Hanging from the gallows

By William R. Toler

A Duplin County man is being investigated for a creative political statement.

Lacy Phipps, an elderly Faison man, has local, state and federal authorities up in arms for building a gallows setup featuring officials associated with the justice department.

Hanging from the gallows are life-sized mannequins representing District Attorney Dewey Hudson, Sheriff Blake Wallace and former Attorney General (and governor) Mike Easley along with judges, according to the Sampson Independent.

Phipps created the display because he recieved no justice for the death of his son in 1995.

Hudson calls the display “very troubling and disturbing.”

I call it creative and hillarious.

To try and force Phipps to take it down, authorities would be in violation of his rights guaranteed by the First and Fourth Amendments.

But that hasn’t stopped them before. Last November, former county commissioner Bill Harper had a casket confiscated from a local polling station by the Craven County Sheriff’s Department.

We will continue to update this story.