cathy McMorris Rogers in 2014 and hasn’t stopped running since. He would be a terrific congressman.
Tree With Water
@Duke of Clay: Shitheels like these Georgia clowns are found in every county in the country. One difference being that outside the south- or so it seems to me- the sense of being outnumbered dampens their inclination to parade their ugliness. In my neck of the woods were any group to bust up a children’s party in that fashion, they would feel genuine heat from the community. Indeed, if any laws were broken, people would want them prosecuted. There are but a few things more despicable than a group of adults terrorizing children, anywhere on the planet. Maybe one day, and maybe soon, pissants of their stripe will start to feel the same heat in Georgia and Mississippi.
Goblue72
As a former Seattleite, the whole part of the state east of the Cascades was Redneckistan. Ironically, the best craft beer hops in the country are grown there, and it’s also home to well regarded American Viticultural Areas, esp Walla Walla. (So nice they named it twice.)
Another Holocene Human
@Tree With Water: Seconded.
J R in WV
I agree, no excuse for any one to attack children.
But the KKK nightwalkers have always attacked children, many of the black men who were lynched were barely into their teens.
And remember the little girls killed when the KKK enthusiasts blew up their church… Alabama if I recall correctly.
So historically, racist terrorists prefer to attack defenseless targets – because they’re cowards, evil cowards with hate as their primary motivator. No history, except that they think they’re brave for attacking people who can’t really defend themselves.
While it is true that it appears that black people doing open carry is a death warrant… concealed carry done right can allow people to defend themselves. If you also have a camera running… to prove that you are defending yourself.